Date: 2014-04-28
From: low gap, US 421

To: damascus, va
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: light rain

Today was all about crossing another border. I will be entering the biggest state on the trail, Virginia. All 550 miles of her intimidating self. This is where people come down with what is called 'the virginia blues', from being in the same state for sooo long. Also rumor has it that it ends up being like a long green tunnel once the leaves get on the trees. Two reasons a lot of people get off the trail. Regardless im looking forward to it. The day started off cloudy even though we were told two days ago that we had three good days of weather. How bad could it be? Hmmm thunder way off in the distance, its going the other way i hope. We had camped in a place with no water supply so dishes from breakfast were not washed and camelbacks were low but there was a spring a mile away so we were not concerned. The spring turned out to be a dripper, not what i hoped for. It took a long time to get enough to get us to the next water source and a splash to clean dishes, sad but nothing we could do. Again packed up, down the trail we went. Minutes later a box lay ahead of us, sodas for us and there was actually a few left! Perfect for lunch break, we took one for each of us. 6 miles in was a shelter with a good spring and it would be 8miles after that till we would be able to get water so we needed to grab some even though the spring was a long way down the hill. At least we didnt have to carry our packs down the hill. As soon as we got back up to the shelter it started to rain. Then thunder fairly close. Then thunder really close, we better get stepping along and get to town. Thankfully the terrain was not hard to walk so we made good time. The cracking thunder didnt hurt our pace any either. The crazy thing was that the wind direction should have been pushing the storm away but the thunder kept getting closer. It wasnt long till the rain quit but we still scooted along so it wouldnt catch us up. Then, 12 miles in it happened, we crossed into the Virginia. I was pumped. Crossing a state is exciting. It was sunny so we took pics and a quick lunch break. With three and a half miles to go we made a run for town. It is great to be out in the woods but its good to come back to civilization too. The first thing we did was stop at a diner for pizza. The service was horrendous but it was self serve for soda, we rehydrated well. The food ended up being worth waiting for. After that we hit the outfitters. New shorts with a 32" waist and a new pair of insoles for my shoes cost a hundrit bucks. Ouch but worth it. I havent worn 32's since fifth grade. Next was getting a bunk. A literal bunk made of boards with a complimentary shitty air matress. But you get a towel and a shower too and its only ten dollars, perfect. Next up, laundry. We got the scoop on where to go for the outfitters. We totally emptied our packbacks and took them with us. While waiting for the laundry we were gonna go to the carwash and hose down the gunk that had built up. Captain spotted a barber and made a hard left turn to get his head shaved. While he got his trim it started to pour. I mean pouring buckets, big buckets. Later we saw a weather report that said something about tornadoes but i didnt believe em. We hung out at the beauty salon for a bit. The nice lady said, you sweeties dont need to head out into all that, stay right here. When it let up it was carwash time. Like having a mostly new pack again. I think i even saw it sparkle a little. Picked up laundry on the way back, everything was working like a finely tuned plan. After dinner at the slow service place with the same results with the service we hit the dollar general for a midnight snack and headed back to the bunks. Now its hiker midnight and time to turn in. Yet again we have avoided the worst of the weather so i am officially the luckiest guy going. Cant wait till tomorrow to see whats going to happen.