Week Seven – Toads, and Horses, and Goats, Oh My!

Hey everyone! It’s been another busy week out here on the Appalachian Trail. We’ve had longer days of hiking and very limited cell service (hence the late post!), which has been pretty great! Here’s what’s been going on:

Day 42, Sunday April 30: We woke up in the Airbnb, and got moving pretty early in the morning. I got out of bed and made it the whole way across the room before I realized that I didn’t have any pain or even tightness in my feet and legs. My first thought was “Am I dead?” And then I realized that I was just experiencing the effects of a successful slackpack-and-zero weekend combo! I made a few extra peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Meadow and I to take on the Trail, and we all ate a breakfast of leftovers to clean up the fridge before we had to leave. We had a relatively short drive back to Dickey Gap where we were picked up on Friday. The weather was chilly and there was a slight drizzle as we stumbled out of Jerry’s car and collected our belongings before a quick group hug and heading back North on the AT. We heard few quick blasts on the car horn to signal their departure back home, and we once again hiked into the forest. We hiked for a total of about 15 miles, over rolling terrain and through intermittent rain all day. We briefly emerged from the forest into an open pasture during the day, and soon realized it was an active pasture. There were cows on the trail! We had fun ogling them as we passed through the herd. We also saw many salamanders on the wet trail, including some of the orange ones with blag and gold spots, and a small black one with white spots. After a tiring and wet day, we ended up at the Partnership Shelter, a two-story enclosed shelter next to the Mount Rogers National Recreational Area visitors center, maintained by the United States Forest Service. This shelter is popular because of its proximity to the Visitor Center–hokers can use the landline to order pizza or other delights from local restaurants. We had already packed (and carried!) dinner for that day so we decided to skip the pizza, but plenty of other hungry hikers at the busy shelter dined on pizza, burgers, and mozzarella sticks. Apparently the pizza was pretty terrible, even by Thru-Hiker standards. One hiker, in a thick (and genuine) Italian accent, said it was literally the worst pizza in the world…suddenly our dehydrated Walking Burrito didn’t look so bad!! The mezzanine second floor of the shelter stayed a little warmer since it was closed in, and we were able to escape the freezing temperatures for the night.

Day 43, Monday May 1: We woke up to a chilly and breezy day, and to threatening rain once again. We packed up our stuff and ate a quick breakfast of bars, and headed up the trail. We made a quick stop at the Visitor Center to fill up our water bottles from the potable water spigot outside, and scurried across the road to the trail beyond. We had a significant amount of climbing to do, and the miles didn’t come as easily today s they had the day before. We climbed again to the ridgetops and were rewarded with a view of Walker Mountain. The sun darted behind clouds often, making for an impressive light show but the wind stubbornly stayed frigid even when the sun was out.

We stopped for second breakfast at the next shelter about 7 miles in, and had our favorite trail snack of a peanut butter and tropical fruit wrap. We visited with Jeans and his friend (whose name escapes me) at the shelter, who were just section hiking for a few days. Jeans had never been backpacking before: the only pants he had with him were jeans, which is definitely one piece of apparel that you won’t ever see on a Thru-Hiker and hence his trail name. We had to change out of our shorts and into (real) hiking pants during our food break because the temperature seemed to be dropping and the wind was still biting cold. After finishing our snacks and moving on, we eventually crossed another road next to am old one-room schoolhouse. Apparently the 1800s school house was part of the nearby Settler’s Museum, and we went inside to take a look. There was a chalkboard with washable graffiti all over it, a tiny wood stove and desks for just a handful of students. A few Hiker Boxes were nestles in the back of the school, one with questionably old candy and the other with a few used sneakers, a raincoat, and a plethora of small bars of soap. We left the gifts there for the next hikers to peruse, and exited the schoolhouse to cross the road and the meadow beyond. After a few more miles, we caught up with Brother Mike who had stopped to take a lunch break just shy fi some train tracks. Just as we said our hellos an oncoming train announced its presence, and we resigned ourselves to waiting for the train to pass before continuing. The train was shorter than we expected, so this was not a tall order. Once we confirmed the train had passed we crossed the little bridge over a stream adjacent to the tracks and crossed the tracks. I still had the urge to look both ways before crossing! On the other side of the tracks I saw a very familiar plant–skunk cabbage–growing in the low lying area by the tracks and thereby signifying the presence of a wetland. There was a narrow elevated platform through the standing water to keep our feet dry, which was very much appreciated!

