Atkins, VA – Mile 544 – 24.8% of the trail complete
May 30th – Damascus to Lost Mountain Shelter
Total miles on AT – 16.0
Elevation gain – 2811ft
Elevation loss – 1404ft
Start time: 8:55am
Finish time: 6:10pm
Total time hiking on AT: 6:45
Weather: sunny and warm with an afternoon sprinkle
A long sixteen mile day. With five days worth of food, my pack feels so heavy. I’m thinking about what I can throw out. My pack is falling apart; the frame has poked it’s way through a hole in the bottom.
I came across a detour because a bridge was out. I took the detour, then backtracked on the non-detour route and found that despite the bridge being out it was simple enough to rock hop across the stream. I lost a half hour there, but can still say I’ve done every inch of the trail. So I actually did closer to 18 today. I moved pretty slow. My knee didn’t hurt until about 9 or 10 miles in. It feels pretty good tonight. I met Raiden, who wears a Vietnamese style hat because it helps keep the sun of his fair skin. People think he looks like the Mortal Combat character Raiden. So there you go. He’s a 46 year old from San Francisco, California and actually wanted to hike the PCT but didn’t think his fair skin could handle the long exposed stretches. We talked till 10:30, which is actually hiker 1:30am. (Hiker midnight is when it gets dark.) It’s one of the best connections I’ve made so far. There are not a lot of 40-somethings out here. But he’s doing a bigger day than me tomorrow and has averaged more miles a day than I.
The trail followed the Creeper Trail for a bit today.- a bike trail that Kristen and I did four years ago.
I saw a big black rat snake maybe seven feet long slide across the trail in the morning.
May 31st – Lost Mountain Shelter to Thomas Knob Shelter
Total miles on AT – 12.3
Elevation gain – 3020ft
Elevation loss – 986ft
Start time: 9:05am
Finish time: 4:35pm
Total time hiking : 5:25
Weather: heavy rain showers, mild
It started pouring around 11:30 in the morning. My ripped poncho didn’t work very well. My feet got wet for the first time on the entire hike because I wasn’t wearing my rain pants and my socks got drenched. Gravity moves downward. It rained very very hard.
When I got to route 600, a guy there was about to make lunch for a group riding horses and he said we hikers could have some. A thermometer at the car park read 60 degrees. I would have moved on to stay warm but I wanted those burritos. I started shivering. A bunch of us hikers waited around in the bathroom where our steaming presences warmed the room as the rain continued to fall outside. It began to clear and the sun came out, and the burritos were terrific.
Onward and upward in what seemed like a much bigger climb than it was, past the side trail to the top of Mt. Rogers (the highest peak in Virginia) and to the shelter. Kristen and I hiked up to the top of Mt Rogers going southbound four years ago and I remember that we talked to some thru-hikers at the shelter.
It started to pour again as I finished up cooking and I ate in the rain – I didn’t want to bring any food into my tent because there is so much garbage near this shelter in what is a popular spot, and there’s a good chance that a bear will be around tonight. Don’t want him in my tent. This was probably the most rain I’ve had in one day on the trail. My things are pretty well soaked.
News that the tropical storm will give us four and a half straight days of rain starting tomorrow through Sunday. My spirits are low.
Wild horses walked past my tent along the trail, but it’s fenced off going south so they walked by again in the other direction.
June 1st – Thomas Knob Shelter to Hurricane Gap Shelter
Total miles on AT – 16.1
Elevation gain – 1526ft
Elevation loss – 3100ft
Start time: 8:50am
Finish time: 5:20pm
Total time hiking : 6:45
Weather: partly sunny with thunderclouds in the area
Despite going to bed with a wet sleeping bag, all was well throughout the night. The heavy mist kept things warm and my fears of freezing to death were all for naught. The sun leaked out in the morning and the hiking was downright warm over the Grayson Highlands and past the wild ponies. I had vivid memories of hiking this section with Kristen four years ago. I found myself continuing to be really down and the nostalgia did not seem to help.
The going was slow as the trail was rocky and downhill, and I did not make very good time during the first half of the day. I felt like my knees were wobbly and I waited for a wrong step to shoot my tendinitis into full gear. I had very little energy and not only worried that I couldn’t go the 16 as planned today but that I wouldn’t be able to make the necessary 46 miles in three days to meet Kevin in Atkins, VA, nor would I be able to increase my mileage over the coming weeks like all the folks passing me who are doing big days.
