Days 25-37

Daleville - Waynesboro, VA

Day 25

We were back of the trail by 11Am today, we were all well rested and ready to take on an 11 mile day.. It was the humid day we've experienced on the trail yet, it was awful, but we did a quick walk to the Wilson Creek Shelter as Thomas and Bruiser did their best to adjust to walking all day.

We made camp by 6pm, Cathrine and I were excited to set up our new tent. It's a MSR Hubba Hubba NX, we're loving the 2 door design so we dont have to crawl over each other to get in and out. It's lighter than my old tent, but is actually more spacious. We are in a pretty bad storm as I write and havent felt a drop yet, so I'm pretty happy with it. Mama got it for me for an early birthday present.. so THANKS MAMA! Cathrine and I are excited to have it as our home for the nex few months.

Derrick caught back up with us today, so it looks like we'll be hiking with him for a while. Cathrine and I really just do our own thing in our own little world but the more the merrier.

This week were doing an easy 70ish miles to Buena Vista just to enjoy things a little more and give Thomas and Bruiser a chance to work their way up to our level.

Day 26

It poured very hard all night last night, stayed bone dry, the tent passed the test! We laid in bed until it stopped which wasnt until about noon. We had planned on not hiking at all but the weather cleared up nicely and we felt we could do the easy 7 miles to the next shelter. We were out of camp by 2pm.

This section of the trail follows the Blue Ridge Parkway for a good while so we could see and hear cars for most of the day and occasionally the trail would jump the BRP and provide us with some good views and the overlooks.

We've got another big storm moving in tonight, hopefully it cools things down for us tomorrow for the 13 miles we have planned. A stop at a swimming hole sounds like a good idea for lunch tomorrow.

Day 27

Once again Cathrine and I laid in the tent intil the weather cleared up this morning. We were out of camp at 11ish in no rush at all to catch up with the rowdier hikers who had also stopped where we did last night.

We have made a habit of each day when we're hiking, once 1pm rolls around we start keeping our eyes out for a cool spot to have lunch. We'd rather eat at a nice view or a cool sitting rock than at the same ol cookie cutter shelters. Today we had an amazing view to look at while we ate our tunafish filled tortillas. A cool lunch spot can make all the difference in improving our state of mind.

We made it to Jennings Creek where there is a pretty nice swimming hole at about 3pm. It didnt take long for Thomas, Cathrine , and I to decide to set up there for the night. We got the best spots to pitch our tents, a stones throw from the water.

Right when we got to the creek we jumped right in and laid in the sun for a while. We soaked our sore muscles, found some cool rocks, and Thomas played his ukulele. Everyone had so much fun but I think Bruiser was the happiest that we were doing anything but hiking.

After, Cathrine laid down for a nap and Thomas and I searched down some firewood. A forest ranger came up and told us that it was illegal to camp where we were set up. He was a really nice guy and said it was cool that we stayed because he'd rather have thru-hikers taking up the space than the locals who frequent there. Thru hikers have a good reputation for having a small impact on the areas they stay in, most of us a pretty good about following the leave no trace rules. 

The ranger also told me of a camp ground 1 mile up the road that had a grill that served burgers and other good eats. Those burgers haunted me for the next hour, calling my name until I finally asked Cathrine to walk up the road with me to see if the campground grill was still open.

We walked halfway up, got a hitch the other half, I got 2 burgers for me, 2 for Thomas, and Cathrine a buffalo chicken sand which. We carried tit back to our camp and we stuffed our sandwiches down just in the nick of time. before another storm hit.

Day 28 

Cathrine and I were out of camp by 10 today to take on a 14 mile day. We had a few good climbs, but perfect weather. Made it to Thunder Hill Shelter by 5pm. We made dinner and a fire and debated whether Thomas and Derrick were gonna make it. Eventually they rolled in some time after 7.

Tonight, I made a good fire so that I could make quesadillas with the last of my tortillas, butter, and cheese, along with some texas pete packets I came across. Some of the best quesadillas I've ever had.

Day 29

We had awesome weather today, not nearly as humid as it has been and we've never had 12 miles go by so fast. We made it to Matts Creek Shelter by 2pm and found a nice tent spot right by the creek and before anything else Thomas, Cathrine, and I found ourselves with our feet soaking in the cold stream for half and hour or so.