We hiked on through open meadows, leafy forests, and a Sunoco gas station parking lot, and eventually reached yet another very special milestone just before mile 550 on the trail…the 1/4 Mark!! We definitely celebrated again and enjoyed the progress we had been making. The temperature had continued to drop and the clouds rolled in, and we had several miles to go before our projected tentsite. We rushed on and eventually reached our destination, desperate to put more layers of clothing on and finish our evening tasks before the rain hit. We quickly set up the tent, hung our bear rope on the first try (go Meadow!), changed into our warmer layers, ate dinner, and hung the bear bag before diving into the tent. The rain started just a few minutes later, and it rained on and off for most of the night.

Day 44, Tuesday May 2: Although the tent was covered with rain droplets and the foot of my sleeping bag was partially wet, the sun was shining in a blue sky when we awoke around 6:30am. We ate our usual breakfast of a protein bar, but I must say the protein bar I ate on this particular day was more difficult to finish than usual. The cold temperature had rendered it stiff as a brick, and the “jelly doughnut” flavoring in the suspicious pink layer didn’t quite hit the mark. But it’s been about 25 years since I’ve been a picky eater, and even less so as a Thru-Hiker: the dubious “jelly doughnut” protein bar went down the hatch like all the other necessary calories. Although the sun seemed to do little to warm anything up, it was still great to see sunshine instead of rain! We hiked up and out of several valleys, always seeming to go right back into the next one, and crossed several more large pastures devoid of cows. There were large teepee-like ladders over the barbed wire fences we had to cross, which were tough to climb over with sore knees while attempting to maintain any semblance of balance. After a few miles of pasture we returned to the forest, where we saw some familiar purple flowers in a new lighter shade, and a poor dead luna moth on the trail. I have never seen a live luna moth, but several dead ones–it always makes me sad to see them dead, but their beautifully-patterned and almost furry wings are still marvelous to look at.

After hiking a few more miles, we came to a stream that normally had a bridge across it…but the bridge was gone. Apparently a bad rainstorm in March or April had completely washed it away. So we crossed the stream the old fashioned way: by fording. We changed out of our hiking socks and trail runners, put on our crocs, and I put my phone in a plastic ziploc bag–as if that would even help if I totally ate it and fell face-first in the stream. The water was absolutely frigid, cold enough to be painful, but luckily it wasn’t much more than ten inches deep and only about thirty feet wide. By the time I made it across and out onto dry land, I was cross-eyed with the pain from the cold and couldn’t keep myself from laughing hysterically. After a few seconds all systems normalized, and we changed back into our hiking footwear to keep on rolling. We had a significant climb of over 2,000 feet waiting for us on the other side of the river, which was much tougher than expected. By the time we got near the top, I was both sweating from the effort and freezing cold due to the wind, and exhausted. We had gone over 16 miles, and once we reached another rounded and exposed summit were rewarded with a view of the entire enormous valley. As soon as I turned around and saw the view, I forgot how tired, hot, and cold I was. Meadow told me I had a bloody nose, which I assumed was just from the crazy wind and probably dehydration if those things are even related…it was already dried and I didn’t even realize it was happening, so I just enjoyed the view!

Luckily we were almost done for the day. After another short mile or two, we came upon the Chestnut Knob Shelter, which is one of the few enclosed building-type shelters with actual doors that exist on the AT. We secured bunk space inside and absolutely reveled in the fact that we were out of the wind for the first time all day! Although it’s supposed to be below freezing overnight, being out of the wind makes all the difference. The wind buffeted the shelter walls and rattled the door, but that was nothing compared to what we would have heard had we slept in a flimsy ultralight tent. Around midnight a State Forest ranger drove up on an ATV and banged on the door to the shelter, shining a flashlight around. He announced who he was, and said someone named Brian had activated his SOS function on an emergency GPS. We all said we didn’t know a Brian but there were a few (crazy) people tenting on the edge of the forest a few hundred feet away and maybe it was one of them? The ranger left us and drove his ATV away, continuing the search for Brian. I wod here’s what could have happened to him and said a quick prayer before falling back asleep.

