Days 29 – 35 and Hostel / Town Hopping

Day 29 Miles 534.6 – 543.3 (8.7)

Our morning in Marion was relatively lazy, we caught up on this blog, emails, packed our food resupply, and grabbed a lunch. We caught the free bus out of town by noon. The Tramily we have been hiking with split up; Foghorn’s uncle wanted to join them for some hiking in the next town, so they pushed ahead to meet him.

The afternoon hiking was relatively uneventful, we say some cool mushrooms, saw a faun, and enjoyed the rhododendrons in bloom.   

Bushwhack, Frodo, Centipede, Rachel, and I all made it to the South-West Virginia Settlers Museum for camp for the night, which among a hiker box with snacks also offered a pavilion with bathrooms and power. It’s the little things.

Some big news, Rachel elected to take the name Sassafras since she loves root beer, and continues to hike out bottles of it.

Day 30 Miles 543.3 – 558.8 (15.5)

The morning brought the excitement of walking by a gas station, where there where drinks and snacks to be had. Sassafras bought more root beer, I had bought a tea and a pastry. A few other hikers partook in some morning adult beverages to make the hiking easy, or at least more entertaining. 

The trail was steep with long climbs in the early afternoon, but opened to some fields (with the threat of ticks) as the day meandered along. In the late afternoon, the skies opened up; so all 5 of us walked quickly the last mile making it to Bear Garden Hostel. We met Bob, one of the hosts alongside his wife Bertie, via phone ring and were able to score the house they have for rent. The five of us enjoyed a full kitchen, frozen meals for purchase in the freezer, and made a pudding pie with the pop tarts, cereal, pudding, dehydrated milk, chocolate chips, and Oreos.

We spent the evening playing Uno, eating the aforementioned pie, and enjoying being out of the storm. 

Bushwhack has been having shin pain recently and determined, to our much amusement, that the Advil he purchased at the gas station was Advil PM. The mystery of why he was sleepy all day finally solved.

Day 31 Miles 558.8 – 576.3 (17.5)

The crew we had been hiking with picked up a pair of plastic chains at Trail Days; they have been playing a game, where whomever has the chains that day tries to hide them at camp in someone else’s pack. If they are not caught doing so, then that new person has to carry the chains the next day. Well Sassafras was “chained” overnight.  

We climbed to Chestnut Knob Shelter and enjoyed lunch in the wind. The end of the day was a challenging ridge walk full of rocks and roots, so we got into camp late. 

Another hiker, Couscous, joined for the night. We tried way too hard to get a fire going; and after a lot of huffing and puffing enjoyed it into the evening. 

Day 32 Miles 576.3 – 592.9 (16.6)

Bushwhack’s shin was giving him more trouble and Frodo planned to meet up with his family and head home for a few days, so the crew split up. 

We pushed ahead through a long day, enjoyed a foot-soaking creek and some good views throughout the day. Also I got “chained.” 

We made it to Bland, VA; where we decided to make a quick hitch to the Dollar General to get a small resupply. We picked up some canned stew, a beer, a root beer, and another day and a half worth of food.

Day 33 Miles 592.9 – 608.2 (15.3)

I didn’t take any notes on what happened on this day… From my pictures it looks like we saw some fungus, passed the 600 mile marker, and it looks like we hiked about 15.3 miles.

Day 34 Miles 608.2 – 625.8 (17.6)

We started the day knowing that we had a civilization interlude in just a couple miles. After 2 miles we headed down VA 606 to Trent’s Grocery (a gas station with food that appears to subsist off correctional facility employees, hikers, and a few locals) where we got a pizza, root beer, and a coffee. 

From there we took a yellow blaze up the road to Dismal Falls, a beautiful swimming hole and waterfall. 

After the slow morning it was a long hike (but relatively flat) all the way to the famous Wood’s Hole Hostel, which opened to hikers in 1986. We made it just in time for a hiker dinner of mostly locally grown or sourced ingredients, homed cooked. It was an impeccably designed space to support hikers on their journey.   

Wednesday May 29 Day 35 Miles 625.8 – 637.3 (11.5)

It was a cool night, which was nice because my sleeping bag is a 10°F bag, and far to warm for the 60°F nights. We woke up to a sunrise, house roasted coffee, and a hot breakfast.  

The cool morning turned into a hot day as we set out around 9am, knowing that Pearisburg was a short 12 or so miles away.

We shifted in the bubble (the mass heard of hikers moving northward) and started to run across new faces. Many of which had the same destination in mind that night; Pearisburg.

We made it into town by late afternoon, catching a shuttle to Angel’s Rest hostel. We borrowed their loaner clothes, washed our own, walked into town to grab BBQ, and overbought our food resupply.