Day 57: 15 miles hiked (trail mile 690.2)
The temperature began to drop in early afternoon as we headed into another cold front, which could be the last before spring. Not too far into our hike, after crossing pastures and passing near some farmhouses, we encountered an oak tree called the Keffer Oak which is thought to be over 300 years old. Its trunk is enormous, and it is a sight to behold.
Back up in the mountains we hiked a long ridge in our fleece hoodies with the addition of rain jackets to break the extra cold wind. All along this ridge were big rock cairns that are said to be left by early settlers, but no one knows what they were for. Others suppose they are a product of extraterrestrial activity. Whatever the reason, it is an incredible number of rocks piled up along this stretch and is interesting to speculate over.
For lunch at another rock overlook we enjoyed our latest backpacking concoction consisting of a tortilla stuffed with vegan cheese, tahini, bacon bits, hot sauce, dehydrated roasted chickpeas, and fresh spinach; delicious. Grumper passed us with a wad of greens strung up on his pack. It turns out he has a bit of foraging knowledge and enjoys making himself fresh salads with plants he finds. On his menu today is Garlic Mustard greens, something we have been seeing everywhere but hadn’t known what it was! Learning to forage confidently is a huge bucket list item of mine.
We also crossed paths with a young thruhiker who was feeling very ill. He had apparently tried the cold-soak method with dried beans, not realizing that there is a huge difference between dehydrated/freeze-dried beans that have been cooked already, and just plain dried beans. We gave him a few tabs of immodium and pepto from our zip-lock bag pharmacy to tide him over. Drugs like immodium, pepto tabs, benedryl, advil, etc., weigh next to nothing when re-packaged and carried in small quantities, and are a no-brainer to carry in an emergency stash.
Toward the end of our hike a small vole scurried across the trail right at our feet. At first, I thought it was a mouse, but it had no tail and had very tiny ears and eyes. After scurrying back and forth for a moment it finally located its hole and dove back underground.
We had a light sprinkling of snow all afternoon. The sky was so cheerful that it was hard to believe it was snow. At first we thought small white flowers were blowing in from somewhere. We chose to tent at a site only 15 miles in so that we would be done with camp chores and inside our quilts well before sunset since it will be below freezing tonight (have I mentioned what a life-saver AT-weather is?). We found a great site beside a creek and enjoyed a leisurely evening. There was a fresh bundle of dried sage and lavender left in the fire pit so we saged our site and now are huddled inside our quilts while the wind gusts outside.
Middle of the night: we awoke to gangsta rap growing louder and then fading away again as a lone hiker hiked past us in the night. I was a little surprised they didn’t stop as there were ample flat tent sites and so far, we were the only ones here. Their audible music was probably serving a couple different ends: alerting animals of their presence and keeping the nighttime jitters at bay.
Day 58: 14.3 miles hiked (trail mile 704.5)
After an early start to the day, we made our way up a steep grade. I love having a climb first thing on a cold morning as it both warms us up almost instantly and lends to a sense of accomplishment that permeates the rest of the hike. We reached the iconic Dragons Tooth in the afternoon. It was sunny, 45 degrees, and (again strangely) lightly snowing. We took turns climbing up the peak and taking in the incredible views. The peak felt quite perilous when the winds gusted and while I don’t usually have a fear of heights, only Ranger made it to the top for the photo op this time.
We also met a couple who was hiking the ATI. They started the Florida Trail in Key West Florida in January, continued to the Benton McKay trail, and made it to the start of the AT in late March. They will finish their trail in Canada. So impressive! We could tell they were experienced hikers as they zipped past us like an arrow shot from a bow – silent and powerful.
After a surprisingly strenuous descent from Dragons Tooth that had us scooting along on our bums, we stopped at the edge of the protected section between Catawba and Daleville. Because Dragon’s Tooth, Mcafee Knob, and the Tinker Cliffs are so popular for dayhikers and overnighters alike, the forces that be have severely restricted camping in this 20 mile section in order to lessen the environmental impact and allow for revegetation. We know we want to be in Daleville the day after tomorrow when the rain hits so we made the decision to walk up the road .3 miles to Four Pines hostel, a donation-based bunkhouse behind a residence.
