Date: 2011-05-07
From: Holiday Motor Lodge, Pearisburg

To: 1.6 miles after Rice Field Shelter
Miles today: 8.3
Weather: scattered clouds

(In which I leave Pearisburg for my first reverse nero)In town, we hikers stand out so much that we may as well be a different species. Even showered and without our packs, our worn t-shirts, full beards and slight limps are dead giveaways. Hikers I've never seen before nod to me at the Food Lion, granola bars in hand, and outside on the street. We're all also quite fit, I realize, and it's jarring to realize what a large percentage of the locals are overweight. But since the weight chart in my gym room lists me as weighing the same as a healthy woman 4' 10" tall with a thin build, the lightest option on the chart, I guess I'm not one to talk when it comes to weight. (Despite what the chart might think of my weight, the medical scale tells me that I've gained back a couple of the pounds I've lost since I started hiking, which is a good thing. Apparently operation Eat-a-Lot is working.)* * *I usually try to get in to town by midday so that I can eat, relax, and be ready to hike again the next day. Some hikers prefer to do the opposite, pulling a long day to get in to town at night. Their plan is usually to resupply and eat the next day, but this often turns into a zero day when time slips by and it becomes easier and more attractive to stay than to hike on. I consider the eat-and-leave plan a reverse nero (though others might swap definitions), and having changed plans to arrive in Pearisburg last night, today is my first experience with it.One advantage of the reverse nero, I learn, is that it allows for more eating. A late night dinner is fully digested by morning, and a large breakfast and lunch provide useful fuel for hiking that afternoon. A disadvantage is that it involves leaving town during the day in time to walk to the nearest shelter or campsite, which means that your time in town is on a bit of a schedule if you're not prepared to take an extra day and pay for two nights of lodging.Having already resupplied, I spend my morning in Pearisburg eating and websurfing. I enjoy a delicious egg, cheese and bacon biscuit at the Bear's Den diner for less than $3, then walk across town to the library to try their net access. Like nearly every computer I've used so far on the trip, the library computer is slow with locked down functionality, making it impossible for me to load the photos from my 64 gig memory card. I do, however, get a chance to reply to some of my backlog of emails and catch up on a little news. Back at the motel, I try my camera on their computer too, but strike out there as well.While I'm in the motel front office I see Chipmunk, a hiker who comes in to inform the clerk that she and her friends will be staying an extra night after all. "The town vortex has sucked you in!" I say in an ominous voice from behind the computer, and she laughs and introduces herself. She gives me the room number that her hiker group is staying in, but though I'm tempted, I fear the vortex and tell her that I'm headed out today. I think of a hand-written sign I saw in Kincora, reading, "All this hiking is getting in the way of my trail experience".The internet breaks have given my appetite a chance to return, and on my way out of town I head to the Dairy Queen for a large blizzard with extra Butterfinger pieces mixed in. Walking out of town in the middle of the day on a full stomach is a new and enjoyable sensation, but I think I still prefer the morning motivation and relaxing midday completion of a normal nero.* * *At the top of the hill out of town I find Tree Beard cooking a giant steak on a campfire. Since he spends as little time and money as possible in town, this is how he gets the equivalent of a town feast's calories and enjoyment, it seems. The one and a quarter pound steak rests on branches over the fire, and Tree Beard inspects and flips the steak while I stop to melt some cheese on a bagel by resting it near the fire. Tree Beard eats the whole steak in a few minutes, displaying the same decadent pleasure that I so recently experienced in town. When he finishes, he lets out a sigh of satisfaction. "That was amazing", he says, "but you know I'm still kind of hungry. I might just cook up that second steak in a bit."Having relaxed all morning, the afternoon hiking is pleasant and leisurely. When I get to the shelter, it is empty, there are still a couple of hours of daylight left and I have plenty of energy, so I keep walking. A couple miles later, just as I'm looking for a camping spot, it begins to rain. I kick myself for skipping the shelter without paying more attention to the weather, but having escaped the rain for the last several days, it apparently was a lesson that I needed to re-learn. I set up the tent quickly, keeping my gear mostly dry, and sit in the tent as the rain falls. When there's a break in the rain, I duck out to hang my bear bag, then hole up for the night. The rain returns, and I hope that the night is warmer than my last two nights outdoors, knowing that a damp sleeping bag won't keep me as warm as a dry one.