Virginia (Part 1)
12 April 2015: 0 miles to Woodchuck Hostel
- Needless to say zero-days are meant for relaxing and not moving much... something Poppins and I cast to the wind on this day and proceeded to walk all over creation (within in the city limits of Damascus)
- This isn't an exaggeration, we probably walked an extra 5 miles all over town... because some derp-derp decided to put the milkshake shop on the edge of town... and we don't plan ahead very well, so none of our trips in and out of town were very efficient
- Silent Bob was rather annoyed with us
- Zeroed at Woodchuck Hostel in Damascus, VA. tented in the backyard for $10 and had an all-you-can-eat blueberry WAFFLE (the classy cousin of the pancake) breakfast. Well worth the money.
- We had met 3 lovely section hikers two days before (we took off to do the "Damascusthon" so we got about a full day ahead of them) and they rolled up to the hostel that evening. They then proceeded to purchase the biggest pizza available (as seen below) for all the thru-hikers to share with them for dinner!!! It was their version of trail magic and it was greatly appreciated. They where also quite encouraging to Poppins and I for our future endeavors on the trail, safe to say I think we made some friends.
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| 2 of the 3 section hikers, with said giant pizza, rather sad we didn't get a photo of all 3. |
13 April 2015: 10 miles to Saunders Shelter
- Nero day out of Damascus. It was rather tough hiking due to the humidity...and being full of milkshakes and other town foods
- One of the things that commonly happens in/out trail towns (such as Damascus) is "hiking bubbles" get dispersed and reorganized, meaning there are tons of new people to meet the first few days out.
- Hiking bubbles occur due to hiking speed, start date, and weather. People in a hiker's "bubble" are people that are seen about everyday consistently for 3 days or more; for example: Josh and Vanguard were in Poppins and my "hiking bubble" before the Smokey Mountains- "bubbles" can be made on purpose or accidental.
- Currently Poppins and I have been bursting through hiking bubbles (because we typically take less zero days and are slightly faster/start earlier in the day so we can do higher miles than the typical thru-hiker at this point in the trail... we are catching up to people who started in late February, we started 7 March) so we have been in a weird "between-bubble" phase SINCE the Smokey Mountains
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| A From left to right: Five, Scout, Four, Strapped, Poppins, Silent Bob, and Wookie |
14 April 2015: 19 miles to Mt. Rogers shelter
- Pouring rain all afternoon, a miserable day
- Climbed Mt. Rogers, the highest mountain in VA
15 April 2015: 24.5 miles to Trippi Shelter
- Rained some more... because the sky thinks it is fun
- Saw 20 "wild" ponies in the VA highlands
- I told Poppins that if a pony bit her that I would avenge her by throwing rocks at the beast. No ponies bit Poppins however so my rock throwing skills were not needed, unfortunately.
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| See that stream Poppins is walking through? "Why Poppins, shouldn't you be walking on the trail?"... that stream IS the trail... the trail has pretty much stayed like this since |
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| One of the 20 soaking wet, smelly ponies we saw throughout the day |
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| Oh look, another one... no, I'm sorry. It was pouring rain and I didn't want to keep getting out my camera all day long. We actually saw a herd of ponies later on that had a few foals, so it was pretty interesting. |
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| Random Trail Magic from Sondriven (yes that is how it is spelled)!!! Which worked out perfectly because rain and cold makes me depressed, depression makes me eat, and I might have not had a breakfast for the next day... |
16 April 2015: 9 miles to Partnership Shelter
- Re-supply in Marion, VA
- *note, Silent Bob stayed in town for the night and we have not seen him since
- Pizza Hut Buffet- Eight thru-hikers showed up at this poor Pizza Hut about 2 minutes before the lunch buffet opens. I think I could visibly see the pizza maker's soul groan as we sat down at the tables closest to the buffet; they knew what a herd of thru-hikers meant. Needless to say, we massacred an innocent, small town pizzeria's stockpile of food in less than an hour.
