Hiking the Good Hike

     Today was a fun day. The hiking was pretty easy with gentle ups and downs. We took a lunch break at Jenny's Knob Shelter. Later in the afternoon we came to a road crossing where we walked half a mile to Trent Grocery. This was a small gas station and convenient store that served sandwiches and pizza. We only needed enough food for a couple more days to get us to Pearisburg but decided since we were there to have a pizza for an early dinner. We hung out there for a while and met two high school students from Columbus doing a south bound section hike. 

     After eating and buying our snacks we continued to Dismall Falls where we had planned to camp. Upon our arrival we were met by Jim, a friend of Lazer Death Kill and Long Spoon, who had surprised them with a visit. We took advantage of the swimming hole before the sun went down and dried ourselves by a fire Long Spoon had built. We all set up our tents in close proximity for story time but it seems everyone is falling asleep quickly. Tomorrow we plan to take a short day and hike to Woods Hole Hostel. 

4/17 Day 45 Dismall Falls to Pearisburg, VA - 23.5 miles 

     Today started with rain. It rained all night assuring our tent was soaked and then the rain stopped as we began to pack. We took our time because we were only hiking thirteen miles to the hostel. The beginning of the day was the flattest hiking we had seen yet followed, of course, by some steep climbs. The hiking was not overly scenic and kind of boring. 

     We arrived at Woods Hole Hostel to find many hikers already there and the word that many more were on their way. As our group arrived we discussed our options and tried to decide between staying there and pushing on ten miles further to Pearisburg. Those working at the hostel seemed overly pushy for us to stay in what would be an over crowded bunkhouse (basically a glorified shelter). We enjoyed some milkshakes and finally decided we would just push on to town. We now had ten more miles to hike after what we thought was the end of our day. 

     We arrived at the edge of town and tried unsuccessfully to hitch a ride to the hotel. No one offered a ride but one man was nice enough to stop and tell us the hotel was "just at the top of the hill." Luckily, Longspoon and LDK's (Lazer Death Kill) friend Jim gave us a ride. We checked in at the Holiday Lodge, a place that had seen better days but made up for it by being extremely hiker friendly. We all decided to have dinner at the Mexican Restaurant across the street. After dinner we hung out for a while and did our laundry. Tomorrow we will resupply and hit the trail. Though the day didn't go exactly as planned we had a great time in town with our friends. 

4/18 Day 46 Pearisburg, VA to Rice Field Shelter - 6.8 miles

     Muffins and chocolate milk for breakfast. This is a common breakfast we have in town to save some cash and also because chocolate milk is just really good   for thru hikers. After breakfast we did our resupply at the Food Lion. What happened next may have been a mistake. For some reason we thought the Lucky Star Chinese buffet was a good choice for lunch just before hiking out. Our whole crew was there and we did some damage. We had to hang out for a while before hiking but we were finally on the trail by about 2:00. This was the day we decided all you can eat buffets are better suited for the day you enter town. 

     The hike out of town was pretty terrible. There was garbage all over and the trail seemed to go up and over useless hills looping in circles and finally emptying back on to the same road. Add this to our highly over filled bellies and you have some not thrilled hikers. We ran into Manchild on our way out of town. He  had stayed at the hostel but would be hiking on today. We arrived at Rice Field Shelter after a grueling 6.8 miles. The shelter was in a cool spot with an open field and a view. Sometime after us arrived a SOBO (southbound) thru hiker, Sherpa Chief. He had started in Maine last September and hiked through the winter. It was interesting to talk to him, hear his stories, and compare his experiences to ours thus far. Rain was expected so we grabbed a spot in the shelter. Packing a wet tent is not my favorite thing. At the shelter we tried a new activity we call PopTart grab bag. Pop Tarts are in most thru hikers food bags so we thought of the great idea of shuffling all the unlabeled packages into one pile and redistributing them randomly . Now, each morning we're surprised by the Pop Tarts we get to enjoy. Overall, today was a good day and we're happy to be with friends.

  

As always, thanks for reading,

Moose