I almost left my rain fly off my tent last night, but decided to throw it over the top more out of convenience than anything. Good thing that I did, because it ended up raining off and on through the night.
Before getting to camp last night I had dinner at the previous shelteer and met an older hiker who told me that he shared an interest in some of the things that are an interest to me on this trail. He told me while we were together there that when I came in he recognized me as looking like a “real hiker.” I took it as a compliment, and I think that he meant it as such.
He caught up to me this morning, as I ended up sleeping in a bit later because of not wanting to get up and break camp in the rain. But he told me that family of 9 ended up at the shelter with him last night and that he wanted to get out and get to trail before they woke up this morning. He said they were a bit loud.
So we ended up hiking together for awhile this morning into the Gracen Highlands. It rained a bit but mostly was just foggy. There were beautiful little flowers low to the ground all around.
He shared with me that his wife had died of cancer after they had been married for 40 years. I asked him how he got through the loss and he told me that his relationship with God was what got him through. I’m abbreviating, of course. We talked for around an hour. He shared a lot.
He shared with me that he’s had a life long relationship with God as a Christian. At earlier times in my life, I think that I would have disregarded him for that alone. But in today’s mood, and in this context, it felt right to stay with him and stay with the conversation. To ask questions and dig deeper into the opportunity.
I really enjoyed his company. He was a really good dude. I enjoyed the conversation.
For much of the day I hiked alone through the highlands. Weather went from foggy to raining to absolutely beautiful and blue sky by the afternoon.
I stopped at a shelter to have dinner a few hours ago and planned on hiking late into tonight, but 1.5 miles past the shelter I arrived at this road crossing where a group of three are doing trail magic. They’re set up here for today and tomorrow with free food, drinks, and company. Although I’d planned to hike another 3-5 miles, I decided to stop and spend the evening with them. The free food had something to do with it, but I”m really leaning into these kinds of social opportunities when they come up on trail. They’ve been where I’ve gained the most from the AT so far, and I suspect that will continue to be the case.
Other notes I had from today:
I took my first good fall this morning. I slipped on a rock and fully hit the ground. Could have been hurt, and lucky that I was not. It caught me bad.
The birds and the flowers this morning. It was so magical.
Leaning into doing fewer miles moving forward. Settling into the mid twenties as a more comfortable daily target.
I’ll have a full day tomorrow, then likely go into the town of Marian for resupply the day after (Saturday). But everything is still one mile at a time.
I never sleep all that well in shared spaces like hostels. Technically the place that I stayed last night was a Bed & Breakfast, but I was in a shared room with three others (and a lil dog). One dude snored pretty heavy, which I’ve come to accept is basically a given in these kinds of places. At some early hour of the morning I woke up to piss and put in ear plugs. It helped marginally but still I didn’t sleep that well afterwords.
It’s funny to me how much better I sleep in my tent already, and it hasn’t even been a month.
The breakfast that “Lady Di” puts together was stunning. I ate with the family of 9… yes, that’s right… 9, and the one other hiker who snored in the bunk room.
Wanted to get to trail early, but also didn’t feel any need after how much I enjoyed the stay in Damascus. I also decided that I was going to go back to the outdoor store to try on the size 12 shoes that I’d looked at yesterday. Ultimately I ended up buying them and have worn them throughout today. My feet to hurt, and I am slightly worried about their being a half size too big. But I’m also hopeful that they’ll get me at least the 5 or 6 days to Pearsburg, where I’m having my size 11.5 shipped. At that time I can either decide that these Size 12s are good enough for now and bounce the 11.5s up trail a bit, or I can switch into the 11.5s and ship the 12s home to AZ.
Boring stuff, I’m sure, but this is what fills my mind for a lot of the day. Thoughts about shoes.
Was especially tired throughout the day on trail. Not really sure why, except for maybe that pint of Ben & Jerry’s from last night.
I rolled into a shelter for dinner a few miles back. There were several hikers already there, but one old dude who I talked to most of the time. He described himself as an “old hippy” and told me about some of his long hikes from the last 20 years and about his wife who had passed away in the last few years. He was vague about it, but it sounded like it was cancer or something of the like.
