Please Leave Me Stranded/It’s So Romantic

I greeted Skyball this morning when I came out my tent to pee as he was rounding the corner on the trail. While at night I felt my tent was pretty far off, in the day I could see that I was barely two feet off the footpath. Oops. Kind of a miracle I slept through everyone else passing through.

The morning started with a simple 0.5 mile hike to the Brushy Mountain Outpost by Bland, VA. Unfortunately for me, the Outpost itself is closed on Saturdays, so no burgers, fries, or sodas for me out here. As I pulled up, “Borderline,” a section hiker, was getting dropped off by his wife Debbie, and when I mentioned I was gonna hitch into Bland, Debbie offered! How nice.

a reminder of what happens if you’re not careful road walking…

She dropped me off at the PO where I finally got rid of the extra 20 oz. of sleeping pad I’ve been lugging around. For those who missed my earlier posts, I’ve been carrying a Nemo Tensor Extreme in Regular/Wide, and then testing a Nemo Tensor Elite in mummy. I know it seems silly to have held onto both them, but I just wanted to make sure I didn’t have sleeper’s remorse trying to go Ultralight. In the end, pack weight doesn’t matter if you can’t get the vital sleep you need to recover.

Anyways, the mail scale claimed 27 ounces with the box! So either it’s a heavy box, or the sleeping pad’s heavier than NEMO claimed. Either way, I was happy to get rid of it. Then made my way to Grant’s Supermarket. While I didn’t need anything in particular, I wanted to grab my normal “fresh outta town” resupply, and breakfast, since I skipped on it this morning, so into my cart went a cucumber, a coke, some cheese, and a few pop tarts. I asked a cashier where iced coffee was, when another attendant perked up and went “if you want coffee, I’m making some right now!” Again, the kindness of strangers is absolutely wild.

Unfortunately, this is where my positive relationship with Bland comes to an end. Trying to get a hitch out was nigh impossible. I stood around with a thumb up for probably close to 45 minutes, but most people honked. So I called up some shuttle drivers, and luckily the folks at Weary Feet could accommodate me. Apparently, most folks in Bland don’t know about the trail, and just assume we’re homeless! Tough crowd, but also understandable. They don’t owe us anything, and usually, hikers aren’t exactly the cleanest.

So I got back to the trail right around 11, and knew that there were miles that I just… wanted to cover. No huge rush, but I just wanted to experience everything at Wood’s Hole (mostly yoga), without taking a full zero there tomorrow. Quickly covered the road walk and disappeared back into the trail, semi pushed by the desire to go fast. But, a bigger desire fought and won, the want to sign trail registers. So, even though Helvey Mill’s Shelter was a good 0.3 miles away, I still made the side trek. It was good to see Critter’s signature again, with a small note, “Loved this section of trail.” Huh.

I’ve been waiting for the “Virginia Blues” to hit. Maybe even bracing for them. But insofar, Virginia’s been pleasant. Good weather, and while not flat hiking, definitely a bit more cruisy. That, plus trail legs, has made hiking almost downright easy at some points. Though, not without some trials.

I’ve noticed a subtle shift in Virginia hiking, we tend to go up, and then stay on a ridge for a long time, then back down. Being on the tip top of a ridge is fun in a way, the terrains smooth and easy, and you can get constant peeks off to the sides of the mountain. But unlike before, we’ll have slightly longer water carries. Nothing major compared to a PCT or CDT carry, only about 10 miles at most, but still, without careful scrutiny of FarOut in the morning, I’ve ended up parched on a few stretches. Today was one, I didn’t fill up on water at Helveys Mill, and everything was dry until the next shelter. Ah well, that’s life.

Thanks to the delay in the morning, the only person I ran into before the evening was Wind, who started 10 miles back… but starts hiking around 5AM usually. Whew, not for me. I reached Jenny Knob around 4, and found Spoonman and Skyball. Spoonman’s shin splints have kept him from pumping the mileage he wants, and Skyball’s pacing himself to Wood’s Hole without the arbitrary restraint of doing yoga there. But I wanted to push a few more. Plus, I felt great! The soreness from the Timps had finally completely worn off, and the Superfeet were also working their magic.

So, after taking a break for a (late!) lunch and water fill, I started hiking again, only to quickly run into Gambit. I hadn’t seen him since my “fun” day out of Marion, but he’s going at a steadier pace than me. I passed him as he was grabbing water, since I could see clouds gathering over us…

When they finally dumped, I started playing the game of “how long can I wait until putting my rain gear on?” After all, once it rains on the AT… you’re never really dry again. Sure, you can be a bit warmer, but no matter what either the sweat of your body gets to you, or the rainwater. The only real annoyance through all this is my phone. When it’s raining hard, I could no longer check FarOut reliably. Yes, my iPhone is “waterproof” but the screen still reacts to the water as if it’s a touch. And of course, as the rain goes on, you run out of dry things to wipe your screen. It’s not too much of an issue since the trail’s so well marked, but if trying to find a stealth site at dark, it’d be nice to have a bit of security.

All that to say it was about 5 minutes before I decided this was real rain, and tossed everything on. Good thing I did, as it didn’t relent for almost the rest of the night.

As I passed Weary Feet, a part of me wanted nothing more but to stop in. But Woods Hole before night is the goal. So I continued on. There were reports of great campsites near Dismal Creek Falls, and a great swimming hole, but given that I was soaked through, and didn’t want to camp that close to water on a rain night, I instead went on to a tentsite which the FarOut comments claimed “could fit 20.” And honestly, I wasn’t disappointed, I came upon a huge field about 0.1 miles off trail. The only problem was playing a game of “dodge broken beer bottle shards” with my tent.

By the time I reached the campsite, another miracle happened, it stopped raining! While the Durston X-Mid Pro sets up wonderfully in the rain, the prospect of opening the contents of my pack to the elements doesn’t exactly entice me. But I was able to quickly set up, shove some carbs down my throat, and try to warm up and dry out a bit. The rain picked up again, so while there wasn’t any hope of having everything get dry, I at least just gave my clothes a good wring, and hopped into my bag, trying to use my body heat to dry it out again. Where I innocently drifted off to sleep… Nothing could’ve been left out. Right?

 (title lyrics from: New Romantics, Taylor Swift)