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