Date: 2018-04-22
From: Lick Creek

To: VA 52
Miles today: 27.0
Weather: broken clouds

This morning I woke up to the sound of a woodpecker above my tent, bird songs off in the distance and the quiet movement of water in the creek next to me as the sun rose. It was a really peaceful morning and I began to gather my things. I made it 6 miles in 2 hours with 2,000 feet of elevation gain primarily because I had to use the bathroom and I was being lazy and didn't want to dig a hole. Luckily, it was open at the shelter at the top! Today was cool! The shelter 6 miles in had amazing views over what I believe was Bland county Virginia. It wasn't that bland! Apparently, there was an asteroid or comet that hit this area a long time ago and made the indentation I was looking at. For the majority of the day I would be walking along the ridges created by this hit. Pretty cool! I had amazing service up top and called home and made a few texts. Then I began the descent.I started hitting a wall around mile 10. It wasn't terribly difficult terrain and the weather was nice but it just wasn't a great day for me starting out. Until.... I passed some day hikers alerting me of trail magic ahead! I think I ran the next mile to the gap and arrived to find a man and a few hikers huddled around a propane stove with a pan. On it... Pancakes! Woo! He informed me he was sick of cooking and that if we wanted some we had to cook them ourselves. No big deal! I cooked up four big pancakes and threw them in my jetboil pot. I then doused them with syrup and ate it like soup. It was amazing! Then I washed it down with some canned peaches. I informed the man (unfortunately I forget his name) that I was hoping to get some resupply enough for one day at the next store. At that, he opened his trunk and let me pick out the foods I needed! What a huge help. I said my thanks after leaving and continued on. That really boosted me for the rest of the day.I climbed up and down in 600 foot intervals for the next 15 or so miles with a few moments of ridge walking. It wasn't a bad day of hiking after breakfast, or for me, pancake peach lunch. Eventually I hit Laurel Creek Campsite where I filled 3 L of water (roughly 6 lbs) enough for me to drink and cook with later. I planned on stealth camping somewhere before VA 52 where there is a deli I could get breakfast tomorrow (they are closed sunday--- Bible belt!) There was no recorded water for the next 10-12 miles so I made sure to fill up and suffer the weight penalty.3/4 of the way through this 8 mile stretch I caught up to honey bun on the side of the trail. I had been reading his log book entries and hoped I would see him. He had the same idea as me so we hiked another 2 miles or so and ended up going further than planned because there were no camping spots! It was all very hilly. We eventually made it to VA 52 and saw the deli we wanted to eat at for breakfast. With not many other options, we pitched tent under two trees 3 feet away from a 100 foot drop down to VA 77-- a very major highway from the looks of it. One wrong move and we would fall a ways but what else could we do, we really wanted a good breakfast haha. We were only 50 feet from the store hidden away and would be able to jog over there at 8 when they opened and grab breakfast before hiking in the rain all day. We cooked dinner, did some chores then laid in bed listening to the sound of motor vehicle noise. We both agreed this was the craziest spot we had tented at before. The benefit... No need for a bear bag. If a bear made it here, he/she deserved our food!P.S. Hi Uncle David! Glad you can live vicariously through the journal. Hope you're liking it! Maybe you can do a few sections sometime!