The subject of psychedelics came up, and in short time, we ended up talking about his memories with them “back in the day.” By and by, I ended up gifting him some things that I had with me. He said he hadn’t seen anything like it in decades, and I told him that “the trail provides.” He felt like someone who I’d known for a long time, even though we’d only just met. He said the same, and we both remarked that we hope our paths cross again.
I picked up after my dinner with him and another hiker commented on my still doing more miles tonight. I told him that I normally like to hike later, but ended up only doing a couple more miles before I stumbled into where I am now–at the edge of this grassy field, with a spring beside me. The site was too cute to pass up, even though I wanted to do more miles. I’ve been tired today thought, and I think that it’ll do me good to get to sleep a bit earlier than normal. I might aim for a bigger day tomorrow if I’m feeling fresher in the morning.
Oh–unrelated, but saw my first tick today. Welcome to Virginia… I sprayed my shoes with Premitherine, but I really need to get the rest of my gear at Trail Days. I’m sure more people will have it there.
I also ran right into a stick this morning that I swear to all things holy nearly gouged my eye out. It quite scared me and was as close to a serious accident as I’ve had on trail so far. It was a downed tree from the hurricane, and the way that the branch was hanging down, I couldn’t see it until it was literally sticking me in the eye.
I’m grateful to still have vision as I write this tonight.
So tired as I sit down to write this… that’s nothing new. But the sitting down at a kitchen table part is kind of nice. You probably owulnd’t be surprised to learn that it’s sort of challenging to type these out when I’m curled up in in my tent, my phone propped up against my Diddy Bag. By the way–a couple people have asked how I actually write these. The answer is a wireless keyboard. It’s one of my favorite “luxury items.” It folds three ways, so that it doesn’t take up much more space than an iPhone. It weighs 184g, which isn’t inconsequential, but considering how much it allows me to capture, I take it to be worth having. I carried it on the Colorado Trail and CDT as well, but to this day I’ve never seen another hiker with one, and any time I show other hikers they’re flabbergasted–first at how small and light it is, but also that I’m still willing to carry the extra weight.
I slept like a stone last night. The sleep I’ve been getting most nights on trail is better than any I’ve found in YEARS. Not drinking alcohol combined with a lot of physical exercise is no doubt to thank for that. Maybe I’m kind of comfortable in the “home” that is my tent too.
Tonight I’m at a Bed & Breakfast with a large family and a few other hikers, and although the bed is probably a more conventional sleeping situation than my tent, I know that I won’t sleep as well tonight, because I never do after my tent becomes my home on a long trail.
The damn birds man… for how beautiful they are through the day, it’s always what wakes me up. They start at the first sign of sunrise, and tweet through the whole day.
Why can’t I just put in ear plugs? You might ask. Well, the answer is that I don’t really have a good answer, except that by the time they’re waking me up I usually feel like I aught to be getting up sometime soon.
But damned if I didn’t have to absolutely drag myself out of my tent this morning.
I only had 6 miles to get into Damascus, but I wanted to have the day to rest, and I didn’t want to just lounge in my tent all morning.
It started raining just a bit as I was breaking tent, which is somethign that absolutely sucks. But fortunately that settled down pretty quickly and I was able to get to trail without needing rain gear. It was still chilly though. So much so that I wore my down jacket for most of the morning.
Crossed the TN/VA border about an hour in. Didn’t feel like anything too special, but I still got a few photos. I’m almost 500 miles in now. That in itself feels kind of monumental.
When I got into town I checked into the outdoor store to see if they have the shoe that I need. Mine have enough miles on them that they need to be replaced. And in hindsight, it was pretty stupid of me to rely on the shoes I need being available in this town. They are not. They have a size 12, but I wear an 11.5. And that difference matters. It’s actually a pretty big problem. Because I pushed it a bit far with the ones I’m wearing now.