Day 45, Wednesday May 3: I awoke around 5:30am to the sound of precipitation hitting the roof and windows of our sanctuary shelter. It didn’t sound like rain…could that be snow? I laughed to myself about how ridiculous that was, and went back to sleep. When it was time to get up about an hour later, I realized it wasn’t so ridiculous after all…it was snowing. We ate our normal quick breakfast and headed back out into the extreme wind and cold. I realized quickly that it wasn’t really snowing, it was actually hailing small balls of ice. If the temperature had been a few degrees warmer it probably would have been raining, but I was actually glad for the cold so that the hail balls would bounce off my raincoat instead of soaking it. We laughed about how crazy it was to be snowing in May, but quickly realized that it wasn’t going to be a passing storm. We hiked along the ridgetop for almost four hours in the biting wind and hail, covering about 10 miles. We stopped only for a few minutes to eat another quick second breakfast just to keep our calories up. After a few hours, we started to get a little worried that the wind wouldn’t let up before we needed to take a break, but not moving didn’t seem like a good idea. My core temperature started to drop and my hands went numb without any hope of feeling returning. We passed a water source, and even though I had less than half a liter left there was no way I could afford to stop hiking to filter water. We kept pressing on, and eventually just after noon we began a slight descent into a valley…and the wind died immediately. Although the hail continued for a few minutes it thinned into sleet and then a fine mist, and also disappeared altogether. By the time we reached the next shelter by 12:30pm after 11 miles of hiking in the icy conditions, the sun was darting in and out of clouds cover. We cooked a lunch of grits and summer sausage (Heeeeere’s Johnsonville!), and filtered some more water at the nearby stream. By the time we headed back out onto the trail, it was mostly sunny but still a bit brisk from the wind. It was hard to believe that it had even rained that morning, let alone the wintry ice storm we had hiked in. Now that our fears of freezing to death on a windy ridgetop were behind us, we had quite a pleasant hike for the remaining 6 miles of the day. The ascents were relatively easy with delightful switchbacks instead of running straight up a ridge, and the dappled sun came through the tree cover to keep us just warm enough. We ended up pitching our tent at a trail junction with the Trail Boss trailhead, and once again got the bear bag hung on the first try (go me!).

