Miles Hiked: 0
Miles Left: 1461.3
Ending Location: Mile 724.0, Super 8 Motel in Daleville, VA

The night before Owl an I had both agreed we needed to zero in town as the last section was way rougher than we expected it to be. Waking up I remarked how glad I was that we made that decision. Owl replied, “Yeah just check our that rain”. I turned over, looked out the window and said “Now I’m really glad we zeroed!”

Like most zero days, time just flew by. Doing laundry in the morning, walking to Kroger to resupply, and sleeping through the afternoon pretty much summed up our day. I wish I was joking but there never is enough time to do everything. I did call my Mom though for Mothers Day which was the next day so I do have my priorities in order ;p

One thing Owl and I did spend a lot of time on was going over and cleaning/repairing our gear. We’re getting close to the 800 mile mark so everything is showing some wear. Simple things like washing the straps on our backpacks and then drying them with the hotel hair drier really make a difference. Side note, if you ever run a hotel, never rent out rooms to hikers!

That was basically our day. Tomorrow it’s back on the trail as we make our way to Glasgow. I’m really looking forward to that town as we have a mail drop with my new shoes arriving there.

Miles Hiked: 18.8
Miles Left: 1461.3
Ending Location: Mile 724.0, Super 8 Motel in Daleville, VA

Today was easily one of the more scenic days we’ve had on the trail. We started out by climbing up to McAffee knob which is the most photographed part of the AT. When you check out the pictures below you’ll see why. That was the whole reason we night hiked the day before because on a Friday if we didn’t get there early the pictures would have been the same except with the addition of about fifty people in the background eating their lunches. We spent a good bit of time there horsing around and enjoying the views.

Then it was on to Tinker Cliffs which also had great views even if they weren’t as photogenic. It was another hot day and we all took the opportunity to shed some of our clothes and air out. It was not a glamorous sight but there was a breeze and rocks to rest on. I hadn’t expected to heat to affect me as much as it did but I find myself thinking back nostalgically to all the snow when we started out. Coming from a Hawaii kid that’s tough for me to admit.

We stopped by Lambert’s Meadow shelter for dinner and to dodge a bit of rain that had started falling. We didn’t have a good feeling about staying there though so Owl and I decided to push on to town instead. This meant another round of night hiking but we didn’t run into any nasty surprises this time. In fact we had a very pleasant second dinner sitting on some rocks overlooking Roanoke. As we got closer to town we started running into more and more graffiti scrawled everywhere. The worst was this one kid wrote a yes/no checkbox everywhere asking a girl out to the prom. Say no Suzzie, that guy’s a looser!

We arrived into town around 11:30pm and luckily were able to check into a Super 8 motel for the night. I mistakenly offered to grab McDonalds before realizing you had to traverse the intersection of death to get to it. Basically I had to run along a road with no shoulder where tired truckers were pulling off I-81 onto. That may have been the most dangerous thing I’ve done on the trail yet, but that Big Mac and fries were worth it. The best part of the night by far though was that shower. I never appreciated running water so much before!

This is why I have a tent instead of cowboy camping!

Miles Hiked: 13.6
Miles Left: 1480.1
Ending Location: Johns Spring Shelter, Mile 705.2

Virginia has a reputation for being a flat state on the AT. The high drop out rate here is attributed to the “Virginia Blues” as people get bored of the “Green Tunnel” as the budding trees cover up most of the views. Let me tell you though that my experiences so far are that Virginia is a really tough state, and the thirteen miles we hiked today were probably the roughest I’ve hiked so far!

What makes it so hard is partially expectation management. I was expecting Virginia to be easy and for us to be belting out consecutive 20+ mile days. Here I was struggling to do 13. I had also planned on being much further ahead in our hike at this point yet we seemed to be stuck in southern Virginia. I guess what I’m trying to say is this was the first point since the starting days in Georgia where I was really questioning if I was going to be able to compleat the AT.

The first half of the hike today was fairly straightforward except for the fact that I gulped down 2 and 1/2 liters of water in the first three miles due to the heat and the amount of climbing we had to do. I’ve been taking magnesium supplements to keep my electrolytes up and I have some stuff to add to my water but I have to be careful since it makes me even more thirsty. Hanging out a Dragon’s tooth was fun since it was a huge stone outcropping with tons of climbing opportunities. Eating lunch on top of a stone monolith was certainly an enjoyable experience that’s for sure! I had used to go there in college, (as I said the rocks there are awesome), so I was expecting a fairly easy decent into Catawba Va. Little did I know the AT followed a different path down the mountain. Actually path would be too generous a term for that rocky cliff scramble. I wish I was joking but after 700 miles it was at this point where everyone’s trekking poles and shoes went to die. We were a broken and dehydrated group when we hit the base of that mountain only to find the water source there was completely polluted from the road.