I had a fire going in no time and the 3 (4 counting Bruiser) of us hungout and talked and ate for the rest of the evening.

This morning I found a hole in the tent that looked like a mouse had chewed through. I think it was my fault for bringing some mixed nuts in the other night and sleeping with them, It stinks because it's a brand new, not very cheap tent, but luckily Thomas had a tent repair kit so I was able to patch the hole no problem.

Day 30 

Today Cathrine and I were up and ready by 10ish, but Thomas wasnt, he wasnt feeling well and didnt want to hike at all. We're trying to get to Buena Vista by Wednesday so we had just enough food and some big days to get there, so we couldnt afford to take another zero, but at the same time we didnt want to leave him behind.

We waited around for hours for him to finally find the strength to get ready, we didnt hit the trail until about 2pm. We decided to hike the east 2 miles to VA501 and try to hitch a ride into Glasgow, VA so Thomas could find a motel to stay in for the night and an animal hospital for Bruiser.

Bruiser has been a tick magnet since he got on the trail, Thomas has found 10-15 ticks on him a day. Last night he found one lodged in Bruiser's arm and tried to get it out, but the tick head got stuck in there and we were unable to remove it. So Thomas wants to get him check out.

We successfully got a hitch into town from a very nice local gentleman. It was a long, windy drive to Glasgow. When we got there we discovered that the only 2 resturants in town aren't open on Mondays! The only gas station in town didnt even serve their greasy gas station hotdogs on Monday. It was a let down for sure. I had BBQ chips and starbursts for lunch.

Thomas got a shuttle to Buena Vista where he plans on staying for a few days, probably until Cathrine and I hike there. The same shuttle came back around and took Cathrine and I back to the trailhead and we hiked 2 miles to the first shelter from the road, by about 5pm.

Today was the hottest weather yet and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. I was told it's supposed to be in the high 90's. Earlier we hiked across the longest foot-use-only bridge on the A.T. It crosses the James River. I knew it looked familiar, my friends and I used to jump from it on hot days back when I used to live in Buena Vista. It was kind of cool to relive those memories. I had no idea that bridge was apart of the A.T.

We've got a big day planned tomorrow to make up for our lack of hiking today. Hopefully we'll get an early start to beat the heat.

Day 31

I got up to pee in the middle of the night last night and when I got back in the tent, Cathrine saw a creepy shadow in the tent from the light of my headlamp. It was a huge brown barn spider, the size of the palm of my hand, crawling right along her side. As you might imagine, she freaked out and jumped out of the tent while I was left to square off with this fellow. After trying to snap a good picture or 2, I got him to climb onto my clothes bag and I threw the bag/spider outside. It was definitely creepy and we have no idea how he got in or how long he had been chillin with us. Now every night before bed, before we do our tick checks, Cathrine insists we do a spider decontamination. 

We've been listening to our "1984" audiobook to fall asleep at night because the reader is so dry, but Cathrines MP3 player has been dead. I had phone service so I decided to buy an audiobook on my phone. We went with "Education of Little Tree", one of Cathrine's favorites that she read a while ago and talks to me about often. Ive never read it, but it was a good choice. We listened to it for about an hour last night and talked about it today, we look forward to listening to it more tonight.

It was very very hot today, early in the day, I didnt think that we would walk very far but we were feeling great mentally and physically. We walked 8 miles to the nearest shelter and had lunch . I found a tick lodged in my calf and another hiker "Grizzly Bear" dug it out with a knife. He is a cool guy in his 60's thru hiking, we talked about box turtles. He had one as a kid and drilled a hole in its shell so he could tie it to a tree so it wouldnt leave. I told him that turtle probably hated him. 

We were done with lunch by 3:30 and figured the weather was only getting cooler so we decided to hike on to a campsite about 8 miles away. When we got to the campsite we felt good enough for another 2. We hiked 19 miles today and feel great and made it with plenty of time to relax with our feet in the creek while we ate dinner. 

Early in the day today we had a deer, a good sized buck walk about 20 yards in front of us on the trail for about 2/10 of a mile. He kept turning around as if to acknowledge us, it was a neat experience.

Tomorrow we have 3 miles to hike to the highway where we'll hitch a ride into Buena Vista.