Day 46, Thursday May 4: Happy Star Wars Day! I woke up in the tent after one of the best nights of sleep I’ve had on the AT so far. Upon emerging from the tent to retrieve the bear bags and do the morning ablutions, I was elated to see a blue sky and the rising sun was illuminating the forested valleys all around in a bright spring green. It was still in the 40s, but at least we wouldn’t be hailed on today! We packed up camp and ate our morning bars, agreeing that the morning was gorgeous despite the cold. About two miles into our hike for the day we passed our new friend Bluegrass, who had also just finished packing up his campsite and was headed to the Brushy Mountain Outpost for breakfast. He said it was a little country store and kitchen about 3 miles away, right on the trail…why not? We hiked the three miles and popped out on a gravel road, with a few white buildings scattered around a parking lot. The Brushy Mountain Outpost didn’t really have a sign on it, just a large road sign that said Yes Yes We’re Open!” The two store employees were outside smoking when we arrived, but upon us approaching the store they went inside. We were told to leave our backpacks outside, which still always makes me a little nervous, but we got our super stylish fanny packs out and left our backpacks leaning up against the wall by the door. We each ordered a sausage egg biscuit sandwich and some waffle fries, which were of course delicious. I tried to order a milkshake as well (who cares that it’s only 9:30am?!?), but they were out of milk so I just had a chocolate Yoohoo out of the cooler. The Yoohoo should have been a disappointing replacement for a milkshake but I really enjoyed it anyway; water and high fructose corn syrup never tasted so good! While we were eating Bluegrass showed up and ordered a bacon cheeseburger (who cares that it’s only 10am?!?), and shortly thereafter another of our new friends Blazes showed up. Blazes ordered a Mountain Burger, which according to the menu had a slab of fried bologna on it. The woman at the counter confirmed that he really liked bakogna before accepting his order, and after I saw the sandwich I understood why. It looked like the cheeseburger was sitting on top of a blackened wooden disc…the slab of fried bakogna was literally 1.25 inches thick and at least 6 inches across. Bluegrass saw the burger and his eyes went huge and his mouth fell open. He just said “Oh my God!” and stared for a few seconds. He eventually asked whether fried balogna was eaten up north in Pennsylvania, and I said “No, we don’t do that up north” while giving the burger side-eye. We were all eager to see how the burger was, but Blazes said he couldn’t eat it if we were staring at him, so we laughed and went back to our business of finishing our own meals and buying a few food items from the store to get us through another two days of hiking. Eventually we went back to our table and I snuck a peek at Blazes…he had only just managed to nibble off the ring of balogna that stuck out around the outside of the burger. We spent some more time laughing and talking, and I sound out that Blazes was listening to the Lord of the Rings trilogy via audiobook while hiking. He had just started The Return of the King as read by Andy Serkis himself (the actor who played Gollum via motion capture technology) who apparently was doing an amazing job voice-acting all of the characters. Blazes and I agreed that Faramir in the books was one of the best characters in the whole franchise, and the movies didn’t quite capture how significant he was. But we obviously also agreed that the movies were still amazing, of course. Meadow and I wrapped up our eating and resupplying and said goodbye to Bluegrass and Blazes before heading back out onto the sunny trail. We hiked a few miles before realizing that it was actually warm enough to hike in shorts and t-shirts, which was a real treat! We changed and were packing up our bags when we heard someone coming up the trail behind us…it was Blazes! I asked him how the balogna was sitting, and he said “Not too bad for now, but that shelter two miles ahead had BETTER have a privy!” He also stopped to change out of his winter layers, so we pressed on and didn’t see him again for the rest of the day…hope things at the shelter went well for him! We were treated to relatively easy terrain with little elevation change for most of the day, and so we hiked a total of 18.5 miles by about 5pm even with our restaurant stop and another longer break in the afternoon. The uphills were still hard work, even if they were short, but a fellow hiker Dapper Dan had put it this way a few weeks ago: It never really gets easier, you just go farther. We also passed the 600 Mile mark today! Towards the end of our hike we had to stop at a stream and filter water, and we were passed by a young man who asked us if we had seen the bear cub. We missed it! He showed us a photo of it and said it was about 5 miles back, and told us his name was Reset. We introduced ourselves as well and said goodbye. With full water bottles we pressed on another few miles before we both decided we were tired enough to stop, and when we created a small hill we found Reset setting up his tent in a clearing big enough for two tents. Meadow asked him if he minded if we joined him and he said no, so we did. Meadow set up the tent while I hung the bear bags…or tried to. After several unsuccessful attempts to get the rope over a good branch behind a dead tree, I accidentally got the rope stuck to the dead tree (just a trunk without any branches about 10 feet tall). I pulled the rope to attempt to free it from the dead tree, and the whole trunk fell over. Oops! But with the dead tree out of the way my chosen branch was even more of an ideal spot, and I got the rope exactly where I wanted it. Boom! We spent the rest of our relatively short evening chatting with Reset, who is an extremely kind young man with a slight stutter. When I asked him what line of work he was in, he answered simply “I cut meat,” which isn’t really what you want to hear from a tent neighbor in the middle of the woods. But then he explained that he works in the deli section of a Kroger, and also teaches tennis on the side. He played tennis competitively in college and would love to start a club and give private tennis lessons full-time. He attempted am AT Thru-Hike last year but injured his ankle and had to leave the trail, and he said that he’s been taking his time when going downhill to avoid rolling his ankle or worse. After chatting about our favorite foods on-Trail and off-Trail for way too long, we called it a night.

Day 47, Friday May 5: It was once again a frigid morning, freezing my hands to numb lumps within the first few minutes of hiking. However, the sun was shining and I knew we were in fir a warmer day than any in the last week. After about a half hour of hiking, Meadow and I saw two HUGE animals coming toward us on the trail! They were…horses? Mules? Sure enough, two loose work horses (or mules?) were ambling up the trail towards us, headed southbound on the AT. When they saw us they stopped, turned around, and started ambling northbound on the trail. They didn’t seem to mind us too much, but slowly walked up the trail stopping to eat the leaves off of saplings and other plants. Meadow called the local sheriff’s office to let them know there were two escaped horses on the trail, in case anyone called looking for them. We slowly followed the horses–who I named Brownie and Pecan Pie after the delicious desserts we had at Sarah’s restaurant last weekend–but we stayed at least twenty feet behind them at all times just in case they spooked easily. We followed them for about four miles, moving when they moved and stopping when they stopped, since they wouldn’t let us pass them even though we went into the woods to give them a wide berth. Every once in a while one of them would turn around and look at us, then just keep walking and eating. Brownie and Pecan Pie didn’t really slow us down too much, but the occasional stopping and starting again was rough on the feet! Eventually we passed from the marrow ridgetop trail to a sloping pasture to the east of the trail, and apparently that was the horses’ exit: they walked from the trail right into the pasture and never looked back. There’s no such thing as a “normal” day on the Appalachian Trail!

