Category: 2018 Appalachian Trail

I didn’t want to get up, but I heard everyone else moving around. I stuck my head out of the tent just in time to see that Blue and Gnome already had their hammocks down. PC was all packed up and ready to go. It was only 7:30 and no one in this group has ever shown signs of early starts before. I looked up at the sky and saw nothing but dark clouds. The shits are all afraid of a little rain.

My wife has taught me one thing for certain when hiking—the mornings are not to be rushed (unless you are illegally sleeping in a farmers field and you hear a tractor starting). I took my time making breakfast and packing up. Even so, I was not the last one out of camp at 9. Blue took that honor.

Gnome was only about 10 minutes ahead of me so I thought I’d catch up with him fairly soon. I saw an older guy with long white hair ahead of me and thought “that was quick” only it wasn’t Gnome—it was Vagabond Jack whom I haven’t seen since Damascus. That also means Curb is not far ahead. We walked together for a bit as I confirmed how much more I like him than Little Blue when out of nowhere, a blue blur passes us. Have I hurt the little guys feelings? After all the effort I’ve put into showing him pony pictures and telling him how great the chili dogs were yesterday, I’d hate to alienate him.

Little Blue was driving the day since he had to stop in Woods Hole Hostel to pick up a package. When I initially saw the sky, I was thinking a hostel might be a good thing for the night and I had decided to stay there. RTK had told us this was a “must” on the AT. Vagabond Jack told me he and Curb were spending the night and I said at least I would join them, but I thought the weather might help recruit the other three.

We all caught up with each other for lunch at Wapiti Shelter. Since it was already drizzling and cold, it didn’t take much effort to change minds. Little Blue was the last hold out (and it was because of him we were even thinking about going there). PC and I started telling of the home grown organic food reputation of the place and the fact that this is THE oldest hostel on the trail. Everyone was in. The only problem was lack of phone signal to get reservations. We all agreed that Blue would make the phone call when we got signal so we were good to go.

The only things between us and the hostel were a couple of 2,000’ climbs, 7 miles, and a steady, cold rain. We couldn’t see our breaths, but it was close; my thermometer was reading 40. Curb was the first to head out from the shelter followed by me and Gnome. We assumed Jack would play cleanup since he claims to be the slowest hiker on the trail, but he now has competition from PC. PC is not afraid to take his time, sit down and contemplate life, or even take a wrong turn here and there. He has no pressure at all, he’s already summited Katahdin.

Curb, Gnome, Blue, and I all walked into the hostel together. As soon as we stepped on the porch, the rain got real. This turned out to be the best call we had made to date. Curb and Vagabond had a private room in the main house (a potential love nest, but Curb is a one woman man) while the rest of us got beds in the bunkhouse. There were wood burning stoves in the house and bunkhouse so all was good.

We climbed the ladder to the upper level and found Sunshine wrapped up in her sleeping bag. She was up there trying to hide from the home made chewy bars downstairs—she’d already had two and couldn’t trust herself to be on the same level with them. I went down to warm up by the stove and try one as well. She made the right call.

There were 19 of us for supper in the big house. Neville is a spiritual person and is very aware of her reputation on the trail as being a famous hostel that her grandparents started. Before dinner, we all held hands and were silent for a bit before we shared our trail names, where we were from, and something we are thankful for. I was standing next to Blue. It’s hard for a guy to stay mad at you when you are holding hands. I’ve been forgiven.

EFG

The word for today was magical. Everything just fell into place for an ideal day on the trail. I didn’t get in the miles that I may have hoped for but it’s not all about the miles. As usual, I had plans. And as usual when I have plans, they change. It was my goal to get to Pearisburg in two days to try and narrow the distance between Stickers, Lady Bug, and me so when Bunny gets back on the trail, we will still be around people we know.

When PC walked into the shelter last night, we could hear him having a conversation with someone but couldn’t tell who it was. He arrived at the shelter all alone. This morning when Gnome and I got going right after Detail had left, we saw some gear off to the side of the trail that we recognized—it was Little Blue. He was on the phone with his dad and said he’d be a few minutes behind us (we heard the same thing 4 days ago and this was the first we have seen him since). We climbed on ahead knowing we wouldn’t see him again today.

Up on the ridge, we heard voices behind us, but not Blue’s. This turned out to be a couple of women we hadn’t seen before. They had a couple of dogs with them and were not overly talkative. They went on ahead while we waited for Blue. We finally caught a glimpse of him and decided to push on since he was on the move—he might catch up, but he was still on the phone.

Other than making it to Wapiti Shelter which is just about half way to Pearisburg, I had the other goal of making it to Trent’s Grocery for a resupply box Bunny and I had sent forward from Marion and a greasy burger (after all, I am wasting away to nothing—I should be down to my target way before New Hampshire). Gnome and I decided to take the plunge and try hitchhiking the half mile to town. I reluctantly put out my thumb at the first passing car AND GOT A RIDE! I am now, officially, an accomplished hitchhiker.

