VA (2)

Virginia (Part 2)

25 April 2015: 27.8 miles to dragon's tooth parking

• A long rainy, miserable day

Best quote I've seen about thru-hiking yet: "Home is where you hang your food bag"
This is so true!!! Since starting this trip I have slept in 50+ different places and am technically homeless.
This bench was completely random too, we just popped up over the top of a long climb and there is was. 

I hiked Dragon's Tooth a few years ago... and this is what the view looks like on a CLEAR day

.... this is the amazing view we saw at the top this day (yes, this was a purposeful photo recreation) 

Oh look, the inside of a cloud... exactly what we have been seeing all day, only this time it is framed by rocks

A handy little sign at the parking lot my parents were waiting for us in (which was 5 miles past where we were).. the sign states the location of the parking lot we agreed to meet in. The funniest part is THEY READ THE SIGN... just not the last 10 words. I love my parents, it was fun to heckle them for the rest of the evening. 

26 April 2015: 26.5 miles to Daleville

• Again a long rainy, miserable day

Oh look the inside of another cloud

27 April 2015: 17.5 miles to Bobblet's Shelter

An 8 month old baby on the trail! Her parents were doing a section hike from Roanoke, Va to Harper's Ferry, WV. She even had her own custom made sleeping bag, because you know, the website "Backpackingforbabies.com" or "Totshikingthetrails.com" isn't really a thing yet. 

28 April 2015: 23.5 miles to Thunderhill Shelter

One of our better breakfast locations on Thunder Mountain Overlook

29 April 2015: 18.2 miles Rocky Row Mountain Camping spot

Crossing the James River, apparently the lowest point on the AT  (according to Poppins and I don't feel like looking through the book) at 678 feet above sea level

• Rat Story:

Poppins and I had hiked about two miles past the shelter just outside of Glasgow, VA after our resupply so we could camp with a view. We happily ate our pizza and were properly inpressed with ourselves on carrying out such an exemplary dinner in the woods.  The tent was set up right on the edge of a cliff so I actually had to tie one of the vestibules to a rock instead of using the tent stakes. Being on top of a mountain gives hikers a false feeling of security from the local wild life, I will leave it at that.

As soon as we become horizontal we hear leaves rustling as if someone or something is approaching the tent. At first we think it is a fellow hiker but soon realize the creator of the noise is just too small to be human... in fact I did a pretty decent job of convincing myself it was simply the wind blowing the leaves around outside. Of course the noise moves around the side of the tent (at this point I'm still telling myself it is the wind and it is in fact too small to be a bear). We both peer out of the tent to try to see the culprit, nothing and we can still hear the rustling, must be the wind. Just for good measure we smack the side of the tent and listen for the mouse (for if it was an animal it was probably a mouse) to scamper away like mice tend to do when threatened. Nothing, defiantly the wind blowing the leaves.

About 2am Poppins and I are both awake and listening to something clearly messing around on her side of the tent just outside the vestibule. We smack the tent again, still no scampering, but whatever it is pauses and then resumes after about 5 minutes. We smack the tent again, again a pause for about 5 minutes. Finally Poppins waits for the rustling then sits up and looks out of the tent (the moon was bright that night). This time she does see something. A fat pink tail, a rat, not a mouse. We both fly into motion, pulling our backpacks into the tent where we can better defend them from a nibbling rat. Fortunately the rat does not try to chew his way into the tent and our gear is safe.

In the morning the vestibule I had secured to the rock has come undone and is hanging limply by the tent. I'm a little crestfallen at this point (I have a slight obsession with string and rope, I even have a baggie full of different lengths in my backpack and enjoy securing things in shelters and such...) because I was rather proud of my engineering knot work from the day before. Fussily I pull up the vestibule to see where I went wrong... only there is no rope to observe, only some teeth marks in the nylon strap that I had secured the rope to the night before. The damn thing took my string!!! When we first heard the rat but couldn't see him he was on the rocks below chewing our tent and stealing my string!

I fuss about my lose to Poppins and she pities me but points out I have a slight possessive quality when it comes to string (but then she sweetly tries to find me replacement string throughout the rest of the day). As I'm searching in the neighboring bushes for my string (this particular string the rat took is bright orange so it should have been easy to spot) and hoping to find the rat's home so I can destroy it out of spite Poppins is still rummaging around for her sock liner. After packing up everything in the area and still not finding the sock we determine that the damn rat stole her sock as well. It is strange, all those nights in shelters (notorious locations for mice chewing holes in property) and never having a problem; then we are on top of a freaken mountain and a rat finds us and robs us.

Campsite on top of Little Rocky Row Mountain 

We resupplied in Glasgow, VA earlier this day and had ordered a large pizza for our table to go with our lunches (like a normal person would order a side salad or soup)... it is a thru-hiker thing. WE couldn't even finish the pizza so we packed half of it out for dinner. No one likes outside temperature pizza (cold pizza is a different story) so we found a flat rock and heated up our pizza of course!!!

As you can see we were smart and cooked away from our tent. Good thing too, in the morning there were strange scratching on the log we had over the fire. Bear? Raccoon? Who knows, all we know is a rat stole my string and Poppin's sock. 

Poppins and Stoat basically winning at the whole living in nature thing

30 April 2015: 16.2 miles Brown Mt. Shelter

• Hid from the thunderstorm that we never saw but apparently happened just 2 miles ahead of us, right decisions were made

1 May 2015: 30 miles to Harper's Shelter

• 12 hours flat!!! Why? Because we are epic!... and stupid, we knew we had a zero day coming though.

2 May 2015: 7.9 miles to Reel's Gap (then 45 minutes car ride to BODO's Bagels in Charlottesville, VA)

• I am ashamed of how many bagel products and other cards I consumed in the matter of the 2 hour trip home (mind you, those 2 hours included the snack stops)

3 May 2015: Zero day in Harrisonburg :3

4 May 2015: Nero 6.7 miles to campsite on Humpback Mountain