Day 64: 18.2 miles hiked (trail mile 797.8)
All morning we enjoyed an easy hike down to the James River. We hiked along the river for about a mile and saw our first rhododendron buds!
The longest footbridge on the AT is here and it was neat walking across such a wide river on such a narrow bridge. Once across, we began almost immediately ascending back into the mountains; a 4,000ft climb. It’s been in the upper 80’s in the afternoon these past couple days which feels so much hotter while hiking. In anticipation of the heat during the approaching climb, we took a break at a shelter near the base of the mountain to drench our clothes and hair in the cold stream and fill our water storage systems to full capacity.
At the top of the mountain, we saw (nearly stepped on) a baby bunny right in the middle of the trail and took a moment to gently coax it to hop off trail a couple feet so that it wouldn’t run the risk of being trampled by a hiker.
There was also a plaque on the very top of the mountain solemnly honoring the memory of a 4-year-old named Ottie Powell whose body was found in that spot in the late 1800’s after he had wandered away from school and become lost in the mountains.
Once at the shelter for the evening we took care of camp chores while chatting with Boomer, a friendly section hiker. It is the warmest night we’ve had on trail yet and I’m enjoying writing this with the quilt kicked off and using only my midweights to regulate body temperature. Punchbowl Shelter, where we are staying, has a pond right in front of it. There is an impressive chorus of frog song in the air and I’m excited to sleep with the steady ambient forest noise. I wonder if the frogs are what caused a recent Guthooks commenter to write, “a bird kept us up all night mimicking a fire alarm.”
Day 65: 17.6 miles hiked (trail mile 815.4)
This morning we yogied some toilet paper from 3 nice section hikers in camp who were hiking out today. They understood our plight, affirming that “toilet paper anxiety is real.” They gifted us a couple small rolls of paper and a bag of sea to summit wipes. I had underestimated just how much toilet paper we would need for such a long section so it was a relief to know we wouldn’t have to resort to using leaves.
First thing in the morning we passed 800 miles!
Around mid-day we hiked a 1.4-mile section that contained ruins from a community of freed slaves that lived there and farmed the land in the early 1900’s. It was wonderful having a wayside exhibit to explain the history of our surroundings today. Often, we see old ruins with little to no explanation whatsoever.
We once again wet our clothes in a creek before a huge climb. Today feels like a repeat of yesterday: hot, with a huge down followed by a huge up, with no water for a 10-mile stretch. We hiked with Boomer, who kept our minds off the brutal 6-mile climb with great conversation. He is a retired chiropractor from Florida who returns to the AT twice a year to section hike. He has over 900 miles of the trail under his belt already.
There were tons of flowers on our hike today. It has been amazing to observe the growth of the plants around us as they leafed out and are now beginning to flower. Next will come fruit!
When we arrived at Hog Camp Gap, a windy field very near the ridge line, we said hi to Krash, Garfield, and 92, who were set up near the ridge, then made our way downhill toward the water supply in hopes of finding more protected campsites at lower ground. This was the right call. Only 100 yards or so downhill we found a large campsite with soft pine needles coating the ground and huge pine trees to block the wind. Hot Hands and Dead Eye showed up shortly after, and eventually the other guys broke down camp up top and came down to join us out of the wind. Of the thruhikers, 92 alone weathered the windstorm up top.
Day 66: 21.9 miles hiked (trail mile 837.3)
The wind roared all night, but the tent held up well. I crawled out of the tent at one point in the night just to shine my headlamp up at the tree limbs lashing around above and guyed out the tent to give it a bit more structural integrity. The cacophony made it difficult to sleep. When Garfield emerged from his tent this next morning, he was covered with a layer of dirt that had blown in under his tarp tent.
We lunched at a shelter with Boomer before parting ways, since we wanted to pull big miles today.
Later, we chatted awhile with Mona Lisa at the Priest shelter where everyone writes their confessions in the trail log. Our confession is that we never write in the trail logs; and this was no exception. It was entertaining reading others’ confessions though.
After a short stint of night hiking we arrived at Harper Creek shelter, making our longest day of hiking yet at 21.8 miles. It took a good while, but we finally found a flat tent site off on its own in the darkness.
I took an Advil tonight before bed because my aching feet and knees had kept me up the night before. I didn’t want to risk a repeat of that experience when we need to do 22 miles the next day. This is only the second time I’ve taken an ibuprofen on trail, which I’m proud of.
Day 67: 22 miles hiked (trail mile 859.3)
Sticks found a newly emerged butterfly on the trail with still crumpled wings!