The couple that picked us up was Bob and Tammy Young. They had been further north for a wedding and were returning home. They still live south of where we are, but they were not in any hurry. They were dressed very well and were just returning from church. We talked with them much longer than it would have taken us to walk into town, but they were so nice to us we had a hard time leaving them. They have the desire to hike the AT at some point in the future (I think Bob would go now, but Tammy is not quite ready). If Bunny had been here, she would have been able to convince them the time was right.

Other than the mail drop and burger, I was hoping to borrow a cell phone with a signal so I could call and check up on what was happening with Bunny’s dad and when she is coming back. I ordered my burger, but they were out! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? How can they be out of burgers when that’s what they are known for? I settled for a couple of chili dogs instead—heaven knows, healthy foods were not an option either way; they are a gas station and I’m a hiker.

While waiting for our food, Little Blue and PC walked in together. The girls we had passed were outside as well as some other hikers we hadn’t met. Blue came in to order a burger—ha ha. Next he tried chili dogs—ha ha. I got the last ones. I told him how great they were and showed the “loser at pony love” the pictures of me hugging the ponies up at Thomas Knob Shelter (just in case he had forgotten the other three times I showed him).

We were all sitting at the tables talking and eating when I asked to borrow a phone so I could call my wife. Everyone graciously offered their phones for my use since they all claimed to already have the number in their favorites list. I borrowed Blue’s and dialed the number—an entry came up labeled “Easy Bunny.” He claimed that it was just a mixture of our names and not a description of my wife. When she does get back to the trail, we have to talk.

Bunny’s dad is doing much better and is his old self once again. I’m assuming that is a good thing. He didn’t have a stroke but was sleep deprived which caused the dementia he had been worried about to flare up out of control. They cleaned up his CPAP, put him on sleeping meds, and he’s doing well. There will be more testing in the future, but as long as he gets proper rest, he should be fine. Bunny will be coming back this week.

PC was advocating not pushing on to the next shelter and taking the side trail to Dismal Creek Falls to camp for the night. He can be quite persuasive and is a lot of fun to hang around with, so we all agreed to the plan. We all bought some party favors for the night (mine being a 12 pack of Busch Beer—its a gas station not a liquor store). We only had two miles to hike in so I could handle the extra 15# of alcohol and resupply weight I gained.

I was getting a bit cocky with my earlier hitchhiking success. I noticed two pickup trucks in the parking lot and waited for the winning driver to appear. When the first guy out that approached his truck came up, I asked if he would be so kind as to drive me and my three friends out to the trail head. I played up Blue’s recent ankle problems and Gnome’s obvious elder status, but I pointed out the benefit the rest of the community would feel by getting PC out of town ASAP. One look at PC and he said climb on in.

He dropped us off at the parking lot, and, could things get any better? Sunshine’s family (one of the hikers we had just met at the gas/grocery/fish tackle/alcohol/deli/tanning store) was set up in the parking lot giving trail magic. We were all full and carrying too much weight, but FREE FOOD! We were in and they were pushing it. I got another pound or two of protein bars, crackers, jerky, and fruit. They had to take off to meet another sister driving to Atlanta and we needed to get going to set up camp and reduce our pack weights. If we didn’t get moving, there was danger I was going to pop a beer in the parking lot.

It was two miles to the turn for the falls. I thought we were making decent time, but not great. I had read in one of the log books that the sign for the turn had been torn down so we would need to be careful to not miss the trail. Blue said let’s wait a little longer because there was no way we had covered two miles, going uphill (in the snow, both ways) in just 45 minutes. As Bunny will attest, when I get my anal on, I’ve got to see the map. We stopped 50 feet shy of the trail to check the map.

Heading down the side trail, we ran into a work crew cutting the rhododendrons back and clearing the path. It was les than a half mile of easy walking to the falls. Just before we got down there, we ran into Dicey sitting in the woods. We tried to talk her into coming down with us, but she looked shell shocked. She said there were too many people there and she wasn’t going down. Blue explained that she is very introverted and has just started talking to him after he had been trying to get her to loosen up for the last month. We continued on down and there were over 10 day hikers, but they were soon gone.

We set up camp below the falls then went up to soak our feet in the water while chilling with some beer, wine, and strawberry Kool aid shots Blue had procured. After a bit, we returned to our camp to cook supper and enjoy the campfire Gnome had built. I did hang a bear rope, but everyone convinced me we were safely tucked away out of bear territory. Any bear that would get me would have to get by all the other three before it could get to me—I was surrounded by Gnome to my left, Blue in front, PC to my right, and a cliff to my back. I discovered the greatest danger of keeping the food bags in your tent at night is not bears, but late night munchies can now be satiated.

EFG

I wasn’t willing to risk the “everyone wants to leave Bland” theory to catch a ride back to the trail, so I got up about 7:30 and went down to the motel office to check into rides. I knew this was the hotel where Detail had planned on staying last night, so I figured out anyone dainty enough to have to have a shower after just 4 days would also be unwilling to trust his luck to hitching. I was right. I met Detail in the office and discovered he had a ride all arranged. I offered to help reduce his cost by sharing the ride.

