Day 52
We woke up and hiked a very fast six miles on flat ground before making a two mile climb up. At the top we hiked a couple more hours across a ridgeline and a bit down to Sugar Run Gap. From here we journeyed a half mile down a gravel road to the Woods Hole Hostel. The hostel was on an organic farm right next to the owners' old wood cabin. As soon as we got there a worker named Stone Bear made two delicious giant smoothies for us in giant mason jars. The bunkhouse was very rustic. The first floor had a small enclosed room, a big porch with a hammock, chairs, and benches, and a common area with a table, couch, fridge, and bookcase. Up a ladder was a large room crammed with small sleeping cots and one bed for couples we nabbed. Next door was an outhouse and an outside shower. The owners' cabin had a porch wrapped around it covered with rocking chairs and chair swings for us to relax in. They had some old fashioned clothes washing tools so after showering and resting for awhile we went to work on our filthy clothes. We were also able to fill a box with a bunch of gear items to send home that we felt like we didn't need anymore like our baselayers, mittens, and cup. This saved us four pounds of weight total. The scale at the bunkhouse told me I had now lost twenty pounds. At a random point during the day, the owner Neville came outside, yelling "yoga" with a basket full of mats and a few of us gathered for her twenty minute session on the lawn. I spent quite a bit of time playing with their dog. Nepsis and I, along with a few others helped with getting dinner ready for the many of us staying at the hostel. We had to set three tables squeezed in their small living room to accommodate everyone. Each place was set like a family style dinner and we enjoyed a freshly picked salad with greens from their garden, tahini dressiny, and homemade bread. Our entre was rice with ground meat and pesto and marinara sauces. After dinner I went with Neville and three other hikers to quickly clean up the kitchen and afterwards we had peach ice cream on cones. We went to sleep quite happy.
Miles hiked today: 13.1 Total AT miles completed: 620.9 Total AT miles left to hike: 1564.4
Day 53
We woke up early and made our way to the porch and soon we got the morning smoothies and fresh ground coffee we had ordered the night before. Unfortunately our order of bread was not quite ready for awhile so we didn't get to leave as early as usual. We ate more than half the loaf and headed out. It was fairly easy terrain across Pearisburg Mountain with some excellent views down to town. It started to rain a few minutes into hiking all the way down the mountain to the town of Pearisburg. We walked into town and ate lunch and blizzards at Dairy Queen. After we walked across the road to Food Lion to resupply and saw Dawg inside doing the same. As we always do, we stood outside the store taking food out of their unnecessary cardboard packages and putting some of it in Ziploc bags. We then sort them into snacks, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, put them in individual bags and each take two. I was trying to hurry up because it was later in the afternoon and we still had seven miles to hike. As we were trying to figure everything out a couple approached us and asked if we were hikers. They said they were good friends of the owners of the Woods Hole Hostel and that they take hikers in when the local hotels and hostel are full. I was still trying to figure out our food situation and was only half listening, but they offered us a stay in their home. I thought it was some kind of hostel we would have to pay for so we declined and they went inside the Food Lion. We walked back to the Trail and started hiking on slowly. We talked about the couple outside Food Lion and Nepsis informed me that they wanted us to stay at their house for free. We immediately regretted our decision to decline the offer and slodged on in the rain. We hiked on across a bridge next to a busy road and past a huge, ugly power plant. Then we had to climb a mountain and the entire way up we talked about how we could be out of the rain in a warm house with a home cooked meal. We were not happy and went very slowly, imagining the couple finding Dawg in the Food Lion and him enjoying everything we had missed. To top it off, when we went to get water at a stream, I slipped on a big rock and fell on my back. We didn't get to Rice Field Shelter until just before dark and ate a quick dinner under moonlight before going to sleep.
Miles hiked today: 18.2 Total AT miles completed: 638.1 Total miles left to hike: 1547.2
Day 54
When we woke up it was real misty out so we didn't leave too early. We thought about doing some big miles so we could rush to the next town for a zero. The first several miles of our hike looked easy in our guide, but it wasn't as flat as it looked. It was a lot of difficult small ups and downs. Then we hiked down the mountain and spent a lot of time resting at a shelter. We gave up on our plan to hike far, but pushed on up the next mountain to Bailey Gap Shelter to spend the night.
Miles hiked today: 16.4 Total AT miles completed: 654.5 Total AT miles left to hike: 1530.8
Day 55
We woke up early and hiked across a ridge line that looked flat in the guide book and was actually flat. Halfway across we reached a campsite near a road where North Star had spent the night. He called us over to share donuts with him. Someone had left a cooler with a large box of glazed donuts, raspberry danish, and a half gallon of orange juice inside. Greg showed up soon after and the four of us devoured almost all of it. We walked across the rest of the easy ridge line and down for a little break at a shelter. It was there we thought we might push our intended 21 mile hike to six more miles away. The six miles looked like it would be pretty easy. We hiked on fast up a big, tiring mountain and down through some pasture land and past the second largest oak on the Trail. After, we hiked up a steep mountain that seemed bigger than we thought it would be. It was very tiring, but it was the last up for the day and we had to move on. We hiked very quickly across the ridge line that looked like it was going to be flat which was great because it was evening already. It rained for about ten minutes which felt great in the heat. Right after the rain stopped, the terrain turned into diagonal rock slab cliffs that were now wet and very slippery. We carefully placed each step. The trekking poles helped a lot. I kept looking behind my shoulder to make sure Greg was still behind us. He is in his forties or fifties and I kept picturing him falling off a cliff and us not noticing until we got all the way to the shelter. It began to pour rain again as the terrain changed between the rock slabs and mud. Greg fell twice and Nepsis fell once in the mud, but they were alright. Finally the rock slabs were gone, and we walked faster and faster across the rest of the ridge. We were extremely tired, but we still hiked fast down to the shelter. We made it there about an hour before dark and were disappointed to find it full, so we set up our tent and went to sleep.
Miles hiked today: 27 Total AT miles completed: 681.5 Total AT miles left to hike: 1503.8
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