- This is probably the first time on the trail I've felt like I've actually gotten my money's worth at a buffet. HIKER HUNGER IS SETTING IN...
17 April 2015: 23.4 miles to campsite (O'lystery Pavilion)
- I took a lot of pictures this day because it was the first time I had seen the sun in 3 days... and VA is absolutely gorgeous.
- Poppins and I were thinking about calling it a day when we happened upon these two gentleman resting at our potential campsite. Unbeknownst to us at the time we had just met Duster and Cave Beaver, two section hikers that we would end up hanging out with for the next 3 days.
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| SUN!!! I can see the SUN!!! |
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| A little unknown fact about myself: I love flowers. (Flowers are the perfect random display of affection in any relationship... but are completely unacceptable for major events such as birthdays or anniversaries unless coupled with something else. Sorry, that was a slight rant.) I'm starting to have mini freakouts-of-excitement daily as spring starts to descend on the mountains. |
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| Midday break passing by Atkins, VA |
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| Praising the sun god. Actually I have no idea what I was doing in this picture, but the clouds were amazing and we had been walking through emerald fields all day long, which was a novelty. |
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| We have walked through many fields at this point in the day, none of which held cows. These cows were quite fearful of us... and proceeded to run away from us ON the AT, making a completely inefficient getaway. |
18 April 2015: 22.3 miles to Jenkins Shelter
Poppins and I rolled up to Jenkins Shelter and were greeted with huge warning signs stating that a bear has been active in the area and interaction with this bear could lead to injury or death. Lovely. This was not the first time we have seen such signs, but this is the first time we have seen them posted at an AT shelter. Patrick was already at the shelter, the Arkansas twins- Link and Folklore arrived after dinner, Mrs Dash shortly after, then Duster and Cave Beaver showed up before dark. With the comfort of safety in numbers we all proceeded with our evening activities.
Poppins, The Twins, Mrs Dash, Patrick, and myself all bedded down in the shelter, since it was going to start raining in the early morning. Duster and Cave Beaver tented just down the hill about 200 meters away. As we are all beginning to drift off we hear Cave Beaver call out to Duster from behind the shelter asking him to come check something out. A few seconds later we hear Duster calling out in a loud, yet steady voice "Hey Bear, Hey Bear!"It took a few seconds to register with everyone in the shelter that there was in fact a bear outside (apparently Duster and Cave Beaver have dealt with bears on other hiking trips before and Cave Beaver wanted confirmation before sounding the alarm).
Once the call of "Hey Bear" registered the shelter exploded into motion. Mrs Dash jumped out into the night, in nothing but his boxer shorts, wielding a trekking pole-turned bear beating weapon. He was followed closely by Link and Folklore, who more so wanted to see the bear rather than fight it with a makeshift club. I just took out my earbuds and sat there; because 5 people, one being half naked, should be enough to frighten off a bear and I'm only qualified to throw rocks at ponies anyway (see 15 April if you missed that reference). The bear ran off and the boys returned to their bedding to re-settle back in for the night and I pushed back in my earbuds to listened to another chapter of my audiobook... after I moved my own trekking poles within arms reach... you know, just incase I wanted to join Mrs Dash in his next underwear rampage.
About 2am there was a noise. The noise came from the direction of Duster and Cave Beaver's tent. Apparently this said noise woke up one of the twins (I think it was Link but in the events that followed, who knows) who listen to "something" walk around to the corner of the shelter. Not wanting to come face to face with a bear Link slammed his palm down on the shelter floor and shouted "Hey!" to scare away the bear... of course everyone woke up and instantly-sorta-knew what was going on, the bear was back.