I’m not exaggerating by much to say that a nearby gas station about saved my trip. We stumbled in there, bought several Gateraid containers, pounded them down, and then went back for ice cream. Resting outside, we were joined by another large group of hikers who were staying at a nearby hostel. We must have hung out there for nearly a hour recovering before heading back out. In a really nice gesture, the store clerk even refilled our water bottles for us.

We only had one more hill to climb before hitting Blacksburg road. Luckily Cliff, one of Owl and my old college roommates, was still in town and had the day off so he picked Owl, Wiki, Lorax and myself up and drove us to the Homeplace. The Homeplace was an all you can eat Southern homestyle restaurant we used to go to in college. I’m happy to say it was still delicious and we demolished several bowls of fried chicken and mashed potatoes before departing. More importantly it was good getting another chance to hang out with Cliff while we were in the area.

Refreshed and calorie fueled we headed back out to do some night hiking. It was at this point that Owl encountered the first rattlesnake of our trip. It was just a little baby but still … Did I mention today was rough? We pounded on the ground until the little bugger moved off and then let Wiki lead as he was up in rotation for snake detector. We stopped at the next shelter though as we all had enough hiking for the day. Luckily there were some nice camping spots and the location put us in a good spot to hit McAfee’s Knob early in the morning, but that’s a story for another day.

Miles Hiked: 10.1
Miles Left: 1493.7
Ending Location: Pickle Branch Shelter, Mile 691.6

I woke up feeling much better but both Owl and I agreed to do another low milage day again today. One issue we’ve been running into is just as the heat has been increasing the water sources on the trail have been getting farther and farther apart. We’re at the point where we have to carry four liters starting out and we’re still dehydrated at the end of the day. That’s nine pounds of water right there. Hiking in this weather reminds me of the tyranny of the rocket equation as the more water we carry the more water we need.

The trail ran past a memorial to Audie Murphy who was the most decorated soldier of World War 2. He died nearby in these mountains in a plane crash. We took the opportunity to take off our boots and rest our feet on the benches around it, something I hope an infantry man like him would appreciate.

The shelter at the end of the day was quite a ways off trail. There was excellent camping nearby though and we had tons of sunlight left after pitching our tents so we had time to joke around. Wiki had recently shipped home his bear canister, he had been the only hiker carrying such a monstrosity, so we were all giving him advice and encouragement as he was attempting to hang his bear bag. This was despite the fact that none of us have ever successfully hung a bear bag that would actually protect our food from a real life bear. Heck I’ve started sleeping with my food bag outside my tent! Still it was tons of fun for everyone. When Wiki finally hung it at what was agreed a good location I then played the part of the bear climbing the tree and batting the bag around. It doesn’t take much to amuse us! We’ve also hit the part of the year where the bugs are out in full force. You have to be careful not to leave your tent open as if you do you’ll find it filled with a full ecosystem of creepy crawly critters. At one point I found a spider in my tent and my first thought was that I hoped it would eat some of the gnats that had somehow managed to sneak in. Despite all if that the night passed uneventfully with no bear or insect related incidents.

Miles Hiked: 10
Miles Left: 1503.8
Ending Location: Niday Shelter, Mile 657.5

By this point I was pretty much done with hotels and even though I still wasn’t feeling good I wanted to get back on the trail. We were dropped off at the trail head by Homer, a trail angel who in 2002 completed a through hike with his wife and his two kids who were 8 and 11 years old at the time. On finishing the AT his wife then encouraged him to quit his job and focus on trail maintenance instead. We briefly met his wife Theresa as they were swapping vehicles and I believe that story. They were an awesome couple. They even offered to let us stay at their place in Daleville when we made it there via hiking instead of yellow blazing but unfortunately a couple days later when we finally hiked into town it was too late in the evening for us to take them up on that offer.

