“Reflections at 1 Month”

AT Day 30

Miles: 20.59

Total Miles: 584.61

(On a hilltop, 2 miles past Knot Maul Branch Shelter)

Did the guy who shuttled me in and back out of Marion, VA today over-charge me for the distance? Yes. Was it still worth my $60 to not have to worry about hitching in and out of town? Also, yes.

Somebody asked me the other day if I liked hitch hiking, since I like thru hiking and they’re somehow associated in some peoples’ minds I guess. I told them that I don’t. That it’s one of my least liked things about thru hiking. But you need to get into town for food and resupply, and so it’s just a part of the game we play in this thru hiking thing.

All this to say that I set up a ride to pick me up this morning at 8am, and he was able to pick me up at 9:30 to bring me back to trail. In the meantime he also showed me around the little town a bit, which made me feel a bit better about doing such a “hit it and quit it” approach, as there really didn’t seem to be much that I was missing. The downtown seemed cute, but everything was mostly closed as we drove through.

So he dropped me off at a McDonalds, and I had breakfast there. Not a regular for me, but that was right next to the Ingles grocery store where I needed to resupply, so I imbibed on the McD’s. Didn’t have much, but still I could feel that it made my whole energy feild sort of shitty this afternoon. Like it was taking longer to pump that garbage through my veins.

Getting ahead of myself…

It was so cold last night that everything frosted. When I opened my tent this morning I couldn’t figure out why the zipper was sticking. It was from frozen condensation. There was another hiker in the same area where I camped who said that he’d just sent home his cold weather bag and switched to a 50 degree quilt! How he even survived last night is beyond me. I carry a 15 degree, and although it’s overkill, I don’t mind the weight for the security and peace of mind that I get from knowing that it’ll keep me warm for basically the whole trail.

Amazing though. I see people dropping so much gear to just go super light on this trail, and I guess it’s something you can get away with out here. If things get too rough, you just go to shelter or bounce out to the next town or B&B, of which there are sometimes quite a lot. I must have passed a half dozen places I could have stayed today…

My stuff was all frozen this morning, but I had to break camp early and before things had time to defrost or dry. So after the shuttle dude dropped me back off at the gas station where he’d picked me up, I laid all my stuff out to dry, and charged my electronics for a couple hours. That also gave time for El Burrito Loco to open. It’s attached to the gas station, but it was fucking bomb. Not sorry for the profanity. Their burrito was amazing, and absolutely worth both waiting for and cursing over!

Started back to trail at noon, so it was basically 4 hours for resupply and letting gear dry out. That equates to about 10 trail miles. As such, I was aiming for 20 today.

Just after getting on trail however, I remembered that I wasn’t able to replace my fuel canister for my stove. This stretch is around 100 miles, and I worried that would mean having to cold-soak my pasta dinners. I can do cold soaked oat meal and coffee (actually quite like both), but cold soaked dinners are a no-go for me.

Fortunately, at a road crossing around mile 15 today there was a sign on a tree that said the B&B down the way sold fuel canisters (and ice cream).

It was hard to leave. It was late enough into the day that I could have justified staying at Quarter-Way Bed and Breakfast, but the temps were good and I wanted to get back to trail. The folks staying there seemed chill, but also didn’t feel like my crowd.

At the last shelter I met a group of about 6 other hikers who were all new to me. We had a great conversation about psychedelics, and I even considered staying with them tonight, but as I’ve written before, I prefer camping alone. And it’s not hard to do that out here by just getting a few miles past the last shelter. I’ve almost never had trouble finding a place to myself to camp on this trail, except in the national park, where I was required to set camp at the shelters.

A quarter of the way through the AT as of today. A lot of miles behind but also a lot of miles ahead.

Thinking tomorrow might be a good day.

Wormwood.