The boys started clapping their hands to frighten the bear... and Poppins... Poppins thought the best course of action was to just flat out start screaming. It was the screaming that woke me up, I missed the initial palm smack from Link. In the confusion (for I wasn't sure why Poppins was screaming so much) I asked, "What is going on? Is it in the shelter?"... which Poppins heard as " IT IS IN THE SHELTER!!!" and she proceeded to scream louder, sit up and flail around. At this point NO ONE has answered my question, Poppins is still screaming LOUDER, and there is a dark mass (which was Poppin's flailing body) moving right next to me.
In my stupor I decided the best course of action for me to take is to kick the dark mass as hard as I can. But in my stupor I forgot my legs were still zipped inside my sleeping bag, so I proceeded to basically "caterpillar" kick the dark mass with both legs covered with my puffy sleeping bag... not the most efficient attack move in my arsenal. Of course the dark mass is Poppins so kicking her makes her scream more. The more she screams the more I think something is actually in the shelter, so I just continue caterpillar kicking. Eventually she stops screaming, eventually I stop kicking, eventually the boys stop clapping. The bear is long gone by this point...
After realizing I just spent the last 15 seconds kicking Poppins I erupt into laughter for a solid 10 minutes while everyone else tries to fall asleep. In the morning we regroup and the section hikers do confirmed there was a bear around their tent that night... and they had hear someone scream and then someone weeping or laughing, they couldn't tell. Everyone was safe, no one lost their arm or food bag to a bear, and I STILL erupt into laughter to this day at the thought of that night.
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| A bald leading up to Chestnut Knob |
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| An epic shelter on Chestnut Knob |
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| Another sample of some trail log entries, I find these interesting and entertaining |
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| Left to Right: Patrick, Mrs Dash, Folklore, and Link |
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| A different view of Link playing the Ocarina (a musical instrument) |
19 April 2015: 15.3 miles to Melvey's Shelter
- RAIN, rain and wind all day long
- Poppins and I raced to the Shelter and hunkered there from 11:30am till the next morning with Link, Folklore, Duster, and Cave Beaver
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| ... I have a bad habit of not letting us stop for snacks so sometimes Poppins has to sneak snacks |
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| It is hard to tell in this picture but we have stretched tarps and a rainfly over the shelter's open wall to keep the rain from blowing in |
20 April 2015: 16 miles to Trent's Grocery
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| Hit mile 600!!! |
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| Found Cave Beaver and Duster's car, left them a note from the "Little Golden Book Club Trail Mafia"... which is the name Poppins and I have bestowed upon ourselves because we sound like a children's book "the adventures of Poppins and Stoat" ...fear not, I believe those are only deer bones... at least that is what I was hoping when I wrote the note |
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| Pack explosion while waiting for laundry to finish washing at Trent's Grocery... the shower had exposed wires, that's what you get for a $3 shower. This is exactly what I was hoping the trail would be like. |
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| The Arkansas Twins |
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| The Melvey's Shelter crew reunited for one last time |
21 April 2015: 21.1 miles to Powerline view campsite
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| A really cool beetle ... sometimes I act like I'm 5yr old again |
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| A quick side quest to Dismal Falls |
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| ...Not as impressive as expected |
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| A Stoat for scale... the falls were quite a bit smaller than expected |
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| Folklore at the Powerline campsite at the end of the day |
22 April 2015: 24.4 miles to Pine Swamp Branch Shelter
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| The first time on the trail we could legitimately see the sunrise from the comfort of our tent |
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"You see the "Danger high voltage, keep off" sign?" - Stoat
"Ya"- Poppins
"Lets hang the bear bags next to that, I dont see any good bear trees"- Stoat
"OK" - Poppins
... Famous last words |
23 April 2015: 20.9 miles to VA route 42- Met up with the parents
- Awoke to a cold and windy day. The crappy REI thermometer on Poppins pack read 28 degrees, this actually turned out to be one of the top four coldest days we have experienced yet. The wind chill was a huge factor, sometimes it gusted up to 40+ miles an hour and we were on a ridge line most of the day.
24 April 2015: Zero day