Studebaker had told us all about the section we were hiking today so we were prepared for what we encountered. Perhaps the coolest part of the hike was Keiffer Oak which was the oldest oak tree on the AT. I wasn’t expecting to be awed by a tree but it really was a sight to see. It reminded be a lot of the novel American Gods. The other weird landmark was a bunch of circular stone piles on top of one of the ridge lines. Neither Owl or I could make heads or tails of what they were used for back in the day. Luckily as I’m writing this the internet has solved that mystery. They were built by farmers who had cleared the ridge lines for farming. Perhaps they were stacked that way as a form of accounting, (aka I’ll pay you for every pile of stone you move), or for some future planned construction that never materialized?

There was a lot of climbing today with very few switchbacks so it was slow going. I was weighed down by three liters of water but I was glad I brought all of it as the sweat was just pouring out if me. The fact that I was still getting used to wearing a full pack again didn’t help. We bypassed Sarver Hollow shelter since it was down a very steep hill and instead pushed on to Niday shelter. Once there I set up my tent and slept very well that night. I’m glad we didn’t take another zero day but those ten miles were tough going.

Miles Hiked: 0
Miles Left: 1513.8
Ending Location: Mile 671.5, VA 42, Some hotel in Roanoke, VA

The morning started out with a last minute Kroger run for supplies and then a trip into Daleville to stop by the outfitter there, pick up mail drops, and ship things home. It was Cinco de Mayo so we chose the only Mexican restaurant in town for lunch. While eating I started feeling sicker and sicker and it wasn’t from the food. It was at that point I had to confront the fact that it wasn’t allergies and general aches and pains I was dealing with and that my body wasn’t going to let me hike today. I apologized to everyone and said I was going to zero. Wiki, Lorax, and Owl decided to zero as well so we all said goodby to Studebaker and Foxy and dropped them off on the trail before returning our rental car and checking into another hotel. I then proceeded to sleep the day away while everyone else went to the Mall and then grabbed Chinese. It was exactly what I needed as I was beat. That pretty much sums up my day. The best part about being sick though was I got my own bed! After spending the last week sharing one, it was wonderful being able to stretch out. It’s the simple pleasures in life ;p

Miles Hiked: 7.4
Miles Left: 1513.8
Ending Location: Mile 671.5, VA 42, Comfort Suites Hotel, Blacksburg VA

The way the roads crossed the trail, today we had the choice of either hiking seven miles, or twenty two. Studebaker and Foxy choose the twenty two while the rest of us opted for the shorter day.

The hike was fairly unremarkable with the exception that it was a lot harder for me than it should have been. I was still in denial that I was sick but looking back on it I probably should have just taken a zero. At the last road crossing we were met by Wiki and Tog who had decided to zero and went food shopping instead. I’ll admit , I was a bit envious of them.

This was our last day slack packing so ending our day early was a bit of a godsend since I had so many chores to complete. There was laundry to do, I had to clean and stow my gear, there was bubble tea I had to drink. Well maybe the last one wasn’t exactly a chore but time really flew.

Stude finished up her hike much earlier than any of us expected, (only a couple hours after we finished our seven miles), so we all then headed out to the Cellar for one last town meal. Drinks may have been had. Back at the hotel room we all tried to get organized which was easier said than done after a couple of days of hotel living. None of us got to sleep before 1am so it was a late night.

Miles Hiked: 13.2
Miles Left: 1521.2
Ending Location: Mile 664.1, VA 632, Comfort Suites Hotel, Blacksburg VA

The hike today started out with a zip line ride across a stream to visit “The Captain’s”. It’s the home of a local resident who offers his yard space for tenting and provides trail magic. Oh and of course there was the zip line ride to it! Once across I was accosted by his three very large dogs who wanted to play but were not well trained. They jumped and gnawed on everything which made it difficult to make it to the back of the house to grab a soda. I wasn’t originally planning on drinking anything but the Captain had met me as I crossed and insisted I take one before stating he had to take care of a snake that needed shooting and left. It’s kind of hard to say no at that point.

Owl had stayed on the other side of the river to rest his feet as his new shoes were giving him all sorts of problems. So this is what he saw: I crossed the river, talked briefly with the Captain, and then went around back. The Captain then went into his house, grabbed a shotgun, walked around and then fired it….

Luckily I survived and made it back across the river. Owl and I then had a fairly lengthy discussion since his shoes were really tearing up his feet. We decided that he would head back, skip this section, and let his feet heal up. I would them continue on hiking by myself.

The hike itself was pretty rocky for the first half and then smoothed out later on. I met another through hiker halfway into the day who was limping and complaining about his knee. It was bad enough that he was worried that it was going to end his trip. I commiserated with him and offered him a ride into town. At that point he complained that his knee hurt so much it took him over 12 hours yesterday to hike over 20 miles. It was all I could do to bite my tongue and not say that might be the root of his problem. Regardless, he didn’t want to get off the trail so we parted ways.