We hiked a few relatively easy miles and crossed an extension bridge over a wide river. We stopped to eat Second Breakfast and I decided to double up on oatmeals, springing for the strawberry coconut AND the chocolate peanut butter; both were seriously delicious! After a few more miles we saw a hand-etched wooden sign that said “Dismal Falls 0.3 Miles” with an arrow pointing or the left. We decided to go for it, since that was a relatively short side trail even for something that is dismal. The falls did not disappoint, and would have been an amazing place to visit, camp, and swim in during the summer (warmer) months.

We covered a few more miles before realizing that we were both hungry and almost out of water, despite crossing many streams throughout the day. We are a snack and drank the rest of our water, only to find another stream a few hundred feet ahead of us. Score! We also passed a lovely pond that actually had a few fish in it, perhaps stocked trout. The fish were 6 to 8 inches in length, and the water was clear enough you could see them swimming around in the entire pond.

After passing the pond, we knew we still had almost 6 miles to cover before arriving at our intended campsite, which included a climb of over 2,000 feet in elevation. Nothing to to bit start the climb, so we charged into it and raced to the top. We of course took a few breather breaks and drank more water than we had all day before, but we both agreed that the climb was difficult but we were better at “climbing hills” than when we started the Trail seven weeks ago. I should certainly hope so! After we made it to he top of the ridge, the landscape changed from a leaf-littered oak and rhododendron forest to tall thin maples with purple shale strewn across the trail and surrounding ground. We had about a two-mile ridgetop walk once we hit the final elevation, but we were both exhausted and so the trail seemed to stretch on for longer than two miles. We eventually reached our campsite at mile 622.8 after an 18-mile day, and sat for a few minutes before we could start the next task. The tent went up easy and the bear bag rope didn’t even put up a fight, which was a relief! After eating dinner, we planned out our next resupply locations, and Sleeping Bag O’Clock came by 8pm.

Day 48, Saturday May 6: I woke up to the sun shining on the tent just a touch later than usual, around 6:45am. Packing up camp went smoothly as usual, as we ate the rest of our food; the only thing left in my food bag was a few packets of salt and instant coffee. This made our packs extremely light as we hiked less than three miles to our resupply point: Woods Hole Hostel and B&B. We got to the gravel road just 0.5-mile from the hostel around 9:30am with the sun shining brightly above us. During the short walk down the road, we passed three people who all said “If you’re going to Woods Hole, you’re in for a treat!” or “You’re going to love it there!” When we rounded the corner and headed into the yard, I instantly fell in love. An old 1800s log cabin had been renovated and several other outbuildings built to make up the hostel/B&B, but my favorite part was in the front yard: beautiful raosed bed gardens with chard, spinach, broccoli, and other garden delights. A hand-painted sign on the garden fence said “The Wonder Garden: I Wonder What We’ll Harvest Today?” We found the owner, a short but vibrant woman with gardening dirt on her hands, and she asked us if we wanted a loaf of homemade bread and a block of cheese to eat. Physically unable to resist, in a few minutes we found ourselves seated on the beautiful porch, eating delicious bread and the biggest hunk of muenster cheese I’d ever seen, and watching hummingbirds at the feeders as the wind blowed through the hanging baskets of flowers. She gave us a to-go bag for bread and cheese leftovers, but let’s just say we didn’t need a bag. There was a scale on the porch, and I was curious about how much my weight had changed since the beginning of the Trail. Turns out I’ve only lost a pound or two, but since my hiking pants are dangerously loose at this point I was pretty sure that I had still been shrinking but gaining muscle mass. We stopped into the resupply closet and picked up what we needed, writing everything down on a piece of paper before heading back to the main house and paying for our purchases and the bread and cheese. By the time this was all over, I was a little disappointed that we hadn’t previously decided to stay at the hostel–ot was absolutely gorgeous and so relaxed, and I could have easily spent a week there! But there were miles to cover, and perhaps returning to Woods Hole to learn more about its history and enjoy the surrounding area could be a future trip to look forward to.

