Day 23, Sunday, May 29 - Last Day

This morning Danny and I hiked the last 6 miles of the trek to Waynesboro.    My May hike is over, covering 391 miles from Damascus to Waynesboro (the entrance to Shenandoah National Park).  As was last year, it is difficult to see all my new friends move on up the trail.   The time in the woods definitely helps you appreciate the many comforts that the good Lord has provided.   I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to be able to again experience the beauty of the trail, to develop new friendships and for a renewed appreciate of God’s Creation.   Thanks for Lisa, Seth, Danny, Tracey and the many Trail Angels and Hikers who helped me enjoy this to the fullest.  

Day 22, Saturday, May 28

Today is a slack packing day (Water and key essentials only) with my dear friend Danny Seamster from Richmond.   We hiked from Reed Gap (21 Miles outside of Waynesboro) to the visitor’s center on the Blue Ridge Parkway (15 Trail Miles).   The hike was pleasant, great weather, company and some wonderful views on top of Humpback Mountain.  Due to some confusion with the trail signs and the AWOL (David Miller’s AT Guide) we hiked past the past the turnoff by approximate a mile and had to return, so we estimated we hiked a total of 17 for the day.   Unfortunately, we will have to hike that same mile for the third time in the morning to finish the hike to Waynesboro (Rockfish Gap).    After the hike the girls picked us up and we went to D&B brewer for dinner.   That was where I saw my first bear of this trip, of course, it was stuffed on the wall of the brewery.  I LOVE SLACK PACKING!!!!!

Day 21, Friday, May 27

It’s Friday and the day I see Lisa again after two weeks.    She is to meet Running Mink and I at VA 56 Tye River at mile 831.8 (11.5 miles) today at noon, with Lunch!    We started the day at early getting up at 5:00 a.m. and departing at first light.  To be honest, I was tried and my body was telling me that by making the climbs feel harder that they really were.   This morning was a series of 200 to 400 feet climbs and falls until we reached the 700 feet climb up the Priest Mountain.   We did stop at the Priest Shelter to read the many confessionals in the trail log that people had written.    After the summit we had a long difficult 3,000 foot downhill to the river.    The downhills are tough on the knees.    We reached the river and the meet point early around 11:00 a.m..  I had spoken with Lisa while on the mountain and knew she would on time at noon.   At 11:58, Lisa pulled into the parking lot and you cannot believe how good it was to see her smiling face.  She had stopped and picked up my favorite….Subway Sandwiches and   Running Mink and I enjoyed a special lunch.   After lunch, Lisa agreed to take Running Mink’s ID, a written wavier including a photo with Running Mink and Lisa and the note to the local post office to pick-up his new trail runners (shoes).    Lisa also agree to take the weight from our packs and let us slack pack to the evening meet point at Reeds Gap (another 11.5 Miles).    The lighter packs made the afternoon much more enjoyable as we climbed back 3000’ up Three Ridges Mountain.   The weather was nice and the view spectator.   Running Mink and I talked knew the two plus weeks of hiking together was coming to an end.   We talked about staying touch throughout the rest of the hike and afterwards.    At around 5:50, we arrived at Reeds Gap where we were met by Lisa and our friends from Richmond Danny and Tracey.    Lisa had picked up Running Minks shoes and he was going to camp a few miles down the trail that night.   After a few last photos, we say our good-byes and he headed down the trail as I headed in town with Lisa.   We had a wonderful dinner and a good night’s sleep.   I planned a  little later wake-up time for Saturday as Danny and I were going to do 15 miles of slack packing.   Total Miles 22.1 Miles.

Day 20, Thursday, May 26

Early start from Reservoir Road, across the Pedlar River Bridge on the way to Brown Mountain 5 miles away.   Brown Mountain is a 3,000’ climb to a bald knob.    I like the bald knobs as you can typically have a great view.   This part of the trail is full of history or ruinings from early day settlements / communities.  It neat to see and image life in the mountains a couple of hundred years ago.  Today, was not my best day.  I was struggling in the afternoon.    I like my body was outworking the calories I was giving it due to the time we had spent in the woods without a stop in town for a real meal.    Running Mink noticed I was struggling and helped me keep my mind off of it and on eating more snacks.   Hiking 20+ miles on a daily basis and consuming 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day is hard to replace on the trail.   Food bags for 7 days’ weigh in excess of 10 pounds so your food value choices are a balance of calories versus weigh.   We arrived a Seeley-Woodworth Shelter for the evening with our lowest mileage of the week at 20.8 miles.  

Day 19, Wednesday, May 25

Hump day!!!   Really….I had to look up the date of the phone to remember what day of the week it was.     Today we came off the mountain down to the James River.   We walked several miles alongside the wide James River to a road crossing where many hikers hitched into Glasgow, VA for supplies.   We carried on and cross the long James River foot bridge to the other side and started climbing again up the Big Rocky Row 2,200’, then so ridge walking before climbing another 900’ to the top of Bluff Mountain.   That afternoon we decent back to the Pedlar River Reservoir.    The campsites were limited and the water source was questionable at best but it made due.     Total mileage for the day was 22.7. 

Day 18, Tuesday, May 24

Today, we climbed…. first 1,000’ up Fork Mountain and back down a 1,000’ then 3,000’ up Floyd Mountain which was a steady uphill for almost 10 miles.   At the top of the Mountain we walked onto a beautiful clear bald and the Apple Orchard Mountain FAA tower at the top.   There as a patch of mowed grass around the tower and everyone who came up sit and took in the views and the warm sunshine.    After a 30 minute break we headed out and on our way to Harrison Camp site for the evening.    A little past the tower we saw the Guillotine (Large Rock wedged over the trail.   As we started the decent the camp site we were watching for bears.   We knew that the next shelter had been closed due to bear activity so we had to go to the camp site several miles past it.    When we arrive at the blue blaze to the Thunder Hill Shelter we learned new information not only was the shelter closed but the Harrison Ground Spring campsite also had bear activity so we set our sights on the next campsites another 4 miles away at Marble Springs.    We arrived after 6:00 at Marble Spring campsite after a long 24.1 miles.

Day 17, Monday, May 23

The plan was to leave Daleville early and cover big miles today.    Only one problem, I was still trying to get my hiking poles back from the ATC Ridge Runner Matt.   So Runner Mink and I decided to go to breakfast.   After breakfast, I started calling the ATC number hoping they would open at 7.   At 7:30, we started out and hiking a mile to I-81 where we waited and finally reach the ATC at 8:50 a.m..   It took until 9:00 to get a call back from Matt and we made a plan to meet at the next road crossing in 30 mins..   We arrived at the cross road first but right on time Matt pulled up and within a few minutes I was reunited with my hiking poles.    What an amazing bit of trail angel work that was.   I left them on the edge of a busy parking lot full of casual day hikers, where a ATC Ridge Runner, who I happened to speak with on the trail earlier, saw them recognized them and picked them up and walk to the next shelter to leave a message……AMAZING!   Hats off to Matt the ATC Ridge Runner.    So around 10:00 a.m. we start our hike in earnest and hiked hard for most of the day.   The hike was rolling ups and downs all day but no significant changes in elevation.  We crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway 5 or 6 times throughout the day.   It was around 6:00 p.m. went we arrived our destination of Cove Mountain Shelter.   We had hiked 25.0 miles, my longest day ever.