Date: 2022-04-29
From: Stanimals - Glasgow 

To: Stealth campsite by the river
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: clear sky

We had a wonderful sleep in a soft warm bed. After stripping the bed we went down for a delicious breakfast of homemade blueberry pancakes. I had a bottle of water for breakfast. Coffeebean had coffee with his 6 pancakes. We then packed our packs and prepared to leave with the 8am ride. I had Braveheart look at my pack(she has one like it) to see if she could adjust the vertical stays to arch correctly. She couldn¢t either and told me to call zpacks when we got home and tell them that something is wrong with the pack. Braveheart then gave us great trail magic. She had us pack our packs and leave them in the corner of the living room. We took day packs with just what we needed for the day and then she drove us back to the trailhead and promised to meet us in 6 hours at the top of the mountain with our packs. This is called slackpacking. (TinMan is a purist and wanted to carry his pack.) Usually you have to return to the hostel and stay another night but this is her trail magic. She would meet us and we could continue on without having to pay for another night. She is the best!!There were several really steep parts but the switchbacks were amazing and the views were breathtaking! At the top of Bluff Mtn was a view down to Glasgow and the James River. The trees were all dark green and the mountains looked like giant rolling waves across the landscape.Braveheart met us at the Pumchbowl Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. She cheered us as we came out of the woods. She also brought several jugs of water and frozen icy pops. It was so wonderful!Braveheart said she needed to leave to pick up a hiker so we emptied our day packs and went to the back of her car to get our big packs. She pulled out 3 packs and said ¢Wait a minute. I have 3 packs but there are 4 of you. Did everyone leave their pack in the living room?¢ Coffeebean said that he had but his pack was the one missing. Then he looked in the back seat and saw it there. Braveheart burst out laughing and then we all started laughing and CoffeeBean said ¢You little shit you!¢ And we laughed again!We hugged again and took some more pictures and thanked Braveheart profusely before waving goodbye. We were still waiting on Tin Man. We all still felt pretty energetic so we decided to put in another 4.2 miles to a campsite. Coffeebean and I took off first. After a hellacious down we came to a dirt road and a cool suspension bridge for hikers to cross the river. A short ways down the trail was an offshoot trail with a group of tent sites right by the river. It was really nice!After setting up our tents, the guys built a great fire. Smooth came over and pulled a pack of hotdogs out of his pack! With hotdog buns! He had put the dogs in the freezer at the hostel and they were still cold! The guys had whittled sticks to cook them on. Then we all cooked hotdogs over the open fire! If you had offered me a steak or those hotdogs. The hotdogs would have won hands down! They tasted amazing! Next time we need to bring catsup and mustard packets. We hiked 15.2 miles today. Woo hoo! Our new record for this trip.