AT Day 31

Miles: 30.01

Total Miles: 614.62

(Interstate 77)

The moon was close to full last night. It seems to have been so bright that the birds that normally wake me in the morning were basically chirping all through the night. Not with the same tenacity that wakes me most mornings, but there were a few of them still sounding off, apparently confused by the brightness of the full moon for the first light of dawn.

In spite, I slept relitively well.

Started today with black tea, the last of my honey, and a small square of (L)ove. It wasn’t so intimidating going in alone this second time. It felt more comfortable and familiar as all things do with time.

Thought that there was going to be a river ford this morning, as indicated by the Far Out app, but when I got there, there was an obvious tree laying across the whole span, and although there was a bit of risk in walking across that instead of taking the ford approach, I jumped right up and crossed via tree trunk.

For the most part the day was fairly lonely. Most of my days are.

I meet people mostly at the shelters and hostels. Spent a bit of time today thinking about significantly slowing my pace and spending more time at the hostels. That seems like such a simple proposition, but I’m really not good at it. I really just like the miles. I like the walk. I like being out here. I find it strange sitting around indoors, especially when the weather is as good as it’s been lately.

I wonder if my tone may change after this upcoming weekend. This week will be the Trail Days event in Damascus. I’ve yet to attend a Trail Days event, although they have taken place on all of the long trails that I’ve hiked before this one. I’ve just always missed them by a couple of days. This year I’ve planned from the beginning that I’ll go back to Damascus. Exactly how I’ll get 200 miles south is yet to be solved, but I have faith that it’s going to come together. It’ll be about 3-4 days off from the trail. A vacation from hiking, if you will. And I suspect that will affect my pace moving forward. I would love to find a reason to slow down. I’d like to spend more time resting. But I don’t mind if I need to just make this trail a long hike to Maine.

The trail in the morning hours today was mostly forested, but it broke up into grassy fields by the late morning. Those miles were absolutely spectacular. They were some of the few miles with a view of the sky on the AT so far, and with the weather as dynamic as it was all throughout today, it was hard not to get lost in the movement of the clouds.

For some time it looked like it was going to rain. It never did.

Late in the day I walked by a camp where two hikers were set up beside the trail. I was still a bit trippy, and wanting to make miles, I meant to keep to myself and be on my way. But one of the two made a comment about the feather that I carry at my chest strap. She said “nice owl feather,” and it caught me off guard. I misheard her at first. But then she stepped up and walked over to me to get a closer look. She was so quick at me that she even appologized after a moment, that she’d just jumped right into my space. I told her that I didn’t mind.

Anyway, it turns out that she knows a lot about birds (like a lot a lot), and she was very confident that the feather is an owl feather.

Have I told the story about finding this feather already? Or have I just left it off?

If I failed to make note of it before, I found the feather on my second day on trail, while I was still in Georgia. It was laying on trail, and at first I walked by without stopping, but then I went back ten paces or so to pick it up.

When I put it on my chest strap, I didn’t think I’d have it with me for this long, but here it is. I actually lost it on Day 5 at the NOC. It fell out from the strap and blew away. I didn’t realize for some time, but went back looking for it and obviously found it. Since then I’ve had it sort of tied in place so that it’s harder for it to fall off.

Whenever I put my shoulder strap on I have to take care not to crumple that little feather, which is several times a day. But I’ve grown used to it by now.

The first few people to “identify” it were pretty sure that it was a turkey feather. Then for a bit I had people saying that it looked more like a hawk feather. But nobody has been as confident as the hiker (Pit Stop was her name) who identified it as an owl today. I told her that I was pleased to learn it. That I have a large owl tattoo, and that I’ve seen several owls since starting the trail. Earlier this week I saw two deer and an owl all at once. It’s odd because I don’t see a lot of wildlife out here. Right away it stuck me as memorable.

The miles with (L)ove tend to go by more quickly. I lose myself in them. There’s something extremely pleasant in it that I’m learning to love. But I’m also hesitant to lean into this tool too deeply, as I feel like I can sense the edge of sanity–like I can see off to a horizon that must be madness or insanity or call-it-what-you-will. For the time being however, I feel astonishingly well-rooted to reality out here. I talk a big talk like I’m okay with losing my mind, or like that might be close at hand. But really I don’t think that’s the case. If anything I’ve felt a lot clearer since starting all of this.

Still keeping up with 10x pushups per mile, per day. Have mostly given up on trying to do them when others aren’t around. Inevitably, I end up dropping pack at shelters, because that’s where I’ll often have some water and food. Since that’s when my pack is off, it’s when I’ll get a set of 50x, and more than once people have made comments about it. Most commonly it’s to note that they had planned to do pushups while they’re out here but have basically abandoned all hope. I’ve yet to meet anyone else who is strategically encorporating upper body strength training into their hike. To each their own. But I will say that I’ve never been able to do 50x pushups with as much effiency as I can do them now. Something about repetition and practice.

