Ole Virginny

We are 856 miles in.            Stopping here in Waynesboro, VA to eat some mega Chinese Buffet, grab a few supplies and hang out with the trail crew in the park down by the river.  Waynesboro is a hiker-friendly town.  By that I mean that the YMCA offers free showers and tenting, there is an outhouse by the picnic area, there are no signs saying that we can't consume beer in the park, the Chinese Buffet is under $10 and off the chains, and there is a list of phone numbers of local people (trail angels) that are willing to pick up hikers from the trailhead and help you around town.  A gentleman named Walter, who has hiked a fair bit of the AT, sections of the Continental Divide Trail, and thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, was having lunch at the same cafe as us today and offered to drive Butch and I to Wal-mart to pick up a few things.  He brought us back and dropped us at a Barber shop where Butch continues to live up to her name. 

 It has been warm lately and her hair was starting to 'fro' out a bit, so she trimmed it back, # 2 guard on the clipper, to keep cool.  We have been taking advantage of every stream and river crossing.  A quick dip in some cool mountain water and the trail seems less tiresome.  We had been hearing down south that Virginia was easy.  Flat. Boring at times. Lies.  It has continued to be up and down.  Big ups and big downs.  They call the feelings hikers get here the "Virginia Blues", and it knocks lots of people off the trail.  It is just that we go diagonally through the entire state for more than 500 miles that makes it seem never-ending.  The shoes wear out, wallet wears thin and yet the trail goes on.  A number of trail friends have run out of money or energy and reluctantly headed home.  Some have banded together and with the use of cars, have taken turns shuttling each other up the trail so that they can hike sections without carrying a pack.  This is called Slack-packing.   

It is sort of a way of cheating, but truly you are still hiking the trail. It does allow for more miles in a day and so some do it.  We haven't.  We are sort of  'purists' in that we are hiking it all and carrying all of our stuff. The next semi-cheating way up the trail is called Aqua-blazing.  We follow white blazes on the trees all the way up the trail. Side trails are marked with blue blazes, other trails are yellow blazes, guys following girls up the trail are said to be pink blazing, and when you and a bunch of friends load up a canoe with beer and meat and float past a hundred or so miles of trail you are then Aqua-blazing.  As fun as it sounds, we are gonna walk.

A river trip is a whole other trip for another time and we are looking forward to Shenandoah! The other morning we came down from a nice shelter on a mountain called The Priest. It was about 3000 ft down to a river in about 3 miles. Not a bad way to start your day. The trail then goes back up at about the same angle. It just so happened that there was a sign at the foot bridge that stated in sharpie on cardboard that there was a hiker feed to the right. A guy named Milo and a girl named Yinz had thru-hiked last year and were down by the river with a grill and a cooler. They were frying up eggs and handing out pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, cucumber-tomato salad, cookies and locally brewed pale-ale in cans! We partook of their generosity and then took a dip in the river. Milo said that since he finished the trail all he has wanted to do is provide "trail magic". It magically made our morning better and sent us up the hill with our bellies full and our heads buzzing. Again, the fun is the people you meet out here that make the trip worthwhile. No doubt there will be a sense of accomplishment when we reach Mt. Katahdin. We will have challenged our bodies and tested our determination, but the things we will remember most fondly are the folks we meet out here. We have been trying to take more photos of people. So many panoramas fill the camera and don't show the humor or characters we come across. I was blogging at the library today when the internet there went totally down. Next time i'll put up some pics of our crazy trail crew! Keep watching. Happy trails

722 miles

We haven't been near any computers lately and haven't turned on the phone much either. We have been taking lots of good photos but they are all currently stored on the camera and this blog is coming atcha via the phone. Next time we get access to a computer I promise to throw up some pics.
We passed through the Grayson Highlands State Park back a ways. It is a lovely zone where dwarf trees both deciduous and needle-bearing give way to open space with grassy meadows surrounding gray rock outcroppings. It is a quite surreal landscape that goes on like this, up, over and along ridges interspersed with small herds of wild ponies!  The horses were introduced in the sixties to help keep the bald meadow areas along the ridge open.  Elk used to roam in great herds through the Appalachians having this effect.  In some areas Elk are being reintroduced.  The ponies are small. They vary in color and are some of the most beautiful horses I've seen; brown with blond mane and tail, splotchy, spotted and splattered looking.  They are fairly used to people and know that hikers mean sweaty arms and legs to lick, and though you aren't supposed to feed them, perhaps an oatmeal or granola treat.  We hiked only a short distance on the day we passed through Grayson Highlands, petting the ponies, eating snacks on boulders with sweeping views.
The time is flying. We have met lots of people now and continue to meet new ones and run into others we met previously. It really is all about the people. The views aren't all that different.  The solitude of being in the woods is nice yet sharing stories around a campfire with folks who are out here for the same reasons you are is a real treasure.  Just last night a friend of ours said as it was getting late around the fire, "Ya'll need to go to bed. I need to get some sleep and I have a serious case of FOMO".  We all kind of looked at him questioningly. He smiled and said Fear Of Missing Out.
It is easy to get caught up in the social scene, to wait for friends to catch up or find an excuse to rest your feet for a day.  We stayed the night at a shelter that was near a Forest Service Ranger Station. This place had it all!  There was a shower, a sink out back for washing clothes and a clothes-line, a real 'standard government issue' type outhouse, a pond for swimming, and the place was two stories and all log.  A short walk across the parking lot meant you could use a phone on the outside of the Ranger Station to make local calls, more specifically to order pizza and have it delivered!  There was one kid who it was rumored had been at the shelter for almost a week!
Another neat place we camped was called The Captain's. The Captain was gone for the weekend while we were there, but he has set up a zip-line with a seat so you can sail over the creek from the AT to his backyard. He has a big fire pit, tables, clothes line and lots of flat space to pitch a tent. He is another "trail angel" who enjoys people and helping hikers on their journey.
There are some restaurants just off the trail that cater to hikers. In Atkins we each ate a 16oz. "Hiker burger" with Bacon and cheese. Butch ate all her fries too, and then we had dessert! So much for her vegetarianism.  At the Home Place Restaurant in Catawba you can choose to have 2 or 3 meats. Everything else is included and comes family style to your table. It is all-you-can-eat and felt like thanksgiving.  Made it a bit uncomfortable to put the pack back on.
Butch has finally had enough "barefoot" hiking in her Five-finger shoes. She just bought a pair of nice, normal shoes. I think this will help us move a little faster and her feet won't be as sore when we stop at night. So now we need to keep moving. We'll see y'all up the trail!