The rest of the hike was fairly uneventful. In the drive back we stopped by the University Mall for some more frozen yogurt and to eat at the new Mongolian place there. The frozen yogurt was great but the food wasn’t anything special. Then it was back to the hotel room for the night.

Miles Hiked: 17.6
Miles Left: 1534.4
Ending Location: Mile 650.9, Stony Creek Valley, Comfort Suites Hotel, Blacksburg VA

Today was another day where the hiking itself might merit a paragraph while everything else I could go on and on about. It was a nice sunny day and the road crossings were such that we were able to cover some real miles vs having to cut our hike short to be picked up. The mountains gave us some nice views and I managed to climb a tree so when we finished up for the day I was feeling like we accomplished a lot.

Then it was into Blacksburg for dinner and beers at the Rivermill. I was feeling exhausted though so I went with a Mai-Tai instead for the vitamin C. As we left we heard what sounded like a concert going on over by the drill field. Going to investigate it we found the Mowglis were playing a free concert in front of the graduate housing by the student center. They had that hit song “San Francisco” a while back … if you don’t know of them ask your kids ;p In short though they were really good and all of us were grinning ear to ear and laughing at our good luck. After the concert we grabbed some ice cream from a self serve frozen yogurt place. Wiki complained about how these places never say how much anything costs so we jokingly got into a contest to see who could spend the most. The Lorax won with a leaning monstrosity of ice cream and cookie toppings but he still managed to make it out of there for under ten bucks so it was an affordable evening.

I guess what keeps getting me is how everyday on this trip seems to bring something new and notable. I don’t think I would have ever made it down to Blacksburg again if I hadn’t hiked the AT and here I’ve been able to spend almost two weeks in the area reliving old college memories and making new ones. I’m looking forward to being able to getting back to normal backpacking as it’s so much simpler, (planning is annoying), and it’ll be nice to have some space to myself in my tent vs sharing a hotel room with four other people, but I’m very glad I took this opportunity to slack pack.

Miles Hiked: 12.8
Miles Left: 1552.0
Ending Location: Mile 633.3, Clendennin Rd, Comfort Suites Hotel, Blacksburg VA

Today started with us relocating to Blacksburg. It made more sense as we continued to hike further northeast, and quite honestly there is more stuff to do there. That turned out to be a bit more complicated than expected though as Owl had made the hotel reservations online and we didn’t find out until we showed up that they had booked us in the Comfort Suites in Radford instead… We lucked out though in that the hotel clerk was planning on hiking the AT herself so not only did she set up a room for us, but she honored the lower Radford price, and more importantly with a wink and a nod allowed us to go with the story that Foxy was a service dog. So all of us including Foxy the seizure detecting dog piled into the room and dropped off our stuff before heading out to hike for the day.

No, of course we didn’t head directly to the trail. Owl and I wanted to drive everyone through Virginia Tech’s campus first and then we grabbed lunch at Gillies which was one of my old favorite vegetarian restaurants. Then for dessert we made an impromptu stop at Gobble Cakes for some gourmet cupcakes. Because you know, cupcakes are hiker fuel… Hey we didn’t pick up beer for the trail so give us some credit!

Once we made it to the trail itself it was a rocky but fairly easy day of hiking. I wasn’t feeling all that good but I put it down to lunch and allergies as plants were certainly blooming. The planned highlight of the day was Angel’s Rest which was a rocky outcrop overlooking Pearisberg, but I thought the best view was a mile before it where Owl and I stopped for an extended break. After Angel’s rest the trail dropped down into Pearisberg and I’m pretty sure went through one dude’s backyard. It then crossed the bridge at US 460 which was a surprise since I must have driven across that a hundred times back in college and had no clue the AT ran along it. Then we walked along a chemical plant and did the most pointless two miles of the trail yet since if the trail had instead followed the road to the same ending location it would only have been 0.3 miles, (we measured it). What made it worse was the detour took us along a real life toxic waste dump, (or solid chemical waste storage facility), where needless to say we did not drink the water. The fact that I could taste the chemicals in the air freaked me out a bit.

Once Owl and I were picked up by everyone else we headed off to The Cellar to wash the toxic taste out of our mouths with slightly less toxic beer. We lucked out with some live country music playing and people dancing so it turned into a great evening.