Greetings from the aptly named town of Bland in the gorgeous state of Virginia!
I got back on trail on Tuesday after spending a long time off for my stress fracture to heal. It was one of those things where I felt like I wanted to leave up until the last few days I actually left-- I hate leaving and I always feel sad when the time comes to go. I had such an amazing time with my family back in Pennsylvania and I am grateful for everything they did for me to make sure my hike goes on in good shape-- my brother got me sponsored by both Sawyer who sent me a fantastic water filter (more on this a little later though) and by Fila who sent me some awesome Skeletoes! It was hard to leave home, I miss everyone and my first day actually back on trail was tough. I walked around with a heavy heart.
I was dropped off on Tuesday close to sunset-- I climbed the little bit after Atkins to get to my camp spot I had been at over a month back to heal my stress fracture and camped across the trail near the water source. I was ready to lay down for the night and read when I heard some footsteps-- my mind was ecstatic that it would be another thru-hiker and to my amazement it was! Just goes to show I'm not alone on this hike.
The kid I met was named Hoosier (from Indiana naturally :p) I talked his ear off and we spent a good 2 hours chatting about the hike, where he had been at, where I had been at and he camped beside my tent. I eventually went in to sleep and woke the next morning around 9:00 as Hoosier was getting up. It was a late start but I figured I'd go a few miles up to the next shelter (around 12 miles for the day). It wasn't too hard getting back into the swing of things-- the hills were nice, it wasn't tough terrain aside from 2 uphills but I noticed very quickly that almost every single water source was dry. I came to a river that was flowing well enough but it wasn't what I had expected. Thankfully with my filter, I could get water, drain it down and keep going.
I met a section hiker who thru hiked back in 1990, his name was The Pharmacist back then for when his wife used to ask him for Advil on the trail-- when it wasn't time quite yet, he'd say "Pharmacy is still closed." Kind of a cool trail name but I half expected the story to be that he was on LSD the entire hike. lol
Came to a clearing of cow fields and met an ATC working who was putting blazes on trees-- I had never seen anyone do it. His border collie noticed me first and came up to lick my hand-- after a while he turned around and began to chat with me. We had a ten-minute chat and I can't remember his name for the life of me-- he was in his 60's but he had through-hiked 12 years back and planned to do it again. He told me his story once I asked-- he did a southbound hike with his wife, came off the trail and was diagnosed several years later with stage 4 carcinoma of his lungs. He went through chemotherapy and quite a few other treatments and is now clear-- he wears a sunhat to keep his neck nice and shaded. I went on to talk about my dad, how I'm walking with him in mind and how he passed away from pancreatic cancer and he acknowledged what I was doing with a smile. He told me I could still definitely make it to Katahdin by October 15-- just hit a few big miles as I get in and around and after Harper's Ferry and I'll be well-set. He was easily the best person I've met the past few days.
Once i reached the first shelter, I was a little dumbstruck by looking into the shelter log. Perhaps one or two people pass through a day now that are thru hikers... that's it. I was a bit afraid I wouldn't see anyone-- I also saw that firefox and sonshine were a month and 4 days ahead which made me wonder why they were so far back and if I would ever catch up with them. I wanted to panic then, I wanted company and soon enough, a kid came by who was thru hiking. I can't remember his name, though I've been traveling with him for the last few days (just one of those circumstances where we don't really say each other's names) and we chatted a bit. He was off trail from Atkins too but because his girlfriend got off trail, Hoosier came around and we all soon said we'd hike together. We pushed a few more miles, Hoosier never showed up so I camped next to (I'll call him The Kid) The Kid's tent and decided we'd hit Chestnut Knob the next day.
I woke up and got some water from the river we camped near-- The Kid was leaving while I got water but he had been up for some time (his filtration process is pretty daunting, takes at least 20 minutes for a liter). I watched in the river as little minnows swam by, stuck in a bit pool in the river. After having adequate water, I decided it was time to take the 2,000 foot climb up to Chestnut Knob which is at 4409 feet. The climb up was daunting but it eased at the end-- when I got close to the top, I filtered water from a pond because I read a sign saying there was no water for 12 miles. I did 3 liters from a very poor source and was off on my way to the shelter.
