Date: 2016-05-29
From: Pearisburg

To: Symm's Gap
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: broken clouds

I slept so well last night, it was easy to get up at 6 am. Kid and his Grandfather were to arrive at 8:30 am to give us a ride back to the trail. I cooked breakfast right there in the room, packed up my backpack and still had time to lounge a bit. Grandfather arrived a little early and watche dwith amusement as the three of us crammed ourselves, hiking poles and overloaded backpacks into his small car. It was even funnier on the other end when he opened the doors and we tumbled out like a circus act! Getting ourselves sorted out, packs on, poles ready, we posed for the required photos, hugged Grandfather goodbye and headed uphill.The first part of the hike took us up and over a hill, past an old cemetary and crossing the Senator Shumate bridge over the New river before turning us uphill into the woods. The trail parelleled a landfill and when we crossed a creek, there was a big sign: NOT POTABLE WATER. Thankfully we didn't need any at that point. The rest of the morning was spent continuing uphill to the Rice Field shelter, about 6 1/2 miles m,ore. We arrived about 1 pm and I was whipped. The weather was warm and humid and while I was carrying only 3 1/2 days of food, it felt unusually heavy. I made sure to keep drinking as I was sweating a lot from the effort. When we got to the shelter, Pops was already there as was Soul Flower. I dropped my pack and told Kangapard that I needed at least an hour to rest and eat. I wanted to heat water to make some broth to drink with my lunch, hoping that it would revive me a bit. Pops quickly set up his stove and kindly boiled me some water while I rested. While we ate, we all discussed where to camp tonight, given the dirth of available water. We decided to head for Symm's Gap, filling up on water at a source 1.5 miles beforehand.Off we set. A sign informed us that as we walked the ridge, our left foot was in West Virginia while our right foot was in Virginia! Pops outdistanced us quickly as I started to drag almost immediately. Then my nose started to run. Ugh, allergies? Sneeze, sniff, honk. Why is it hiker's noses run and their feet smell, when it should be the other way around! On the map it looked like it was going to be a nice ridgewalk without anymore climbing. It was a ridge walk, but over the most irritating terrain we have seen yet! Gosh, it was slow going. We got to the water source and I filled up my 2 liter bottles as well as another 32 oz bag. I looked longingly at the campsites in that area and thought I would be very happy to stop right there! But stopping meant even more miles tomorrow and that generally isn't a good choice. Onward we went. Poor Kangapard! I dragged along behind her gasping,wheezing and blowing my nose inbetween requesting rest breaks. At least she knew it wasn't a bear! After 3 miles we came out onto the top of a ridge onto a meadow, through an old orchard and suddenly there was Pops at the campsite. What a view! You can see clear across the valley to the mountains beyond. In the distance, the clouds were gray and looked like rain might come this was. We hurriedly set up and sat down to prepare dinner.Looking into my food bag I realized nothing looked appealing, so I got water boiling to have more broth. Pops and Kangapard raised a ruckus that I wasn't cooking a meal and Pops made me take some of his ramen to add to my soup. It did taste pretty good and I ate it all, followed by some snack crackers and granola bars. It is interesting that all this hiking makes you so hungry, burns tons of calories yet makes you so queasy you have to force feed yourself. I have met and read about other hikers experiencing this same problem. As we were eating two hikers came rolling in and quickly set up as it started to sprinkle. Then a thrid hiker travelling SOBO joined us. It was getting crowed as the camping area is limited due to the rocks. Owl and his pal (never did catch his name) had come from Pearisburg , just as we had. I headed to bed at 6:30 pm,to read and rest, as did Pops and Kangapard. Not long after the sound of music from a ukelele was heard! Owl was sitting by the fire ring playing and singing softly. He is very talented! On an unfortunate note, his pal was busy emptying his gut of the "all you can eat" Chinese food he consumed before leaving town. This continued hourly until the wee hours of the morning. Poor thing was a wreck in the morning, and what a time to be without a water source to rehydrate. (note to self: avoid Chinese food from unknown restaurants!)Around 9 pm I heard oohs and ahhs and I climbed out of my hammock to see what everyone was seeing. It was the most gorgeous sunset: oranges, reds and yellow streaks across the sky. It had to be the highlight of the day! Back to bed I went, with the poor kid retching every hour, my stuffy nose and chills, sleep was bound to be elusive......