Date: 2019-06-15
From: Wilson Creek Shelter

To: Cove Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: clear sky

I woke up a bit late and saw Silver Fox leave, WITH MY FOOD! Ugh. He had my lunch and a few other things that I had stored in his bag. It¢s hard for me to believe he didn¢t notice that when he had breakfast. I texted him all day and he teased me, saying he was going to hold it so I¢d catch up. It was honestly messed up. Like it¢s my food, literally you can¢t just hold it from me to get me to hang out with you. I was almost not going to fight to get my food back. But I told him to drop it off at the second shelter, and I hoped he would. I was filled with anxiety and frustration about the trail in general, and this just added so much more anxiety. It was just food, but it felt so crappy to have this situation going on. One highlight of my morning was running into Cali, No Rush, and Rachel! They had night-hiked and were just getting moving as I was making breakfast. Rachel was doing Yoga because she teaches it at home, and they were all relaxed and calm. Exactly the type of people I needed to be around. No Rush¢s name is exactly why I connect with him. We had a nice time chatting and I planned on going 15 miles today (again a mixup with Guthook vs AWOL on this one). Silver Fox was headed 17 to a campground, and I didn¢t want to go there. Cali seemed set on going 15, but wasn¢t sure what her buds were doing. Noodle showed up and we chatted for a bit and then she headed out. I headed out in the hottest part of the day. I need to stop doing that lol. But this was a cool day of views. The trail starts to run along the Blue Ridge Parkway here. And for those who aren¢t purists, you could absolutely just walk the road and connect with the AT. I didn¢t do that, but considered it. The road actually would¢ve been hotter and the heat today was pretty unbearable. At least the AT had shade!! I stopped at pretty much every overlook the AT passed. I was just moving slowly and feeling depressed and anxious and miserable. I met two lovely folks, Moonshine and Juicebox. They¢re a sweet couple and seemed to be having the same blues. They were stopping at every overlook too and we joked, ¢see you at the next overlook!¢ every time. They do about 15 miles a day, so the same pace I¢m aiming for, and that made me feel good. They didn¢t seem to be in a rush either and it felt good to meet more of my people out here. We chatted for a while and then I headed on from the last overlook. I ran into Executioner and her mom. I had met them a while ago, and it was nice to see them again! I let them hike ahead and ran into them again when they spotted a deer! They were taking some videos of it and I walked right into the video. They were cautioning me and I was scared, thinking it was a bear, but when I saw the deer I was like ehh. Another one of you! They were headed for the campground too, so we parted ways and I headed on. I was surprised by how many ups there were today. And it was ridiculous considering you could follow the road and there would be no straight ups and rocks, but no, let¢s put the AT on the hilliest sections and make it come all the way up and then all the way down to the next road. There was another huge up after I saw them and I tried my best to power through it. It headed down after that and then I was on the lookout for water. This whole stretch didn¢t have much water, and the shelter I was headed to didn¢t have any. People joked that you couldn¢t hate Virginia more and then it took away the water! Lol. But No Rush had said there was water at a road crossing and I was hoping it was true. I got to this road crossing and it was a pretty small stream, but there was water. I filled up four liters because I¢d need some for cooking at the shelter and some for breakfast. Moonshine and Juicebox showed up and got some water too. It was tough to fill our bottles because the flow was pretty terrible, but we made it work. Another hiker, Patient Zero, showed up. He decided to just eat dinner here rather than carry water to the shelter.I headed out, almost 9 pounds of water on my back, and put a podcast in. It was about a woman who had worked at an airport and received a lot of discrimination and harassment. It made me angry and I like when a podcast engages me that much because it helps with the uphills. But I was angry about how she¢d been treated, and I was dealing with my own uncomfortable male situations on trail. There are some that happen to me later that I may or may not share, but I definitely connect to my fellow women when sometimes we just don¢t want it and they just don¢t get it! I got through the uphill with my heavy water supply and there were some more views. It was getting late, so I pushed on. It was downhill to the shelter from there, which was nice. I finished my podcast and arrived there. I got some miles in despite leaving late, and even though mentally I¢m just toast these days, I was happy to have done what I did today. I settled in and had dinner. There was a man in the shelter who was a section hiker. I told him how much I respect section hikers for getting out here and getting new trail legs every time, just to have their section end when they¢re adjusted. He was very friendly and I enjoyed talking to him. Moonshine and Juicebox showed up and set up their tent. Patient Zero showed up and did the same. He mentioned to everyone that he had done a 25-mile day because today was ¢easy terrain¢. I¢m sorry but UGH. *eye roll* I didn¢t find today easy in any way. It was up down up down up down and the ups were hard. This goes along with this myth that Virginia is flat. Today was not flat! Gah I¢m just so done with this state and so done with people saying it¢s easy. I have trouble respecting his opinion and I want to be respectful, but oh my lord I did not think today was easy. UGH. I figured since the section hiker was the only other one here, I would set up in the shelter, so I settled in for the night. Also, Silver Fox had left my lunch here. He still had some of my food, but I didn¢t fight it. Whatever. I put my food bag in the privy because it was a super nice privy. It looked almost brand new. And it was closed with a door, and that seemed bear-proof enough. There were a ton of spiders in the privy and I wasn¢t really into that. Some of them were massive. I¢ve seen wolf spiders on trail and I already didn¢t like the little guys in my house back home haha. So I certainly didn¢t like these! All I could think is that they were going to crawl up my butt while I was on the privy! Ahhh shudders. I fell asleep and was a bit itchy and restless, but slept alright. Can I be done with Virginia already?Little Debbie