Chestnut knob shelter would have been nice to sleep at to see the stars but I stayed only long enough to use my phone and eat some lunch. Someone left a big pack of peach rings and I ate a few, then soon saw an earwig in the bag and didn't have any more. Two hikers came up that I heard near the pond I filtered at-- one was a good ol' redneck boy with a button-up shirt he soon took off so that he could feel the mountain breeze-- the other a kid with shades who seemed a bit like my landlord in Nebraska-- nice fellow though and very calm, kind of Phil's attitude. I went down the mountain to Walker Gap and found a fine water source (so much for 12 miles, eh?) and soon after came to a gravel road where there was water from the Lutheran church. The Kid, The Redneck and Nebraska Landlord Doppleganger (I don't know any of these people's names) and I all sat and drank about a gallon worth of water before pressing on. It was downhill to the next shelter almost the entire way, when we got there, we met two southbounders who told us of great campspots three miles on. We pressed on and didn't find the campsite but wound up doing a full (and dare I say, easy) five miles to a campsite by a gravel road. On the way, we saw a mamma bear with two cubs-- I'm glad I had other people around or I would have been a bit scared. One cub went up a tree, another went off with the mom and we got off in a hurry. I settled in, put up my tent, read two chapters of my book and soon was off to sleep.
I woke up as The Kid got up and he was soon off doing his own thing, he filtered his water and was ready to go after 40 minutes, I took 10 to get ready and have water filtered. I wound up getting ahead of him this morning, made a few phone calls and hiked along and he never caught up, even after 30 minutes of waiting. I pressed on further and saw a huge deer run from the trail-- that marks 8 I've seen since I got back on in Atkins-- they are just EVERYWHERE at the moment. As I was hiking a few minutes later, I saw something running southbound on the trail at me-- I figured it was a big rabbit but a second later thought it was a fox and then very quickly realized it was the tiniest baby deer I'd ever seen. It stopped, I looked at it from 40 feet away and then it darted back the way it came. It was adorable.
Rolled in to a gravel route to get to route 52 and Bland and found The Kid a few steps behind me... after I made a ten minute phonecall. He was sweating worse than me (he is a bit heavy) and we stood around for a few minutes talking. I pressed on to the road while he made a phonecall and soon came in to Bland after getting a ride from a man in a red pickup truck. I didn't understand a whole ton of what he was saying but he seemed nice enough-- he told me how what I was doing was great and he really admired me. He told me his story: he worked his whole life, built a business and then his wife divorced him and went off with her boyfriend to take his whole business. He said if he knew that would have happened, he would have "put them both in the ground and told the judge the honest truth." I cracked up at that.
I got to Subway and ate a most majestic sub-- I tried the Italian Herbs and Cheese Bread this time and wound up drinking enough water to overflow the Amazon. I filled my smartwater bottle and found the damn foam ring was off again and now the filter was leaking. I sighed and tried a million different things to get it to keep from leaking but had no luck. I went to the dollar general, got some basic food for the next day and then tried to find the hardwear store. They didn't have any foam rings I could use, I was SOL for the moment. I figure I'll try for a new foam ring once i get into Pearisburg, VA-- they probably have a Wal-mart.
Got some bad news on my shoes but I'll be damned if they'll take 90$ from me. I'll fight Scheels to the grave. lol
Made it to the library which is pretty well-hidden, got on the computer and have been here ever since. it's been most wonderful hiking so far, my foot is feeling okay-- a little tender and with the so-called phantom pain but I'm going to pull through, I'm sure. Planning on some low mileage to combat the heat-- we're supposed to have temperatures in the upper-90's all of the way up to 100 degrees until Tuesday. I'm NOT looking forward to that.
Should hit Trent's grocery tomorrow or so, will get up super early to hike and pray that my water filter does ok. I really want to love the thing and I suppose I should have just used the bags I have-- ah well, sometimes the only way we learn is to make mistakes. :/
Til next time! :D
