Date: 2006-08-27
From: Wayansboro, Virginia

To: Glasgow, Virginia
Miles today: 77.0
Weather: broken clouds

Greetings idle reader,Typing these next few entries from Blacksburg, Virginia. We are in town for the weekend and are visiting a high school buddy named Chad Atwood. Someday I will upload a picture of his illustrious visage. Forsaking the present, allow me to bring you back in time to a blue collar town in northern Virginia. It was a warm and sunny day in the town of Wayansboro. Upon arrival at the local YMCA we were given clean towels and access to their showers. A much appreciated gesture. After this we got some lunch and at the local Kroger and proceeded on to library. The library was very nice for such a small town, with a population that seems so averse to the idea of reading. We managed to do our internet business and ran into a fellow SOBO hiker named I've Only. He has been mentioned before since we first met him up in Vermont. It has been our strange misfortune to never meet up with him while actually on the trail. He was supposed to be meeting his sister that afternoon so yet again we would fail to hike in new company. A little bit of aimless wandering killed the time between then and our much anticipated dinner at Ming's Garden All You Can Eat Chinese Buffet. It felt as though I got my moneys worth without inducing physical pain. We also met a retired fellow named Len Graf who offered to give us a ride back to the trail the following morning which he did. Not only that, but he brought us each a much enjoyed package of fresh baked McDonald's cookies. MmmMmm.... Back on the trail we hiked with renewed energy up a long but well graded ridge. The weather was hot but beautiful. Halfway up the mountain we stopped at a shelter to talk with a SOBO section hiker named Joe and his dog Duke. The man carried a 100 pound pack and had alot of conspiracy theories regarding president Bush, the war in iraq, and contemporary society as a whole. Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with him. Sadly, I also realized that all his ridiculous sounding ideas make just as much sense as any of the other commonly accepted theories backing many of our current foreign policy decisions. Maybe president bush did blow up the World Trade Center?? Hmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....... The next day we descended down that same large ridge we labored up the day before. At the base I took a short swim in the Tye River. The Priest loomed 3000 feet above and I began the long climb up. The trail was pleasant, and we pushed on further to the Seeley-Woodworth Shelter. The spring is rumored to be one of the best on the trail, and I have to agree. Our 3rd day out of Wayansboro The General and I ended up hiking separately for most of the day. We hiked over a number of mountains whose tops were open grassy balds. Got decent views of all the parallel ridgelines, but the haze prevented any really sweeping views. Good berries that had a chance to ripen in the sun as well. In the afternoon we walked through a valley called Brown Mountain Creek which used to house a freed slave community until the Forest Service bought their community. In the evening we tented by a stagnant river and were passed by a fairly steady stream of large trucks with coon dogs tied to the roof. Our next day was 15 miles and a 5.9 mile hitch into Glasgow. The morning was good despite a bit of thirst that I had worked up since we elected not to drink the nasty water. We had lunch on a nice cliff overlooking the James River and in the distance we could see Big Island, VA. It looked like a very industrial little town. We got really lucky and a SOBO section hiker hooked us up with a ride from friends into town. Glasgow was a backwater little town, but we got all the groceries we needed for cheap and soon got a hitch back to the trail. The two miles to our next shelter was easy and it was an enjoyable evening.