Date: 2011-07-02
From: Woods Hole Hostel

To: Woods Hole Hostel/Pearisburg
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: few clouds

Day 76NoHurry gave me a ride into Pearisburg today so I could get my 3 packages. (That ended up being a bit of a fiasco.) I got my new pack, poles, and boots. His gf is going to UPS the old pack and poles back for me. Very nice of them!I slackpacked back to the hostel and had a 2000 foot climb to start with. At the top of that climb is Angels Rest. I stopped there to eat lunch and just was amazed at the view. As I was leaving, a section hiker (Derrek) arrived. He was going sobo to Woods Hole also. I left him and got quite far ahead as the terrain was super easy. All along a wooded ridge with views on either side. The trail was nice and smooth, just like any nice path in the woods. I decided to jog some since I was pretty much carrying nothing and now have my shoe style boots. It went very well jogging off and on for about 4 miles...until as I was going over a nice gradual rise my foot hit a rock or root and I went careening out of control down the hill. I windmilled at least 10 long running steps, all the while trying to decide what to do since attached to my wrists were two 3ft long skewers. I finally decided I was not going to regain my footing and had to figure out how to fall. The tuck fall would not be an option due to my trekking poles, so the straight out sprawl would be it. I slid about 6 feet as I landed spread eagle in a great slide, taking out a bunch of ferns and sending my fanny pack down around my thighs. I laid there for a few seconds assessing the damage. I knew my palms had gotten hit hard and both knees. My right knee was screaming at me as was my left palm. I looked at my hands. Just a bit of embedded gravel, not too bad. I was scared about my knee though. This could be bad. I rolled over and looked. Again, just some gravel and a few scratches, not a lot of skin gone, but oh my did it hurt. I finally got myself back to a standing position and tested the knee, not bad...yet. As I went along, it proceeded to swell and NOT like pressure. I gimped along (now the twisted knee from yesterday seemed like NOTHING) about a mile to the shelter and really assessed. Definite swelling, the OTHER knee is bruised. I wrapped my extra bandana around my knee as I heard what I thought was the kids coming. I knew they had planned on staying at Doc's Knob tonight and was surprised they weren't already there. I then saw Derreck going sobo on the trail. So now I have 2 miles to go to get back to the shelter and it was about 7pm. I had passed Derreck at Angels Rest at 4pm. 6 miles back.When I finally limped up to the hostel at about 8:30; everyone applauded my arrival. They (and I)expected me much earlier and when Derrek got there and told them he last saw me at 4, they started to worry a lot. They were all sitting around the fire pit eating homemade brick oven pizza and freshly picked salad. I had not been planning on eating a hostel dinner since it was $12, but definitely did not feel like cooking ramen on the alcohol stove standing at the table.I was quite grateful that my fall happened on a fairly smooth path (the portion from the shelter on was large rocks) and that I was coming back to a wonderful place where I could get ice and sleep on a mattress. That's right, I instantly looked at the good points of falling