Day 32

Today we hiked a very easy 2 miles to US60 where we hitchhiked and caught a ride into town within minutes. The couple who gave us a ride were in their 60's and were very nice, it sounded to me like they grew up in the area. Halfway down the mountain, on the curvy mountain road, the guy driving pulled out a bowl and started hitting it and offered Cathrine and I some, but we politely declined. I could tell Cathrine was a little uncomfortable but I saw it coming from a mile away when, before he started smoking, we were discussing how much more efficient hemp paper would be to mass produce as opposed to tearing down the forests. We were in Buena Vista by 11AM, I think we barely missed Thomas, who had texted me that he was getting out of town and back on the trail that morning.

Cathrine and I got a room at the luxurious Buena Vista motel and quickly had our sights set on pizza. After lunch we stopped by an Amish grocery store to resupply for the 5 days that it would take us to get to Waynesboro. It was nice to mix up our food options. We lugged all our groceries a mile back to the motel in the 95 degree heat.

We relaxed in the motel for a few hours then relaized we needed fuel and to do our laundry. Since the lady was being weird about us using their machines we just walked back into town to the laundromat and picked up a couple of canisters of fuel at the hostel on the way there.

After we got our clothes clean, we got Chinese food and carried it up to Southern Virginia University's campus and ate it on the rocking chairs on the front porch of he main building. I attended SVU for my freshman year of college so it was cool to revisit and see whats changed at the school and around town.

We've got our bags packed with more pasta than we know what to do with and are setting out tomorrow to make it to Waynesboro in 5 days, we're hoping to catch Thomas in 2 or 3 days, we'll see how it goes. We're praying for a good rain storm to bring the temperature down.

Day 33

We were slow moving this morning, we didnt check out of our motel until the very last minute. Cathrine and I both agree we went a little too crazy at the Amish grocery store and instead of carrying the 5 days of food we needed to get to Waynesboro, we will be carrying 10 days worth. My pack is the heaviest it has been on this trip so far. We're carrying a pound of salami each.

I had some trouble trying to find a shuttle 9 miles back up the road to the trailhead, so Cathrine and I started hitchhiking on the road out front of the motel. Within 15 minutes, a car slowed down, turned around, and pulled over for us. It was a random guy who called Cathrine AKA "Watermelon" out by name. We thought this was kind of weird, then we saw a friend and fellow thru hiker, "Kettering Strider" in the front passenger seat. She had stayed at a bed and breakfast and had a ride back to the trailhead. She had the driver pull over for us. Strider is in her mid 50', thru hiking by herself, she is tough. Cathrine and I like her alot. We seem to gravitate towards the older, more mature hikers, they are alot more mellow and it doesnt seem like they have something to prove like the majority of the hikers our age do. 

We were back on the trailhead by noon. Right out of the gate we had a huge 4 mile uphill but the weather was cooler so we didnt have too many problems, despite our packs bursting at the seams with salami.

We saw another good sized deer today stand right in front of us, we got within like 15 feet of it. We saw some new flowers to identify and learn, we get excited about the wildflowers, theyre fun learn and we like to talk about them and find clever ways to remember them.

We did a quick 14 miles to Seely-Woodworth Shelter and had our beds ready by 7:30pm. We hung out and made dinner on the fire. The people at the shelter were all cool and laid back and not as loud and rowdy as the group group we kept running into/tried to avoid this past week.. It's been a nice quiet evening. 

We're planning a 20 mile day tomorrow to try and make it to Waynesboro by Monday so we can potentially meet up with Cathrine's parents.

Day 34

We ended up hiking 14 miles today, a section of the trail known as "The Priest" took a beating on us. My walking stick didnt make it out alive.

Cathrine and I made it to Harpers Creek at around 5ish and began eating as much as we could to get rid of some pack weight. We talked to an older gentleman doing a flipflop hike as well, he started in Harpers Ferry and is going southbound, a nice guy.

This area must be a popular spot, there are a ton of people camping here, I suppose it is Friday, all the weekenders are out, which is nice, sometimes it's refreshing to see more people. We'ce got a huge storm moving in and we are excited to just lay down and relax for the rest of the night. We plan to sleep in as long as we can tomorrow.

We saw our second bear today, once again, it was off running before we knew it.