When the sun rose and we clamored out of the tent to retrieve the food, we saw that the tent site we had chosen in the darkness beside the creek was in fact an incredible camp site. Although we prefer to have camp set up before dark so that we can have our bearings on our surroundings, there is something wonderful about waking up to a campsite revealed in the morning light.
We got moving around 8am and climbed 3 miles up a mountain. We were both dragging a bit today and around 2pm received a much-needed pick-me-up from a trail angel named Car Hop. We sat around Car Hop’s vehicle on the sidewalk at a vehicle overlook with Dead Eye and Krash, and snacked on Oreos, skittles, Gatorade, and chips. Car Hop completed the AT last year and is now supporting the trail community as a trail angel. He even had hand sanitizer refills, which we had been running dangerously low on.
Car Hop
That evening we ran into 92, a retired marine who hikes big miles. He and Chris discovered that they shared some community affiliations off-trail, and we were fueled on our last 8 miles by good conversation and camaraderie. 92 pointed out the stone walls we had been passing along the ridge lines in this region and told us that they were old barriers from the civil war.
We had resigned ourselves to stagger into camp around 10:30/11 that night to make our goal of 22 miles but thanks to 92 setting an aggressive hiking pace, we careened into Paul Wolfe Shelter right around 9pm, only night hiking by head lamp for about a half hour.
Garfield pointed out a suitable decent tent site to us and we quickly set up camp, ate dinner, and hung the bear bags on a bear pole—the first of many as we head into the Shenandoahs.
Day 68: 4.9 miles hiked (trail mile 864.2)
At last! We made our way out of the woods in a short 5-mile hike from the shelter. We managed to complete the 130-mile Daleville-Waynesboro section in 7.5 days.
It was a beautiful, flower-filled hike out, and just before the entrance to Shenandoah National Park a couple of guys out day hiking (a father and 19-year-old son who we later learned hike together every weekend) offered to give us a ride into Waynesboro. We gratefully accepted and they dropped us at the Quality Inn. We spent the rest of the day doing town chores and recharging.
The Mayapples are blooming!
Day 69 - mile 864.2 (4th zero)
When we saw the rain coming down this morning and the thunderstorms forecasted for the evening, we decided to hold off one more day before entering the national park. It will be nice to feel fully refreshed going into this next section.
We walked to the post office, picked up our REI packages and sent more gear home. We finally went back into our Lighterpack gear list and updated it with everything we’ve cut from our packs since the beginning of the trail. Our pack base weight is now down to about 14lbs each! I’ve sent so much gear home at this point I can fit my new z-lite sleeping pad inside the pack.
850 mile shoes!
We each took an Epsom salt soak in the tub and spent the rest of the day resting. I applied to another scholarship (I found out I received the first one I applied for!) and we both caught up with family on the phone.
Day 70: 20.8 miles hiked (trail mile 885)
For breakfast we had Beyond Meat sausages with bagel buns, microwaved burritos, cereal, and frozen blueberries. Snapshot set up a ride from Stanimals, the Waynesboro hiker hostel, to get back to the trail. Once back on the AT we almost immediately entered Shenandoah NP. We filled out paper permits and deposited them in a metal box at the trailhead. The main permit attached to the outside of our packs.
We hiked on and off with Spots and Snapshot all morning and ate lunch on a rock near a spring with Mona Lisa who we’ve learned is a carpenter from New Orleans.
A storm rolled in suddenly around midday and we welcomed the rain and cooler temperatures after a warm afternoon. After the weather cleared, we saw a small ring neck snake. Later we came upon a grey goose walking northbound on the AT. When it saw us, it waddled quickly around a bend in the trail and was gone when we made it around the bend.
Just about a half mile from our destination, we found a few cans of trail magic food carefully placed in the center of the trail and lovingly adorned with flowers. We snagged the Amy’s vegetarian chili for dinner tonight and left the other two items for the next hiker. We later learned that Snapshot had scored a beer from this same trail magic cache only moments before we arrived!
When we walked into Blackrock Hut (the Shenandoahs call their shelters Huts) Dance Party, who we hadn’t seen since the Smokies, was there! She had taken 4 days off right after the Smokies and had been just behind us ever since. She caught us after doing a 24-hour challenge in which she managed to hike 42 miles straight.
Spots and Snapshot pushed on because there were no good campsites left (especially for their 3-person z-packs tent) but with my ankle hurting and only a 2-person tent we were able to find a rocky and root-filled little site that we will have to make work. I expect doing a 21-mile day on shoes right out of the box is what is causing the ankle pain. Tonight is our first night sleeping on our z-rests; the ease of set up is certainly nice but we will see what quality of sleep we’re able to get.