When the driver arrived (not Bubba even though it was Bubba’s Shuttle he had called), he said he’d take us first since we were going further away from his house and Detail was wanting to go closer to the driver’s house. I didn’t reduce his cost—I had stolen his ride. I’ve managed to do something similar to Vagabond Jack twice before; I’ve stolen his bed from him. At Doe River Hostel, I got him kicked out of his own double bed so we could have a private room. At Boots Off Hostel, I took the last cabin just as he was sitting down to cool off before registering. I’m becoming very popular on the trail.

Brushy Mountain Outpost only serves breakfast until 10:30 which we easily made. Detail will have to settle for lunch after his later ride followed by a 7 mile walk. I’ve been craving biscuits and gravy ever since all the Europeans last year told me it reminded them of snot. I followed up breakfast with a thick chocolate shake to make sure I had enough energy for today’s hike. Buckeye and Knee Deep came in as we were leaving. I left a note for Little Blue in the log and saw that Stickers and Lady Bug had been in a couple days ago—I keep losing ground to them. At least Patches is still behind me.

There was a short road walk down the hill and across the interstate before we got back into the woods. The creek that we were not supposed to drink out of looked pretty nice until I saw the signs about not dumping deer carcasses in the trash cans or creek and saw the water pouring in off of the interstate above. I never though deer dumping of body part was an issue anyplace. On the bright side, there was no warning about dumping human remains, yet.

I forgot to fill up my water at the hotel so we had to stop at the shelter. The other nice thing about shelters in VA is the presence of privies which I took full advantage of. My window of opportunity had not been open at the motel. Now, thanks to the 5 cups of coffee I have had and the 2 miles of walking, I was at the peak of awareness. The water was another quarter mile downhill from the shelter which was a quarter mile off of the trail. I earned us another mile of not counted walking today.

This was the second beautiful day in a row for us. Maybe spring is finally here. We saw more green today than we have, but not tremendous amounts of flowers yet. The only hikers we saw the first 8 miles was a family asking us how far it was to the outpost. The couple had 4 children in tow and were just day hiking. I gave them the sad news that they still had 5 miles to go and that it closed at 2 on Saturdays. They felt confident it would be open when they got there even though it was already past 1—his parents were the owners and he had called to tell them not to leave before they arrived.

The next road crossing held a surprise for me. I knew we were getting close, but since I haven’t been checking the guidebooks I didn’t realize how close. The Appalachian Trail is now officially my longest hike to date as we crossed the 600 mile mark today. Bunny will be somewhat behind and I don’t know how I’m going to figure out her mileage when she gets back. I’ve walked the entire trail up to now while he is skipping this section for now. I guess I’ll restart her odometer when she returns but will eventually add in her first 550 miles when she completes the skipped section. I guess she will be 600+ miles behind me the rest of the way to Katahdin. (This combined with the bad weather bypass she cowardly took and the 2 100’ sections she has skipped may be just the fuel I need to convince her too yo-yo from Katahdin in a few years).

We still made it to Jenny Craig Shelter at a very reasonable time today—between 5 and 5:30. This way, we were able to do all the chores (set up, get water, hang bear bags, cook, eat, and clean up) all well before dark. While Gnome and I were relaxing upon arrival, Detail caught up with us. After we finished everything up, a new person, PC, arrived. PC had thru-hiked last year, but skipped a few hundred miles in VA and was making up those miles now. This is only his 4th day on the trail. He started when Bunny left.

EFG

By the time Mark cooked us breakfast, we ate it, played with the dog, tossed the cat, and talked conspiracy theories about everything gone wrong in our country, it was almost 10 by the time we got up to the trailhead. We got stuck behind a slow moving car on the way up which turned out to be Gary from Ohio who was doing trail magic in the teepee yesterday. He offered us water but we were already full. He claimed that it was too cold for his propane to work yet.  We later discovered that it always happened to work if there was a female hiker passing (even out here on the trail women still have cush lives).

It was a beautiful clear day, but still very crisp.  We walked the first several miles along the rim of Burkes Garden. Seen from the sky, Burkes Garden is called God’s thumbprint because it looks just like a giant pressed his thumb into the mountain range. This is really just a sink hole 4 miles wide and 8 miles long. The subterranean make up is limestone and over the eons (I’m guessing since I’m not a geologist) caverns formed in the limestone from groundwater passing through. Eventually enough limestone was carried away that a gigantic cave formed which eventually collapsed under the weight of the overhead mountains. From above, the terrain looks level, but when you are down in “the garden” it’s actually rolling hills. This is the highest valley in the state of Virginia.

We were expecting a lot more celebrants on this NPR recognized holiday (the next step towards legalization) but we didn’t see anyone—so much for the AT being one giant party. The only sign of life we saw was some fur a black bear left behind on the trail. Apparently, all life forms have to decided to celebrate by staying indoors and chilling rather than getting out. Hopefully, “Hike Naked Day” will have higher participation levels.

A few hikers (Knee Deep, Detail, and Buckeye) did catch up with us at a road crossing. Detail wanted to spend the night inside to get a shower and do some laundry. He must be a little dainty because we found out it had only been 3 or 4 days since his last shower. Gnome and I wanted to push on so we could be close enough to Brushy Mountain Outpost so we could grab some breakfast in the morning (we were still almost 7 miles away).