Day 35

We didnt hit the trail until shortly before noon to do a short 6 miles to Maupin Shelter. We had a long uphill to get there, but did it in no time and when we sat down at the shelter to have lunch at about 3pm, we realized we had the whole day and easy terrain ahead of us. We moved on to aim for an established camp spot up on Humpback Mountain, about 9 miles away.

Shortly after leaving, we got caught in a nasty thunderstorm. There were lightening strikes super close to us and we got poured on for a good 45 minutes. We kept on trucking through it. As the rain was clearing out, thick fog still lingered and would linger for the rest of the evening.

We caught up to Kettering Strider again who starts hours before we even think about waking up. She was hanging out at a cooler left on the side of the trail, full of drinks. More trail magic! Cathrine and I agree that it had to have been placed recently because there was still powerade in it. The Gatorade and Powerade are always the first to go before the sodas. 

Strider ended up setting her tent up at the bottom of Humpback Mountain where here she said she saw a bear just minutes earlier. Cathrine and I decided to go up and over the mountain and try to make a break for the next shelter.

After we got over Humpback, it was about 8pm and the fog was only getting thicker. Night hiking is dangerous and should be avoided whenever possible, we decided we would pitch the tent at the first flat spot we found. The woods were becoming dark and eerie with the thickening fog and crowing crows, and to make matters worse, a bear cub (bear #3) ran right in front of us across the trail. We were getting antsy and were essentially running down the mountain. At about 8:30 pm we found a nice enough spot and Cathrine set our tent up while I started a fire to ward off any wild beasts that might find us interesting. 

It poured all night long. We ended up not eating dinner just to not give any reason for animals to come check us out. I put a little extra effort into hanging the bear bag, making sure it was high in the trees. 

We finished with 16.7 miles for the day.

Day 36

We skipped breakfast this morning because everything was soaked and we just decided to cook a meal when we made it to the next shelter we estimate to be 4 miles down the hill. When we got there, we quickly ate and excitedly walked 5 more miles into town, we walked this last stretch in an hour and a half. After 10 miles of hiking, we made it to US250 at about 3pm. Waynesboro was 4 miles west and we didnt have a ride in so we decided to get hotdogs at a random hotdog stand on the side of the highway.

The hotdog stand was positioned perfectly, right at the intersection of Skyline Drive, The Blue Ridge Parkway and US250 catching every tourist who came through there. I was sure that if we took our time eating our hotdogs, we would surely meet someone willing to give us a ride into town, people see our packs and are immediately drawn into asking us questions. 

Little did we know that before our hotdogs were even cooked, we would be offered rides by 3 different people just looking to help some hikers. It was pretty cool. 

We got a ride from a guy named Bobby, he was super nice and had some great theories on life- like playing a strong, positive part in your community, no matter how big or small it is. He had no problem driving us all around town and showing us where everything is. He somewhat reminded me of Jim Carey's character in the movie The Cable Guy, but he was really nice and helpful.

Bobby dropped us off at the Quality Inn and came in with us to make sure there was a room available for us before he left. Once we were checked in, he was on his way, off to go help more hikers.

We later met up with Thomas and ordered Papa Johns to our room. Cathrine and I laid in bed and did absolutely nothing for the rest of the evening. It was great!

Day 37

Today was a great relaxing day. Cathrine and I slept in until about 10:30 and slowly got ready to head out to the laundromat to wash our clothes so we wouldnt smell as grimy when Cathrine's mother, Marcia arrived. 

Marcia surprised us at the laundromat, showing up while our clothes were in the dryer. We picked up Thomas and went out to eat at a Mediterrainian restaurant. We went to check out the outfitter, then Kroger to resupply on food.

After we repacked all our food into ziplock bags in the motel room (while Marcia watched in curiosity at what we were doing) we kind of just lazied around for the day. After a while it was time for Marcia to get back on the road so she wouldnt have to drive in the dark, but she agreed to swing us by Chickfila first. We loaded up in the car but it wouldnt start, we assumed that the battery was dead.

We called her roadside assistance and they jumped her battery and that did the trick. We went by Advanced Auto Parts to get her a new battery installed. A minor speedbump but we had Marcia a new battery in no time.

She still even took us to Chickfila after all that! It was good to see her, Cathrine and I have been so spoiled with friends and family coming out to support us on the trail. We feel so blessed. Cathrine and I did nothing but watch our favoite show, Family Feud for the rest of the evening.