So here’s what I’m having to do: I ordered 1 pair of new ones shipped *190 MILES* up trail… because that was the best I could do. Any shorter and it’s likely that they wouldn’t arrive in time… So I’m going to try on that pair of Size 12 at the outdoor shop tomorrow morning. And if they feel even close to okay, then I’m going to give them a go… and hope they get me 190 miles up trail. But if they don’t feel right, then I’m going to try to stick it out with these ones… shit… how I’m going to get a total of 700 miles out of these shoes… that’s pushing it way too far…
I also ordered 3x new pairs of the same shoe shipped back to my friend in Arizona. I don’t want this problem to come up again. So he’s going to be able to send me new ones when I need them from here on. I’ll just give him a 100 mile head’s up, and then he can ship them to me. That way I don’t have to rely on Jeffery Bezos or small town gear stores. I’d rather leave my money in these little towns than give it to Bezos.com, but I’m learning that these small towns sometimes don’t have what I need.
As I rolled into town this morning I turned on my phone, and got a notification of a donation from a reader. And so I’d be amiss to not send a big thank you to Phil who threw a few bones my way to cover dinner tonight and the pack of NA beers that are now in the B&B fridge 🙂
There were a lot of folks back home in AZ who left donations before I left too. And even though I don’t do this for the donations, I do want to express my deepest gratitude to those who have supported. It takes the sting out of some of the unexpected expenses of the trail. So Phil, and the rest of y’all who have thrown some my way–thank you ten thousand times over.
Again however–I’m just as grateful to have your readership. So to everyone who follows these posts–it’s more than enough just to have your readership.
Had an amazing meal at the local dinner (after discovering that the outdoor store didn’t have the shoes I need). Even had a cup of coffee with my Steak, Shrimp, Rice, Biscut, Mashed Potatoes, and Tater Tots. I was just so tired this morning… I didn’t want to be dragging ass through the rest of my town day. And damn if I didn’t nearly nod off on my way into town.
There’s this sweet little Bed & Breakfast called Lady Di’s where I’m staying tonight. It’s so far the favorite place I’ve stayed. A while house, converted into a sort of hostel/B&B.
There’s a family of SEVEN hiking the trail, and they’re all staying here tonight… yes, that’s mom, dad, and FIVE kids! Although I haven’t been able to count them all. I just see kids and family all over the place, and I’ve been told there are seven of them… or maybe it’s seven kids. I don’t know. LOL. It’s a big family is all I know.
I expected they’d be weird and uber religious or something, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact they seem to be pretty cool. Talked to the parents and a couple of the kids.
One thing that was kind of a stand out today…
When I checked into the B&B there was a guy already here who I’ve been seeing pretty commonly on trail. We actually push pretty similar miles, and he even threw down a 44 mile day yesterday! Long story short, he mostly keeps to himself because he is worried about catching Norovirus, and we haven’t connected much except that we pass one another a lot.
We were chatting a bit when I first arrived here, but then he bounced out to get a resupply. When I got back, an hour later, he was bundled up on the bed, shivering so bad that he could barely talk.
Within an hour an ambulance arrived, and paramedics were up there taking care of him for about another hour before he was literally carried out on a stretcher. Sounds like extremely bad norovirus. Which is exactly what he’s been so worried about catching. He was so sick that he could barely catch his breath.
I’ve texted him, but still haven’t heard back. He was in bad bad bad shape.
No we did not have close contact while he was here. Still, I’m dotting my Ts and crossing my Is. I’ve washed my hands a lot and moved to a room farther from where he was sleeping.
That dude I gave weed to yesterday bought me a burger and NA beer at the brew pub this evening.
I got all my gear dry.
Bought way more food than I need for the next few days, but whatever. I’m enjoying being well fed, and since there’s so much water on the AT, I’m able to carry more food and just stop for water more often after coming out of trail towns. And my gear is still probably lighter than most people I meet out here.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to take one of the kids’ advice and go back to that gear store to try on the size 12. I asked them for their opinion and that was the answer. They’re right. I need to at least see what they feel like. Otherwise these shoes are going to fall apart over the next week and a half…
I would have liked to get an early start out of town tomorrow, but this needs to take priority. I was also told by the family that’s staying here tonight that the breakfast that’s offered with my stay here is pretty bombastic. So I’m not one to turn down a good breakfast. Especially if there’s protein involved.
Alright. I think that’s it for now.
Back to trail tomorrow after breakfast and a quick run by the outdoor shop.
Will write again soon.
Wormwood.
PS: I checked with the parents. It’s Seven kids. They’re a total of nine… 😳
Appalachian Trail Journal 2025 