When Bunny left me, she took the phone thinking that I had the Guthook App and the AWOL pdf versions on her iPad and they would work. The gps doesn’t work on her iPad unless I’m connected to WiFi so I don’t consult it much. In this case, if I had consulted it, I would have seen that we didn’t have a water source between where we were and the outpost. If I had put my pack down to get out the iPad, I might also have noticed I was almost out of water and I may have filled up. I didn’t get out the iPad so I quickly ran out of water or know that we didn’t have any ahead. We just kept walking trying to find a water source to stop by for the night.

Without planning to, we hiked all the way to the Brushy Mountain Outpost. It closes at 6. We didn’t get there until 6:20 and we were both out of water. We considered our options. If there was water available near the outpost, we could camp right here. I walked around the building and couldn’t find a spout. I walked across the street and checked the church with similar results. The houses around the area had that not lived in, possible crack house look to them so we had to decide on a plan b.

There’s a creek in less than a mile, but the guidebook says not to drink the water out of it (we are right next to an interstate and assume that’s the reason). If we continue on, it’s 2 more miles to the next shelter and safe water. Plan C. I am 54 years old, but I have never hitched a ride (a little deceptive statement: Bunny and I tried for a few minutes in France last year but quickly stopped when we realized that if we were successful, we probably wouldn’t be able to communicate with the driver, so we decided to grab a bus instead). Gnome says he used to hitch all over the country so he talks me into flagging down a car for a ride to the glorious town of Bland.

Up go the thumbs with the result being that cars not only didn’t slow down, they crossed the double yellow lines courting a head on collision as an emphatic display of “Hell no we are not giving you a ride.” Gnome suggested that we start walking towards Bland as a display of seriousness to the passing cars—he said we’d surely get a sympathy ride this way. A half mile later, he decided to share the story of him getting shot while hitching in Ohio. From that point on, I tried to put a little more distance between us on the shoulder and I quit putting out my thumb—I decided to switch to hands folded in prayer at each passing car to appeal to the southern Christians to save me from the hippy following my down the road; equally successful to the thumb.

In the end, we walked all the way into Bland, VA (which is the most aptly named town in the world). We checked into a bland hotel and ordered a tasteless pizza for supper. The walk into town turned out to be twice the distance we would have walked to the next shelter where we could have stayed for free. We were lucky enough that there were plenty of rooms available at the Big Walker (18 of 20 rooms available—there’s not a bland convention happening right now). Gnome assured me we would be able to easily hitch a ride back to the trail head in the morning since everyone in their right mind would want to get out of Bland as quickly as possible.

EFG

Gnome and I were looking around the Shelter last night and we noticed that the roof was cabled to the building. Now after sleeping in it last night, we know why—without those cables, the roof would have been gone. It was the strongest winds I have experienced since the night on the GR10 last year that we were convinced the steel structured building was taking off. Even the mice were too scared to bother anything—we found them all locked together and holding on to a block to keep from blowing away. The door to the shelter kept blowing open and slamming shut until one ingenious former engineer decided he had had enough and wedged a broom into the handle and frame (after returning from his 4th inspection trip out) to keep it closed. Was this followed by applause from the other 5 inhabitants? No, they only yelled “Will you get your ass in bed and stay there?” Who needs Bunny when so many people are ready and willing to fill in for her!

I was contemplating a 15-20 mile today until I went outside to see that we had 10’ of visibility in the fog and I could see my breath (no, it was legitimate. I brushed my teeth last night; it was cold, again). I went back inside and back to bed until nearly everyone had left. I asked Gnome what he thought and we agreed—it was over 70 yesterday; 35 today with dropping temperatures. We signed up for the distance, rain, occasional cold weather, maybe even a light snow, but this is a crock of horse sh. A hostel sounds good today, and there is one in less than 6 miles.

We took our time eating breakfast and getting ready. Other people trickled in and out of the shelter to get warmed up (there was a very warm drawing of a fire where the fireplace used to be). This is how we found out that the family of 8 we had been hearing so much about was less than a mile behind us. We decided to wait for them to catch up before we left.

The first kids started drifting in a little after 9. The youngest sets the pace for the entire family. The parents come in last with dad carrying the baby on his back. When I saw the dad, I realized I knew this family. All along I thought it might be this family, but I knew they only had 5 kids—the 6th is an addition since the last time I had seen a video of theirs. When Bunny and I were planning our trip to Mt Rainier a few years back, we watched a series of videos on YouTube about a family with 5 kids hiking the Wonderland Trail. (Bunny thought it might be too much for her so I showed her this family doing what she though she couldn’t do—it worked). Their 6th child is named Rainier.

Gnome was very emotional about meeting the family. Like me, he thinks what they are doing is fantastic. Their oldest daughter will soon be going to college so they wanted an opportunity to fully bond together one more time. I think Gnome wishes he could have done something like this with his kids when they were young. He’s also missing his kids because he hasn’t seen them for a while. And he thinks the parents are doing a great job of parenting. They have taken a lot of heat for bringing the kids out, but the kids are all smart, friendly, and clearly enjoying themselves.