Got right to 30 miles and wanted to do more, but light was growing low, there’s a climb straight ahead, I’m by a water source, and there was a campsite right here beside this river. It would have been stupid to push on. No reason. So I stopped it right at 30 today. I’d love to get to this super cool Woods Canyon hostel tomorrow evening, but I’d need to do 33 miles to make it happen. That’s within reach, but I’d be arriving late, and I’d have to power through all day tomorrow to do it. So I’m not going to try. Instead I’m going to try and hit up this dinner tomorrow at mile 17, get a bit of warm food and charge my phone. Then get another 10 or so beyond there. Then I can go into that hostel for a refresh on Tuesday (two days from today). I could actually do a Nero there, because from there it’s just 15 miles to the town of Pearsburg, where I’ll be hitching back to Damascus from. And if I get to Pearsburg too early, I just have to twiddle my thumbs until Thursday.

These are the things I think about all day on trail… not really true. But it makes up some of the day.

Incredibly tired tonight as always. Feeling like I’m getting my nutrition down better than I’ve ever had it on trail. Learning that I really love: Kodiak Granola Bars, That’s It fruit bars, and PB2 + Raisins. Oh, and kachava and athletic greens, but I”ve raved about those two already. I am however out of Kachava as of today though. My next shipment is in Pearsburg. That’ll be a day and a half of trail without, but it’ll make me enjoy it all the more once I get it in hand.

Switching back to my size 11.5 shoes when I get to Pearsburg.

Damn this one’s been disorganized, but I hope I got all the important stuff on the page.

Peace and love,

Wormwood.

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.

AT Day 29

Miles: 31.59

Total Miles: 564.02

(Virginia Settlers Museum Grassy Lot)

I was so tired as I wrote last night that I could barely get it onto the page. That’s the case a lot of nights. I’ve developed this (bad?) habit of hiking late, or in the rare case of last night, staying up and social too late so that I’m too tired to write by the time I’m in bed. I should add that even though I have this nifty little keyboard, it’s still very uncomfortable to curl up in my tent and try to write these out. My hands tire. My forearms get achy.

Boohoo… I know. Pity me. (Sarcasm implied).

Woke up and one of the guys who put me up with the trail magic last night offered me a sugar free energy drink in trade for a little square of paper. I gladly accepted the offer, although I don’t really drink that much caffeine on trail. I share all this to explain that the first ten miles today went by like a breeze!

Caffeine can be too easily abused. It’s why I’m trying to stay away from it to the extent that I can early on in the AT. I’ve become over dependent on it in other trails. I’d rather be able to use it like I did today–sparingly and in a way that it’s effective rather than a crutch.

I like these 30 mile days that I’ve been collecting more frequently in the last 10 days. I’ve found that if I break them up into parts they pass by better. I like to get the first 10 miles in the day done without dropping pack. I’ve taken to cold soaking oatmeal and having that within hand’s reach to eat while I walk, somewhere around mile 5 or 6. Then at mile 10 I’ve been dropping pack, and making a second breakfast–kachava lately. Although today I discovered this delightful thing: powdered peanut butter + a lil water + raisins! Oh my god! So good, and it’s got a bit of protein to it as well. I also felt a million bucks after that and Kachava for my second breakfast.

The second 10 miles of the day I break up into 5 mile segments.

Then from 20-30 I just try to take it bit by bit. Anything beyond 30 miles is uncommon for me and bonus. I could have made a mile or two more today, but then found this super nice grassy field outside of the Virginia Settler’s Museum where a few other hikers are posted up. They already had camp set and were sleeping by the time I got here, so I set up a bit farther away from them so that I could write without fearing waking anyone.

There was more trail magic today at the half way point. Another church group giving out free things. Which is nice. But I have to laugh. They see us carrying top ramen and pop tarts, I guess, and so what do you think they offer to the hikers as they come by? You guessed it–more top ramen and pop tarts. But they also had bananas, oranges, and coffee. I took all three and gave a small cash donation for their trouble. The coffee on top of the energy drink I already had at the start of the day no doubt made getting 30 miles a bit easier today.

I was going to try to make the push to get another 3 miles beyond here where there is a burrito joint at the upcoming highway crossing, but changed plans. I would have gotten in right before they closed, and I would have had to figure out where to camp around there. That would have been difficult. So instead I’m here, 3 miles from that road crossing. Tomorrow I have a shuttle picking me up there at 8 am (got a morning alarm set so I get to trail on time), and they’ll bring me the town of Marion, VA. I’ll resupply and maybe get a bite to eat, but don’t plan on spending that long in town before getting back to trail. I’ll hit up El Burrito tomorrow for lunch since I missed it tonight, then I’ll be back to trail, fully resupplied and fed.

It’s just under 100 miles to the next resupply, and about 5-6 days before I need to start thinking about getting a hitch back south to Damascus for the Trail Days weekend event. I really want to attend that, but I’ll be about 200 miles north of it by then. So I’m already starting to chat with other hikers about how they’re planning to get down. I think that it will come together, so I’m trying not to stress on that part.

Looking forward to a partial town day tomorrow, and hoping that burrito is awesome.

Wormwood, out.