Just before turning off trail to make our way to the hostel, we saw a Pileated Woodpecker! They are giant birds compared to the smaller Downy Woodpecker. It was so neat to see one up close. Before this we only had heard them with their slow and deliberate “clunk, clunk, clunk” pecking sound compared to the rapid-fire pecking the smaller bird makes.
Pileated Woodpecker
This is our first time staying in the bunkhouse at a hostel. So many have the vaccine at this point—and we should be about 25% protected by now—so we decided to go ahead and share a bunk to get out of the freezing temps. Chris played Magic the Gathering with the hostel caretaker and drank free beer with Bachelor Party while I lay in my bunk and chatted with Waddle, a LASHer who is getting off trail tomorrow (LASH stands for Long-Ass-Section-Hike). He plans to try to camp under the interstate in Daleville because camping under an interstate bridge is the only thing on his bucket list for this hike that he hadn’t accomplished yet.
Day 59: 16.4 miles hiked (trail mile 720.9)
Today was a special day on our thruhike. Yesterday we did Dragon’s Tooth and today we visited McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs. These are some of the most iconic parts of the Appalachian Trail and just happen to be concentrated in a 25-mile section.
We slept surprisingly well in the bunkhouse at Four Pines. The bunks were completely full and a couple hikers slept on the couches, yet there was a minimal amount of snoring and rustling so we were able to get some decent sleep without reaching for our earplugs. We shared a bunk, not much narrower than our tent footprint anyway, and left the suggested donation of $20 per bunk. A hiker’s partner surprised him at the hostel, showing up with a huge assortment of food for everyone. I took a tomato and an oat bar for later.
Four Pines Bunkhouse Cat
We hiked through pastures all morning and even passed a few cows this time, as well as a deer skeleton. Pasture walking is always lovely and has been a distinct feature in Virginia.
After about 9 miles, and a steep climb that we hiked hard on, we reached McAfee Knob. On McAfee we did the iconic photoshoot atop the ledge and had a snacky lunch while looking out over the view of the valley.
Later in the day, as we were approaching Tinker Cliffs, a heard of adolescent cows came confidently marching down the center of the trail. My first thought was that they were bears until logic kicked in. Behaving like dogs who had escaped a pen, they zig zagged all over the place, eagerly smelling and consuming all they could.
When we reached Tinker Cliffs, we were so impressed with the view and the seclusion. It is a far less popular destination than McAfee Knob, but the views were spectacular. Here, we also observed a hilarious buzzard mating ritual where the male kept stalking around with his neck and wings out while the female looked on casually.
We stopped for the night at Lamberts Meadow shelter, which is packed with thruhikers and overnighters, but fortunately has plenty of good camping sites. For dinner we had mashed potatoes, doctored with nutritional yeast, oil, bacon bits and salted chickpeas.
Day 60: 9.4 miles hiked (trail mile 730.3)
We awoke to the sounds of chirping birds and decided to get out of camp quickly to get into Daleville before the incoming rains. We broke down camp and were on the trail by 7am. After climbing Hay Rock, a giant Boulder that permits an excellent view of the valley and reservoir below, we reached town by noon.
Just before getting to town, we got a text from Caramel letting us know that she and The Curator, as well as Spots and Snapshot, were still in town and getting Mexican food across the street from the hotel that evening. We were elated to reunite with our friends in town! We checked into the Super 8 which was about a 5-minute walk from the trail, and switched into town-gear which includes orchestrating errands and tasks like showers, laundry, grocery resupply, outfitter, and post office… and eating everything we can get our hands on.