We leapfrogged with the family all the way up to the gap where we were getting off. We had heard there was magic at the gap, but it was gone when we got there. Gnome was lucky enough to get a signal on his phone (AT&T which sucks along the trail, but it’s better than my phone, since I don’t have one) and get a shuttle to the hostel. By the time the owner showed up, we were both freezing cold. The temp today had steadily dropped from 35 down to 30. I’m through with miserable nights.

When we got down to the hostel in Burkes Garden (a 4 mile by 8 mile sinkhole in the middle of the mountains), the owner built us a fire where I’ve been sitting ever since. We get dinner and breakfast here, so my food supply will not be depleted. At present, I should have enough food to make it to Shenandoah National Park if Bunny doesn’t make it back. I will have to buy more fuel, though. I have not bought fuel since Gatlinburg when I jokingly said I had enough to make it to Damascus. Boy, was I wrong, Damascus was 100 miles back and I’ve still got a day or two left.

With my parents moving into independent living, I’ve been thinking about some things that have happened over the years. My dad’s first name is Haldon. One year, his coworkers and he all decided to get subscriptions to Playboy. He filled out the card and sent it in. The subscription department transposed the “L” for an “R”. For the next 13 months (baker’s dozen) we got a plain brown sleeve addressed to “Hardon Himstedt.”

EFG

Bunny made it home before 5 yesterday. Her dad had already been discharged from the hospital and was home, waiting for her to get there. All I know is that he’s getting back to his old self. Since I’m not allowed a phone of my own, I will be out of contact until Pearisburg. Ignorance is bliss. (2+2=5, war is peace, freedom is slavery, etc.)

I didn’t sleep very well last night. The hostel doesn’t provide pillows or sheets for the bunkhouse so I just couldn’t get comfortable. There’s the added possibility that Bunny’s absence played into my lack of sleep (but I don’t want her to get a swelled head about it). I gave up on sleep well before 7 and made me some breakfast—I was famished because I didn’t eat any supper last night. (No Bunny complaining about starving to death so I didn’t eat). I did make two cowboy pizzas for lunch yesterday, so I wasn’t really hungry.

Since it was just me, my pack was packed all night, I was up before 7, I was able to hit the trail at the startlingly early hour of 9. Bunny made me promise to go slow and I only had a little over 11 miles to go today; what’s the point of rushing. I was convinced I would not see anyone I knew today—they are all 1-2 days ahead. Feeling a little glum, I turned off the road to get back on trail. Not 50 yards in, I hear “Hey, Easily Forgotten, over here.” It was Little Blue and Gnome on the other side of the creek.

We talked for a bit since we hadn’t seen each other for a few days (there’s always trail gossip). Gnome took off while Blue and I chatted a little longer trying to decide where everyone we know is. I eventually left Blue so he could eat and pack up. I caught up with Gnome in about a mile and we walked together the rest of the day. We were expecting Blue to catch up with us before we made it to Chestnut Knob Shelter—but we never saw him again.

We took our time and stopped for several snacks along the way. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I am eating for two these days (only out of necessity to lighten my load). We saw no one all day, so we fully expected the shelter to be empty. Imagine our surprise when we went in to find three sleeping sobo section hikers. The two old men got the top bunks. Eventually Soldier turned up to take the last spot. He told us Blue was camping and he had spent last night camping with Patches. As far as I can tell, Dirty R and Grape Stomper are further back.

I have one small (I hate to use the word “small” with this discussion) concern with my plan to walk into the woods naked when I am about to die. What if a dog were to grab my “package,” take it home, and drop it on the porch? If it were recognized as mine people might read more into it and think “Now we know why he got divorced,” and “Poor Bunny.” I will be unable to shout from the great beyond “it’s just shrinkage!”

In retrospect, it probably wasn’t a good idea to get the tattoos “Reward Offered” and “for the safe return and reattachment to Curtis Himstedt”—I was very stressed out by the whole Lorena Bobbitt episode (for those who don’t remember, she cut her husband’s off while he was sleeping and threw it out of her car window. It hit a pedestrian in the head making him cock-eyed). The tattoos are above each other on me, lengthwise, with “Reward offered” above the rest (no, I’m not hung like John Holmes. It was more of an old classified news print style, very small and fine. As a side note, the top of the foot is NOT the most painful location for a tattoo).

Anyone who has had a tattoo or seen an old tattoo knows, the ink disperses over time, so I doubt if anyone will be able to read my name. In fact, with the ink spreading, it now looks like I’ve merely underlined the words “Rewood ordered.”

With all the excitement we’ve been having with Bunny’s dad, we barely noticed what has been happening with my parents. My dad will turn 86 this year and he’s afraid he will fail the required driver’s license written test. To that end, he has decided it is time to move into an independent living space. My mother is showing signs of Alzheimer’s with almost no short term memory retention. Fortunately, she has also become extremely lovable and sweet, always ready with a hug and kiss for everyone. My brother has made a couple of trips up from Florida to help them find a place, and this week, to move them in. During the last month, they have sorted out what they want to keep and gotten rid of everything else. They even sold their house without even having to list it. With it being so easy, we are convinced this is how things are meant to be.

My mom keeps asking me when we’re going to come visit. I keep telling her that all depends on Bunny—she walks slow and now she’s going to have to make up a couple hundred miles before we will be done. “Well, tell her to walk faster.” I do, mom. Every f’n day. I do.

