Date: 2018-05-26
From: Grassy Ridge Road

To: Damascus 
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up here at WoodChucks Hostel and laid in bed thinking for a few minutes. I had a moment when I was a little teary eyed. I miss my hubby. I miss my kids and grands too. For me this is one of the hardest things about being on the trail. I love this adventure, but my family is everything.  Soon enough  I was brought out of my funk by the scent of blueberry waffles coming up from the kitchen! I went down to find waffles, fresh fruit, potatoes, eggs, cereal, and coffee! What a great breakfast!  This is my favorite hostel so far. It feels a little like home. For $30 I get a night¢s stay on real beds with real sheets, a warm shower, and that marvelous breakfast! For an extra $5 we can do laundry. If I ever own a hostel I would base it off of this model.  After breakfast, myself, Hugs, Big Kahuna and Lorax were shuttled north to hop on the trail and hike back to our  hostel. This was another flip flop slack pack day. Just as we were being dropped off to start hiking the rain began to fall. It continued to fall for the first 5 hours of my hike.  My fancy new rain gear is being exchanged for a different size, so I¢m back in the poncho. That poncho makes me sweat so badly! I took it off before I should have and decided to embrace the rain today. It didn¢t take long for my hands to become pruney. All of my clothing was drenched including my boots. Myself and Lorax took the early lead. The trail today was a good mix of a little UP, a little DOWN, some soft pine trail and some rocky areas...all of it was soaking wet. We hiked along a river most of the day. We crossed a few foot bridges. All of them were very well maintained. So far I¢m liking Virginia.  The most beautiful thing about today was the flowers. So many rhododendron blooms! They are no longer bright pink but more of a lavender color. Also Mountain Laurel is in bloom right now. Sometimes it felt like I was walking through a hallway of flowers.  Lorax and I stopped at a shelter for lunch. It¢s nice to lunch at a shelter when it¢s raining. This particular shelter was 0.2 miles off trail so Lorax and I left a message made of sticks and leaves on the path. Sure enough it worked. Before long there was Hugs, and Big Kahuna. The 4 of us were able to have our snacks together.  After lunch we got separated a bit. I didn¢t see Lorax at all until supper time at the hostel. He will not be moving on with our tramily in the morning. I hope he enjoys church tomorrow, I hope his blisters heal, and I hope the trail brings us back together again.  Here in Damascus the Appalachian Trail crosses paths with the Virginia Creeper bicycle trail. At times they are one and the same. I would hear someone yell ¢ON YOUR RIGHT¢ just before a bicycle would whiz by me on my right side. It was something different and kept things interesting. That portion of the trail is also extremely well maintained.  Supper for me was leftover chicken wings from yesterday. My belly is full and my boots are drying. I¢ll put them back on in the morning and start out on a 4 day stretch.  Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018)Where¢s your faith?