After resupplying for five more days of hiking, our packs were heavier than they had been in quite some time. I felt the immediate strain on my knees and feet as we headed back to the trail, and reminded myself many times throughout the day to be more conscious of how I was walking. The miles came relatively slowly after our long break at Woods Hole, but we forged ahead to cover a total of 18 miles on-Trail, plus an additional mile back and forth to the hostel. We had relatively easy terrain for most of the day, crossing through a huge power line right of way and walking along a ridgetop for several miles, the trail lines with wildflowers, spearmint, and some other plant with an herb-like aroma that we couldn’t identify. After a sharp descent towards the town of Pearisberg, when we had about 4 miles left, we crossed a road and saw a few folks packing up some large gray bins into their cars. As we got closer they stopped packing up and said they had Trail Magic! The pulled out a few chairs from their cars, and we were treated to White Claws, cold water, fresh fruit (AMAZING!!), chips, cookies, and doughnuts. We learned that Rachel, a young woman whose trail name is Dirty Pasta, had Thru-Hiked the AT in 2022. Her father Brian, trail name But First, had so much fun doing trail Magic for her last year that he wanted to do it again this year for other hikers. He still had his old “Dirty Pasta Cafe” sign propped against his car from when he would meet his daughter on the trail last year. We talked about how we left our jobs to Thru-Hike, what we’ve found to be the most interesting and beautiful aspects of the trail, and other things. Brian told us that the Shaw Hostel in Monson, Maine was one of the best hostels we could stay at right before the 100 Mile Wilderness, and we told him we’d look out for it. It was so clear the Brian was proud of his daughter for hiking last year, and he told us that what we were doing was inspiring. “So many people go their whole lives without doing anything courageous and different, it’s just great that you’re out here.” Looking back at my decision process for doing the trail, I’m almost ashamed of how close I came to saying ‘no’ to this opportunity. It has already been a life-changing experience, and I’m so grateful to be out here–taking the plunge in the first place was the first real Victory! After letting our copious snacks settle whole talking to Brian for a while, we said our thank yous and helped him load his car up so he could begin his two-hour drive back home. We slogged up an ascent of over 1,000 feet to end a hot and sweaty day of hiking around 6:30pm, our longest day yet!

Day 49, Sunday May 7: First, I’d like to give a huge shout-out to all of the runners participating in the Pittsburgh Marathon Run for a Reason, raising money for Open Hand Ministries. I hope you had a great race!! We woke up to sunshine, and had a delightful breakfast of a peanut butter wrap. We started our daily hike with a short ascent, and at one point Meadow stopped to look excitedly at a pile of leaves. I wondered what she was excited about, starting to worry that she had a concussion from bumping her head on a tree yesterday…until I saw one of the leaves had eyes and legs. Meadow had seem a giant toad! He was sitting proudly beside the trail, and we checked him out respectfully before moving on.

After a few miles of ridge walking, we passed into a field with a few goats sitting peacefully to the side of the trail. As we approached, they watched us carefully, and I started to get uneasy that they might not be friendly. I said “Hi!” in the cheeriest voice that I could, prompting the goats to stand up immediately and charge us. They made beelines for our legs and started ravenously licking us for the salt, which caused us to laugh hysterically because it felt so weird. After a few seconds of licking and laughing, the goats started dripping get a little more zealous and ebgan to nibble instead of just lick–which we did not appreciate! I knew it was time to go when one bit me on the butt. The goats ran after us, even following us in single file as we reentered the lush forest with a narrow path. A trail runner, who looked a lot like Santa if he were into CrossFit, ran past us as I called “Watch out for the goats!” As he spied the parade of goats following us, his eyes became wide and his mouth fell open, saying “You guys have an interesting Tramily!” Which made us laugh even more. After a mile or so the goats lost interest in chasing us for our salty legs, and we pulled ahead.

A few minutes after the goats had left us, we heard our first peal of thunder. Not fifteen minutes later we were caught in a torre tial downpour, with thunder booming every thirty seconds or so for over twenty minutes. There wasn’t much wind, so we stayed warmer than we might have otherwise bit that also meant the storm was very slow-moving. We raced along the ridgetops feeling dangerously close to the clouds (and lightning), every flash giving me a wave of relief that it didn’t actually hit us. Just as I was thinking we should probably head down the ridge to find some cover, the rain began to taper off and the thunder became more distant and less frequent. We eventually headed down the ridgetops into a valley to find a shelter that we had planned on stopping at–just as the sun came out. We hung up all of our soaked belongings to dry in the damp shelter as best they could, and shared a pleasant evening with the folks who came to take shelter with us: Long John, Veggie, Suntory, and a few others.

This week definitely felt busier than most, partially due to the longer hiking days. Every day certainly still feels like an adventure, and the hard work always seems to pay off in one way or another! Next week we’ll be working our way towards the Virginia Triple Crown of mountain peaks: the Dragon’s Tooth, McAfee Knob, and Tinker Cliffs. There’s always something more to look forward to, and we’ll keep on moving forward.

Thanks for stopping by!