EFG

Bunny and I talked things over when she got back from talking to her mom and daughter. We decided she needs to get back and make any necessary arrangements/decisions for her parents care whatever the situation may turn out to be. However, any input from me into the situation would not be welcome by the family as I am so new to the fold. I will continue to hike the AT, solo.

On Monday, we got a ride from the Hostel owner into Wytheville, VA to rent a car from Enterprise (it’s only fitting since we have run into so many red-shirted crew members along the trail). Bunny left me all alone in Virginia first thing Tuesday morning so she could head home to help out her mother deal with her dad. Who knows how long she’ll be gone.

She’s only been gone less than 12 hours and I am the dirtiest and smelliest I have been the entire trail (and I just had a shower and did laundry yesterday). I have not been on an overnight hike without Bunny for the last 8 1/2 years. I’m scared, I’m lonely, I’ve soiled myself, and I haven’t even left the hostel yet. On the bright side, I may lose some weight now that I don’t have Bunny pestering me to feed her.

Assuming I survive until she is able to rejoin me on the trail, we will come back and make up the section of trail she misses after we finish up on Katahdin—she is not as CDO as I am about the trail (I find it necessary that all things are in the proper order—both the trail and three letter abbreviations). Though I walk in the valley of death (lions and tigers and bears, oh my) I fear all shadows but I’ll be damned if I let a little electrical storm scare me.

My death wish has always been to be aware enough of my impending demise to strip off all of my clothes and walk deep into the woods to allow the animals free access to consuming my body—“leave no trace” if you will. If you hear of a naked man on the AT, have no fear, I’ve always been forward thinking.

EFG

The main reason we didn’t push on last night was because rain was in the forecast for last night and today. I didn’t feel like packing up in the rain which it would most definitely had done if we had decided to camp. Since we stayed in a shelter, it held off. Everyone outside last night owes us a debt of gratitude and $10 each for the rain delay. And it was only a delay.

Bunny set the alarm for 6:30 and only snoozed once—she was serious about an early start. We only made coffee and ate a cold breakfast before hitting the trail at 7:30. This would have been a near record start for us if only Bunny would just stop imagining Wal-Mart parking lots wherever she looked. Not 15 minutes down the trail, we had to step off the white blazes so Bunny could brown blaze.

We caught up with Geo, Summit, and Bear Foot quickly thereafter. Being motivated by what we thought was a weed whacker (but turned out to be some very loud power lines) we found another way to get Bunny to move quickly down the trail. She will truly earn her name of Bunny before this trip is over. There was a sign in the trail saying trail magic ahead in the one room school house. As we got nearer, we saw a school marm step out and wave us in. When we got closer, we saw it was just Summit. This was one sweet setup. The local church had donated food, sodas, and various supplies a hiker might need and left it for everyone to take as needed. AND, they had two privies outback so I didn’t have to dig a hole—magic indeed.

The five miles to Interstate 81 flew by this morning. Bunny is feeling much better today plus she is motivated to beat the rain. We got to the parking lot of the first gas station right at 10. Geo, Summit, and Bear Foot were standing around trying to decide what to do first. We headed to the first gas station to scope out the ice cream and drink situation. I wasn’t happy with the selection and lack of iced tea, so we headed to the next station. Not much better there, but we got some ice cream and I got a Coke—I was going for an in the body float.

It started drizzling while we were eating so Pam turned off airplane mode on her phone to check the weather—all hell broke loose. She was getting calls and messages from back home. She tried calling back several people but couldn’t get through. Her mother finally called her back. Her mom had rushed her dad to the hospital last night thinking he might be having a stroke. They tentatively were able to rule that out, but they weren’t sure what was going on with him. He was in for more testing at the moment and they were hoping for some answers in a few hours. Pam called her kids and got them to head over to the hospital. We didn’t know what to do. We decided to hike on to the house we had rented for the night and call in when we got there. Hopefully, we’ll get some answers then and decide what we are going to do next. We were already planning to not hike tomorrow so we will have time to work out a plan.

There was still 12 miles of trail between us and the house. If the rain kept like it was, it would be a bearable walk—not pleasant, not miserable, but bearable. Of course things waited until we were 1,000’ higher to indicate what kind of afternoon we could expect. Miserable it was. Just as we got to the top of the ridge, the rain turned from drizzle to downpour and an electrical storm was unleashed just a few miles from us. As you may recall, Bunny doesn’t handle storms well.

List of items that make Bunny walk faster on the trail: 5) sound of tractor starting up at 5:30a when sleeping in a field illegally, 4) talking with strangers and walking, 3) spending days on end with an adulteress, 2) seeing me hurt and walking slow, and 1) thunderstorms. At one point, she grabbed my back and nearly threw me down to get ahead of me and off the mountain. She later claimed that she was just tugging on my pack cover to get my attention to let me know she was scared—whatever the case, I couldn’t catch up with her for the next two hours as she ran down the mountain. I did time it; the lightening was never closer than 3 miles and we were always in tall trees. The chance of a direct hit on us was slim. The chance of a tree getting struck by us and fall on us was not astronomical.

