Day 36 – 41, VA Triple Crown, and Turtles!!!

Day 36 Miles 637.3 – 650.8 (13.5)

The day started in Pearisburg at Angel’s Rest hostel, where we had camped for the night. We sorted our 5 days’ worth of food in our tent and slowly packed up camp. We wanted to search for a rain skirt for Sassafras (the forecast included lots of rain) at the local outfitter which opened at 10am, so we killed time until it opened by buying root beer and stopping into a coffee shop for avocado toast and waffles. Unfortunately, the gear store in town didn’t have a rain skirt, so we got creative with an oversized trash bag.
At noon we caught a ride out of town with Hot Tamale (a previous hiker who worked at Angel’s Rest). We coincidentally intercepted Centipede at the trailhead, so we excitedly and unceremoniously passed off the chains to her.

We called family on the way out of town, so the miles passed relatively easily as we climbed a ridge which traverses the border of West Virginia and Virginia. We camped for the night at a quiet spot along the ridge; it felt unusual to camp in such isolation after so many nights of shelter camping and camping at the hostel.

Day 37 Miles 650.8 – 669.7 (18.9)

This was a day of walking. It threatened to rain most of the day but the weather held out. It was rocky and relatively quiet from other hikers until the very end when we rolled into War Spur Shelter. That shelter was packed, with 20 or so other hikers and a few different mini Tramilies (many hikers who were new to us). Some hikers we met included Pickle Bird, Atlas, Night Crawler, Twelve, and S’mores.

Day 38 669.7 – 682.1 (12.4)

It rained some and Sassafras donned her trash bag rain gear, which proved a mistake as the day began with quite a climb. Following the climb, the trail had a fair amount of blowdowns (trees that had recently blown over, blocking the trail). These were mostly navigable, although a few required some more significant climbing. We passed through some nice fields. After thirteen miles, we were faced with the decision of calling it an “early” day and camping at Pickle Branch Shelter, or continuing on a supposedly rocky and uneven ridge for six miles to the next shelter. We elected to stay at Pickle Branch, which was a steep decline off the trail, but was a very nice large shelter with a covered porch!

We enjoyed the evening with a smaller group of hikers including Bear Bag, Libris, Keg Stand, Cheeto, and Underhill, many of which had camped with us the previous night at War Spur shelter.

Day 39 Miles. 682.1 – 698.2 (16.1)

Cheeto started a fire in the morning, so I grilled some Spam of the grate and enjoyed a hot breakfast. We lunched at Niday Shelter, but a short 1.4 miles downhill there was trail magic from Alan. He was grilling up hot dogs with cold lemonade. He has been a trail angel for over 20 years! Overstuffed we waddled out and headed through the woods looking for a place to nap. As we sat down, the clouds opened up, so we got our rain gear on and hiked up the climb.

The storm passed quickly, and come dinner time we crossed another road, with another trail Angel! This one was cold drinks from Jason, a philosopher who lives close to the trail and enjoys talking with hikers as they pass through.

We saw two Eastern Box Turtles, one was orange, one was yellow, and both were friends.
We ended the day at Sarver Hallow Shelter.

Day 40 Miles 698.2 – 715.1 (16.9)

We woke up feeling smelly and sticky from all the rain and hot weather and being out for many days, but this was a big day with some well-known landmarks; including Dragon’s tooth rock and MacAfee Knob. In the hot and humid weather, with destinations, the miles felt like they took forever.

After making it to Dragon’s tooth rock, we scaled down the fairly technical descent to Catawba Groceries (Gas station) for a pizza lunch and a light resupply.

The afternoon was the climb to the famous McAfee Knob, (an overhang viewpoint, which is said to be the most photographed point on the AT). When we arrived in the early evening, clouds obscured the views, so we made dinner and hoped it cleared.

Fortunately for a brief 15 minutes, they mostly did. We snapped pictures before it started to rain on us. We descended to Campbell Shelter and set up camp for the night.

Day 41 Miles 715.1 – 730.6 (15.5)

Town Suck (The strong desire to get to town and that desire’s propensity to both make you hike faster and make the miles feel slower) was in full force for me. However, we had the third of the VA Triple Crown landmarks to hike through mid-day.

By late morning we had made it to Tinker Cliffs and had an early lunch on them.
We saw more turtles. We made it to Daleville by 4 pm, checked into our hotel (There was a Super 8 right off the trail, enjoyed a shower for the first time since Pearisburg, enjoyed the AC, and grabbed BBQ and free banana pudding from Three Little Pigs BBQ.

The logistics + taking a few zeros

We drove our Van from out West to Trail Days to return to the trail. Damascus allows hikers to park vehicles for 30 days, therefore from Daleville, we rented a car, drove back to Damascus picked up the van, returned the rental in Daleville, and drove the van to family members in the Washington DC area. We took a few zeros and rejoined the trail where I left off in early April at mile 834.