Date: 2020-07-06
From: Rt 52 (Bland)

To: VA 606
Miles today: 18.4

Lickskillet Hostel has the first collection of thruhikers I've spent significant time with on this hike. And everyone is taking a different path. Just Jim, a full-bearded fifty-something from Columbia, makes a great impression of a former Dead head. Sold his house and lives out of his Jeep. He's been moving his Jeep up trail every few weeks but is stopping here, possibly to flip up north or try again next year.Butcher, in his forties, is agonizing over logistics to flip up north to rejoin his tramily who are nearing Vermont, before flipping back to finish the middle. Waterqueen, with long white locks, is packing 12 pounds of fruit today and planning to flip up to Maine. Tortoise, a Clearwater retiree, is going slowly to Pearisburg to meet his wife before flipping up to Katahdin. Mongo offered to slackpack me today. Since I plan to stay 33 miles north at Woods Hole tomorrow I took the opportunity to knock out 18 miles over easy terrain and relax this afternoon. Almost as good as a zero day. Sunshine opted to go a few more miles. First night we've been apart for weeks, but I should see him at Woods Hole. The mileage was mostly over a bumpy ridge with a few moderate climbs. No real views, but the understory was open and spacious, unlike the narrow tunnel much of Virginia has been so far. Sunny all day with the now usual rising heat and humidity. The biggest change was a near total lack of water for those 18 miles. I neglected to fill my water bottle at the hostel and started out with less than a pint. Chatting with Sunshine, I stepped over a stream within the first hundred yards in the woods and didn't realize it was the last flowing water I would see until the end.Miles passed with no water source at all. After 9 miles I searched out a "seasonal" source that was a bone-dry river bed as far as I cared to follow it. So I held out another three miles, passed up the quarter mile downhill hike to a similarly unreliable source at the next shelter, and was stuck with the "stream" another mile north. Marked as reliable in my guide, it was nothing more than a few shallow puddles with barely detectable movement. Time to scoop, and filter out the brown mud suspension.Not that any of this is unusual in the summer, just new to this hike. A warning to watch my water supply. It will be no better through most of the mid-Atlantic section. Clear high mountain streams in the southern Blue Ridge have spoiled me.I passed 600 miles today. Someone created a literal milestone out of rocks, but I was in the zone and walked right past it. I did, however, continue to hear the distant drone of cicadas and saw numerous specimens on trail, at the end of their very short adult life.Finally emerged at an impressive wooden suspension bridge over the Kimberling Creek (guide says not safe to drink - the only water for many miles). Mongo was there and shuttled me a half mile to Trent's Grocery for a cold drink. Tragically, the milkshake machine was out of operation, and the clerk showed no interest in making an effort to rectify that.Once Dead Bear, a fortyish dreadlocked Key West building framer thruhiking for the third or fourth time, returned from the slackpack, we headed to the much better Amish market down the road. We were joined by Just Jim and also Rooster, who we met a couple days ago at Bear Garden. He got fed up with his job manufacturing robots and took off, unencumbered, to figure things out.I'm a little surprised to see an Amish community down here in Appalachia. I live near the best known Amish community in Pennsylvania's Dutch country. The shop was like coming home, filled with products not found at Dollar General, like real birch beer, real corned beef, and homemade baked goods.Tuna and Minnow joined us at the hostel later, a free-spirited couple in their fifties. They hiked with Roam and Strider for most of the trail and are trying to sync back up. They are weighing when to flip up to Maine. Minnow wants to avoid cold weather after a rough March start.Got to call home and see Sara and the kids on video. It's storming in Pennsylvania, but they all look good. Looking forward to a week at the shore to break the summer routine.Capped off the night watching "Walk in the Woods", guaranteed to make any hiker smile at its parody of trail life. As Mary Ellen would say, "Big mistake! You should have bought a three-season tent!"