The average person has a better chance of winning an Oscar than getting struck by lightening. Bunny does not act and she definitely doesn’t have a singing voice so rule out all musical soundtrack categories as well. She was safe. This whole episode showed me three things about Bunny: 1) she has an irrational fear of storms (an already known fact which she continually tries to rationalize), 2) she can walk much faster than she normally does which means she routinely is dogging it (another known fact), and 3) if we were in real danger, my life means zero to her as she was probably a mile ahead of me most of the way down the mountain (also a known fact). So, no surprises at all in the given situation.

We made the 12 miles to the house in pretty decent time. We got there about 5:30 which means we hiked a little over 17 miles in a little over 8 hiking hours. We averaged a little over 2 mph. The only possible conclusion I can come to is that I have to unknowingly install blue tooth speakers in Bunny’s pack and play one of five possible sound tracks (stranger’s voices talking, tractor sounds, woman talking incessantly, the sound of me moaning in pain, or storm sounds) which I can select as needed to speed her up.

Everyone else was already at the house and showered. Bunny went in and showered while Berta (the hostel owner) waited on her. Berta then took her down to the bunkhouse so she could get WiFi access to call home and find out what was happening with her father. An hour later Bunny walked back in the house and said she was going home.

EFG

Today is the payoff for our last four days and 64 miles of hiking—trail Christmas. Another food drop from Alice. She reads our blog and knows all of or tastes quite well. Bunny had already arranged for Jim Sparks to pick us up at 8:30 to take us to the post office (wouldn’t you know the bus doesn’t run on Saturday’s). Ice Cream is going into Marion with us. We didn’t realize that he won’t be coming back.

Ice Cream is from the Netherlands and he is going home for a while. He seems to prefer to, and is even excited to get to, spend 4 weeks in Sweden with his girlfriend rather than sleep on the ground and not shower while hiking the AT. I can never figure out people’s priorities. He said he is going to come back for six weeks after Sweden so he can hike all the way to Harpers Ferry, WV.

The P.O. doesn’t open until 9 and we have some time to kill, so Jim drops us off at Hardees for breakfast. Bunny and I know we have limited time today in the P.O. because they close before noon. We also know that another 34 pounds is more than we can handle with her new shoes and my aching feet so we decide to ship the majority of it ahead to ourselves in Pearisburg, VA. We think we can make it there in 8 days, but even that would be too much weight for us right now. We plan to carry 5 days with us now, make a small shipment ahead to ourselves for 3 days, and then send the rest to a hostel where we can take the time to carefully sort through everything.

We got to the P.O. with plenty of time to get the package and open it up to our amazement. We have our own grocery store. We immediately dumped all the food we were carrying (we had forgotten what all we were sending to ourselves in Damascus but we knew it was crap compared to our angel). We then picked out 3 days worth to ship ahead and kept the another 5 with us. Then we make a move which we hope is not overly optimistic—we sent all of our extremely cold weather gear home. This allowed us to carry more than enough food while lightening our packs.

We had biscuits and gravy, granola, breakfast scramble, and oatmeal for breakfast. We had gourmet tuna, PB&J, sausage sticks, protein bars, olives, cheese, and more for lunch. We had cowboy pizza, chicken and dumplings, turkey and dressing, lasagna, ice cream sandwiches, and raspberry crumble for suppers. And chocolate! There’s enough chocolate that we could have our own Oompa Loopa to carry it all for us.

And we had non-edible resupply as well. Vitamin I, Benadryl, skin ointments, a new shirt for Bunny, ultra-light umbrellas—we were two little kids sitting under the tree comparing gifts until we realized we were blocking access to the mail chutes. We thought we were hurrying, but we still spent nearly two hours sorting stuff out. We mailed all of our packages and decided to grab some town lunch before heading back to the trail.

We walked the block to Main Street and found a BBQ place with WiFi so we could go through a little mail and find out where everyone else was. As soon as we got connected, we got a message from Postcard. She said she had been trying to catch up with us and had been following us for the last few days. She was in Marion now and was checking if we were still in town. She was with us in less than 10 minutes.

After got all caught up and ate, we called Jim to come pick us up and return us to the trail. We talked with him for a bit before we started hiking. He basically runs hikers around for free, he just asks for a little gas money. Jim is a great guy and meets just about everyone that makes it this far. He was able to fill in details of our missing friends and when they passed through (that’s actually how Postcard found us). He gave us some protein bars and a homemade salve that his wife makes. It’s good for any skin rashes as well as a foot balm—I’ll try some tonight.

We were hiking about an hour earlier than we had planned. It was only 1p. I felt a rock in my show so I stopped while Bunny and Postcard kept going. Before I had my shoe back on, Lady Bug and Stickers caught up with us. Even though it had only been 3 days since we saw them last, we had a lot of stuff to catch up on. Bunny heard me talking and waited to see who I was talking to. While we were having our mini-reunion of the 5 of us, Geo, Summit, and Bear Foot caught up. This is the core of our group these days and we all started within a couple days of each other in February.