Our first order of business was combing through all our gear and doing another paring down of gear that we don’t think we’ll need moving forward. With only one more cold night in the forecast, and already heading into May, we are making some adjustments to our sleep set up. Namely, I’m sending home my quilt so we can just share Chris’s by opening it up all the way and draping it over our pads. It’s a bit of a gamble but we’re desperate to shed any extra weight and this will create a significant savings. At the next opportunity we will switch to lighter weight warm weather z-rest sleeping pads.
We walked to the Kroger a half mile up the highway which was situated right next to an outfitter. At the outfitter we picked up a few dehydrated dinners and a replacement filter for our Be Free Katadyn since the flowrate had become frustratingly low despite cleaning it every time we could.
We entered a kind of hiker heaven at the Kroger, which had absolutely everything we could have asked for to resupply for this next section (and to put some good and fresh calories in our bellies in town). The folks that work in the deli don’t blink an eye in these trail towns when I bat my eyelashes and ask for “7 to 10 packets of Mayo or jam, please”. The Kroger had a Daiya vegan cheesecake, the likes of which I’ve been dreaming of since we started the trail. We also bought some fresh raspberries to eat with the cheesecake. After the resupply, we sat outside the store and repackaged the food, discarding all of the external or excess packaging, so we wouldn’t have so much bulk to carry on the road back to the hotel.
Gotta get those calories in town!
Before departing the shopping center, we paid a visit to a Japanese restaurant where we ordered tofu noodles and rice dishes that we scarfed down before heading out to meet our crew for Mexican food. It was awesome reuniting with everyone at second dinner since we had been a few miles behind all of them since Damascus.
Ranger at Dinner #1
Back at the hotel my former coworker, Eric, who lives only a few minutes from the trail, swung by to help us out by picking up the gear we needed to ship home. How cool it was to catch up with that guy for a second under such unique circumstances, and what a huge help it was to be able to shave that extra weight off our packs before this next section.
We were up late prepping for tomorrow’s departure but feeling great about the restful night of sleep we will get tonight, and the amazing food we will have to get us through what will be the longest stretch we’ve gone without a resupply: 130 miles.
Day 61: 11.2 miles hiked (trail mile 741.5)
After eating lunch at our hotel, we left town at noon and hiked out only about 12 miles into the mountains. Our packs are very heavy, bulging at the seams with the food we are carrying to get us through this next big section.
There is so much new growth on the trees that the forest is a brilliant green. The azaleas are also in bloom all over; I love their dramatic display. When we reached Wilson Creek shelter, we saw 92 and Waterboy, who had bunked in the beds next to us at Four Pines hostel.
There are frequent rumors of Fresh Ground being in our area doing trail magic, but we have yet to encounter him again.
Day 62: 20.8 miles hiked (trail mile 762.3)
Oops, I left my Kula Cloth back at the shelter this morning draped over a branch, and didn’t realize until we were much too far to turn back. I will pay penitence by picking up trash along the trail today.
We had a beautiful hike along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway all throughout the day.
We continuously crossed paths with Hot Hands, Krash, Dead Eye and Shotgun. Dead Eye has a thing for snakes, and pointed out a green tree snake in a tree just off the trail. After a day of focused hiking, we made it to Bryant Ridge Shelter making our biggest day yet of 20.8 miles. Purported to be one of the coolest shelters on trail at 2-stories tall and with a big wrap-around porch, we were looking forward to staying here.
When we arrived at the shelter, we could already tell there were weird tensions between the non-thru-hikers and the thru-hikers but were too tired to move on. The crew we had been hiking around all day was there as well as a LASHer and an overnighter. All had been partying for at least a couple hours by the time we arrived. After some really award confrontations, the guys all decided it best to leave and night hiked out around 9pm. We could hear them howling at the pink moon through the trees as they put distance between themselves and the shelter.