I passed the 500 mile mark, and that brought some pride, but also reminded me of how far I had to go. The news of pending heavy rain for three days straight was getting me down more than it should have.
I took a long lunch after only covering 5 miles, but a few miles later a loud thunderclap behind me on top of an open mountain got my act in gear. I started running to get off the open area and down to a horse stable. I forget sometimes that despite the best intentions my motor doesn’t really get going till after about 4 o’clock. After 12 miles, the rocky terrain eased and I flew up the last mountain and down to the shelter.
With news of rain on the way I decided to stay in the shelter. There are only three of us here, the least amount of people I’ve seen at a shelter yet. As I checked the trail register it dawned on me that a lot of the names I had seen ahead of me have disappeared. Have they gotten off the trail? I am here and still moving north. It can be a tremendous mental challenge to keep going day after day, but I am doing it, day by day, mile by mile, step by step.
June 2nd – Hurricane Gap Shelter to Partnership Shelter
Total miles on AT – 19.0
Elevation gain – 1928ft
Elevation loss – 2474ft
Start time: 8:15am
Finish time: 5:20pm
Total time hiking : 7:25 Weather: partly sunny, warm and humid with evening rain showers
An easy 19er today if there ever was one. Back on track. In the groove. Because I slept in the shelter last night I was able to get a pretty early start and made decent time to the first shelter nine miles away. A dog came out at me from the shelter and I jumped. He immediately started barking aggressively and trying to get around my poles that I used to fend him off. It took a while for his owner to come out of the shelter to retrieve him and I was pretty rattled by the whole episode afterwards. The usual explanation – “it’s very unusual for him to do that.” Great, I feel better. Dogs very much sense my fear, they seem to thrive on it. It’s not really that I’m afraid, I just get tight and agitated as a natural response, like a panic attack, and it sets them off. It’s amazing how sensitive they are to emotion.
The last ten miles were a breeze, but I didn’t have any water with me the whole way. An older guy named Deets let me have a few gulps of his water about a mile and a half before the end of the day.
Partnership Shelter is a special place in that the Mt. Rogers visitor center is right here and you can pick up a phone and order food. I went in on a order with Silence and Deets and had no trouble downing a four topping medium pizza. Silence is about 20 years old and is as his name goes – a pretty quiet dude. After Deets left this morning Silence and I both woke up, ate breakfast, and got ready in, you guessed it, complete silence. But I’ve talked to him some and he’s a cool guy.
There was thunder throughout the day, but the rain held off until we got to the shelter. It’s a packed place despite an extra upstairs level for more sleepers, but no tenting is allowed in the area and more rain might be on the way tonight so the shelter tonight it is.
June 3rd – Partnership Shelter to Atkins, VA
Total miles on AT – 11.6
Elevation gain – 1064ft
Elevation loss – 1886ft
Start time: 8:00am
Finish time: 3:05pm
Total time hiking : 4:55
Weather: partly sunny, warm and humid
Today was supposed to be an easy stroll into town, and for the most part it was, but my knees started acting up and I had sharp pains in both including in the patella tendon of the left one. I screamed an expletive every time the left one caused me pain, not so much from the discomfort but from frustration. I flew up hills but took it so slow down hills that even section hikers were blowing by me.
At mile 9, we came to an old school house and inside there was trail magic – cold sodas and little snacks, along with hiker necessities like hand sanitizer and the like. Nearby stood the Southwest Virginia Settlers Museum that emphasized the early migration to the area by the Germans and Scots-Irish who moved down from Pennsylvania. A nearby farm preserved from 1890 was a short walk away.
I nearly limped into town and was happy to be done for the day. This evening I will be joined by my friend Kevin who will be hiking with me for about a 20 mile section. I hope I can keep up with him!
And now I must depart for dinner where I will contemplate eating the the 16 oz hamburger at The Barn restaurant here in Atkins.
Week 6 Totals:
Miles: 107.9 (15.4)
Elevation gain: 12,172ft (1739)
Elevation loss: 13,291ft (1899)
Avg start time: 8:26am
Avg finish time: 4:27pm
Total time hiking: 43:35 (6:14)
Mph: 2.48