Bunny’s and my plan was to just put in 7 miles today and we were definitely going to stop at the next shelter. Everyone else thought they were going to go a couple miles further to shorten tomorrow’s hike. Stickers, Lady Bug, Postcard, Bunny, and me had made reservations for a house tomorrow night at a hostel about 24 miles up the trail.

We hiked together most of the way to the shelter where Geo, Summit, and Bear Foot just got water and kept going. Lady Bug, Stickers, and Postcard stopped to have supper before they continued moving. Gnome was already in the shelter taking a nap. A few more hikers came by (Jackalope, Ripple, and Leap Frog) with only Leap Frog deciding to spend the night. The shelter was OK. It had a privy but it was closed. Sounds like a bunch of shit to me.

EFG

We have a longer day planned and a shelter to ourselves, so Bunny set the alarm to wake us up early (which it did). Somehow, we need to disable the snooze feature on the phone. We had phone signal and decided to call ahead to schedule a shuttle into Marion tomorrow so we could get our “care package” that Alice has sent (rumored to be more than 34# this time). Ice Cream wants to share our shuttle and who can say no to Ice Cream?. Yada, yada, yada, we are on the trail at 9:15.

We thought we might run across Mongrel, the guy who left late last night (Ice Cream knew him and said he tends to keep to himself a lot). We didn’t see anyone for almost 4 miles until we got to Comers Creek Falls where we met a sobo, House Keeping, and his dog Bullet. He started last June but had to get off the trail in November when his money ran out, this was only his second day back on the trail. He got his name because he was doing “work for stay” at hostels all the way through Maine. He would knock on doors and say “House Keeping” and people would see him eating later and call him that; the name stuck. He started calling ahead at hostels and saying “House Keeping is on the way, do you need my help?” If they laughed and said come on in, he’d usually stay a couple of days.

We got a little bit of trail magic today at a road crossing. Mouse Trap had just passed us and a car pulled up to him. Low Gear was handing out Coke and Doritos. He had planned to thru-hike this year but had plantar fascia too bad so he cancelled at the last minute. He wants to still be a part of the hiking community so he’s doing what magic he can afford. Mouse Trap is a Lithuanian who now lives in Illinois. He’s taking some time off to hike, but it sounds like he works multiple jobs and saves most of his money (as most immigrants seem to do).

Further up the trail, we met a couple of guys sitting in the shade eating lunch. They turned out to be some trail volunteers who were straightening up signs along the way. They had a set of posthole diggers but felt their job would be easier on a full stomach. They have been volunteering for over 20 years and were in their 70s (the older at 79). We thanked them for making our hike possible.

The last couple of days we have been running into a solo hiker walking in the opposite direction. We talked enough to learn that his trail name is AI (for Attitude Indication—he’s a former pilot). Today, when we passed, we invited him to join us for a break. He and his brother are supposed to hiking the trail together, but his brother has an ankle injury and is hoping to return later this week. In the mean time, AI is doing daily section hikes; he parks his car at a road crossing, walks out between 8 to 10 miles, and then hikes back. In essence, he is yo-yo-ing the trail (hiking it in both directions in a single year). He is 71 and his wife died last year. He’s trying to adjust to the change. He’s a very nice guy and his story really touched us, especially when we noticed him still wearing his wedding band.

Even though we have so far to go today, or maybe because of it, we decided to take a long break and nap when we came upon a meadow after Trimpi Shelter. Bunny’s still not fully adjusted to her new shoes and we aren’t going very fast, especially uphill. I laid down and fell asleep until I was awoke by some heavy breathing. I looked over at Bunny and she was already awake, so it must have just been the wind blowing in the trees.

It wasn’t far to another road crossing followed by another climb. We could see a tent set up on the side of the trail about a mile after the road. As we were looking at the tent trying to figure out if it was anyone we knew, we heard a voice from above. It was a 74 year old woman, Grambo, who was solo section hiking. She has spent the last 8 years caring for a sick parent followed by a husband who died from cancer. This year, she’s doing another 200 miles before she heads out in her motor home to Yellow Stone.

We were getting close to the end of our day and decided we might get lucky enough to make it to Partnership Shelter before dark if we pushed a little harder. We were further motivated because you can actually order pizza for delivery at this shelter. As we were getting closer, Bunny could sense I was losing steam and started talking to push me on so we didn’t hear the two people behind us until they passing us. They, too, were motivated by the thought of pizza delivery.

We got to the shelter to find Gnome, Mouse Trap, Clock Work, and Ice Cream finishing up their pizzas, but they said we still had time for delivery. We agreed to share an order with the other late comers to save on the $5 delivery charge. While I went with Snapper to order the pizza at the visitor center, Bunny went upstairs in the shelter to set up our bed.

When we got back, I noticed she had set up in the crowded downstairs instead. I asked her why, and she said Mongrel was upstairs by himself and she didn’t want to run him off again. We let Snapper and Michigan have the upstairs honors. Tonight, he stayed put—it really is me.

We didn’t get our pizza until 3a hiker time; 9p to everyone else, but way past our bed time. We ate with Michigan and Snapper by red headlamp light. They hiked the PCT last year, the Florida Trail earlier this year, and now the AT. They put in a 30 mile day to get this pizza. I like pizza, but not 30 miles of like.

EFG