Too fatigued to move on, we opted to sleep on the porch of shelter, a magnificent wrap-around patio. Garfield napped inside the shelter, planning to catch a few hours of sleep before hiking by moonlight through the night, and Nine to Five arrived after dark and set up his pad on the porch near us after pulling a 30-mile day to catch up with his friends (the ones who just left). My phone was already near-death and Nine to Five generously shared one of his mega power-banks with me. Nine to Five is working his full-time job out here so carries his laptop and other necessary devices, along with all the power he requires to be able to work from literally anywhere. There is no way we would make it out of the section with phone power without his help.
Day 63: 17.3 miles hiked (trail mile 779.6)
The LASHer and overnighter continued to make a huge commotion even after multiple confrontations throughout the night asking them to quiet down. Garfield eventually gathered up his stuff and left without getting any sleep. My x-therm sleeping pad also developed a hole because I stupidly slept on it directly on the porch and deflated fully every hour. Now I know why hikers tend to still lay down a tarp beneath their pads in shelters: to safeguard against splinters. After getting no sleep we decided to ditch the shelter at 4am and hiked by the light of the full moon until the sun came up.
Moonlit hike
On our hike we found a phone on the trail and brought it with us, assuming it probably belonged to one of the guys who night-hiked out of the shelter last night. As flustered as I was from the situation back at the shelter and the lack of sleep on top of that, it was nice to hike in the cool air up the next big ascent. We ate breakfast while watching the sun crest the mountains with the moon still on the horizon on our opposite side which was an amazing feeling. Just before sunrise we hiked past a person laying on the ground and realized it was Garfield, who had stopped to cowboy camp a few yards off trail.
Setting moon
Rising sun
3.5 hours later we arrived at the next shelter north by about 5 miles. Sure enough, this is where the guys had crashed for the night, and the phone belonged to Krash, who had already pushed on. Shotgun, a 17-year-old kid who graduated high school early and is now solo-hiking the AT, offered to carry it to the next hostel where he would be seeing Krash later tonight. Here we were also reunited with Spots, Snapshot, Caramel and The Curator! We hung out for a bit and commiserated over the situation that transpired last night and then pushed on toward Waynesboro.
On a mountaintop we took a moment to order me a new pair of trail runners, since my Solomons will have made it over 800 miles by the time we reach Waynesboro and the sole is starting to visibly compress, not to mention the holes forming in the mesh. I have been so impressed with these shoes. Many already had to replace their shoes as early as 400 miles in. We also ordered a couple Z-lite Sol Thermarests primarily because we’re tired of blowing up our pads every night and these will be perfect for a speedy camp set up and break down.
On top of Apple Orchard Mountain, we encountered a giant FAA tower. An apple orchard would have been cooler, but we’ll take what we can get I guess. We also had a black rat snake and a garter snake cross our paths during the hike. Around mid-day we passed beneath the famous Guillotine: a fallen boulder wedged tightly between two other larger rocks. The trail passes just beneath the boulder.
It's a hot day. We braked at a shelter for lunch with Hot Hands and Dead Eye, and refilled our waters in a small spring with a couple big bullfrogs in it. Mmm, bullfrog tea. I also peed in the buggiest privy I’ve ever used the toilet in – the flies had taken over. Shortly after, we saw our first tick crawling up my leg. It is time to start being extra vigilant. Black flies and horse flies are starting to become a big nuisance, too. The black flies arrive the second you stop and like to rip large chunks of flesh from your body while gnashing their teeth (at least this is how I visualize it). The horseflies have made the privies even more unappealing than they were before and now we both just use the woods to take care of business as often as we can. Speaking of, I also squatted in some stinging nettle today. It only takes once to be able to identify that one with confidence.
The trillium has begun to bloom, and mayapples are everywhere.
We finally made it to our stopping point for the night: a campsite in a somewhat open area with grass. We found a flat spot a little way uphill from the other campers and managed to get our bear-bag hung after what felt like a long hunt for a decent hang. We are sleeping without the rainfly. It is sure to be another bright night with the full moon. Time for some much-needed shut-eye.