|
5/4/01, day 51. Rendezvous motel in Pearisburg, VA. 22.3m in 15.5h. Once again, I'm writing the day after 'cuz I was too freakin' tired. I woke up at the falls and had a nice, relaxing morning sippin' coffee and doin' nuttin'. When I did start out, I had six moles of real level ground, so I tried to see if I could pick up my pace a bit. I really enjoy hiking with T and W, and if I could just speed up I'd actually be able to hike with them. In the end, though, I am who I am -- slow. I likes how I hikes. I decided just to go to Wapati shelter at first, a 5.8m day. I got there and sulked in my hammock for a spell, but it was only 11 and I really wanted to hike some more. It's really hard to give up before 3 or 4. There's just this Trail urge that kicks in after a bit. So I got my ass in gear, and Marathon Man mentioned something about how it was easy terrain to Pearisburg. I knew T and W would be there, and Prez was also feeling stupid enough, so I hiked until 11pm over rocks, roots, and the usual schtuff. When I did get down here, I was a wreck. I found Terri on the phone, and she was kind enough to offer me space in her hotel room with T and the rest of the WOE. Since I hauled ass mainly to see T and W., I crawled onto the floor and slumbered. T was happy to see me, and she and the WOE were impressed with my adventure (which was the real reason I hauled ass). The other weird thing about the day was this odd, fiberglass-like feeling that was all over my shirt and pack. 5/5/01, day 52. Holy Family Hopsice. 0m Today was a beautifully lazy day, exactly what I needed. This hostel is a wonderfully relaxing place. T was a little weirded out by this town, but this place is separated from the mainstream enough that all readily agreed that it would do quite nicely. I spent the majority of the day on the lawn talking to T about nothing and everything. Later in the evening we had a feast. I provided some veggie dogs, T got some fresh veggies for a huge salad, and W made the cheesecake from heaven. It was another one of those AT phenomena where, once again, you declare that life just can't get better. 5/6/01, day 53. Holy Family Hospice. 0m Today was just the lazy day I needed. For the first time since I started, I spent the day without moving more than 100 feet. Pure wonder. We played monopoly, but T didn't like the cutthroat nature of the game, and W was getting his ass kicked, so they quit. I spent the rest of the day nappin'. 5/7/01, day 54. 19.6m in 11.75h Today was a flat day, and a day to sit around with T and W and laugh. They're the most immature people I've ever met, and they're funny as hell. Nothing important happened. 5/8/01, day 55. Warspur Shelter. 12.4m in 8h Today wasn't such a good day, but as T pointed out, you gotta have the bad days to appreciate the good. This leg of the trip, we're trying to pull short days to ease some aches and pains, so we were able to sleep in and take a buncha breaks. What sucked was T's knees and W's feet. They were in a good amount of pain, which didn't do wonders for my mood. Besides that, it was just an uninteresting walk with an assload of rocks in the way. To top it off, T's tummy is acting all weird. Oh, and one more thing to complain about: the local hiking club puts these signs up all over the place with these bullshit mileages on them, which fucks with your head. Whatevah. One good thing that happened today is that T has learned to pee without taking her pack off. She's quite proud of herself. 5/9/01, day 56. Niday Shelter. 18.1m in 12.5h Today was, as usual, unique, painful, and unusual. Around noon I came upon T, W, Priceless, and Sky at this farmhouse on the AT. They were wonderfully friendly people who sold hiker stuff at cost. I scored some yogurt and extra candy bars, as well as some popcorn for the night. They told us about a mountain house for rent up the road for $200/300 a month. T, W, and I agreed that it would be boss as all hell if we scored the place after our hike. None of us have any definitive plans for post-hike life, so we've spent some time thinking about opening a hostel or something on the Trail. Anyway, we hiked a spell until we got to Keffer Oak, the biggest ass tree on the AT. We put our stuff down, and Sky went straight to the thing, trying to figure out how to clumb it. Well, she got stuck up there, and the rest of us hung around for a long spell talking her down and worrying. Later on in the day I came down with a nice case of mild diarreah. Thank heavens that Sky had some pepto tabs on her. Thank more heavens that I had some neosportin creme that I had previously used on my thigh warts and now used on my sore buttcheeks. That problem aside, walked for a spell until I came upon T, W, and Sky getting licked by 3 random goats in the Trail. As soon as I turned the corner the little bastards came and licked my legs like they've never been licked before (the goats, not the humans). They were comprehensive, licking all our exposed skin as well as our gear. One of them stuck his nose straight up T's shorts, and another ran off with one of W's poles. Altogether pretty fuckin' weird. I'se tired. 5/10/01, day 57. Camping at Dragon's Tooth. 13.4m in 10h Today I carried heavy shit over mountains. Then I carried heavy shit up to some coolass rocks, where I had great conversation with T and watched a fabulous sunset. Altogether a good day. 5/11/01, day 58. McAffee Knob. 11.9m in 13.5h T is a doodiebrain (I write this only because T is asking "what are you writing?" and I am responding "T is a doodiebrain."). Today was one of the weirdest freakin' days on the Trail. We needed to get to Troutville, 'cuz we were in danger of arriving there on Saturday afternoon and missing the mail. So we hiked 8m to the road to Catawba and hitched a ride with this woman and her son. They took us to their house, gave us water and apples, and told us we could hitch to Troutville on this tiny, secondary road. So we sat on a road with essentially no traffic for over an hour, making fun of each other and trying to hit a stick in the road with some rocks. Finally the husband came down in his pickup and offered us a ride. It was a gorgeous day, we were in the back of a pickup, and he was blasting bluegrass music. It was the shit. We three had grins on our faces to beat the band. It was one of those windy, VA farmland roads traveled at unsafe speeds. So we arrive at McD's and feasted on fries, shakes, and the like, then tried to hitch to the PO. 45 min without people even looking at us killed our spirits, though, and as we put on our packs and started to walk a filthy man offered to let us sit in the back of his truck with a big mess of garbage. While it was refreshing to not be the worst smelling thing around, it was somewhat foul. Anyway, at the PO my mail once again didn't arrive, making the trip somewhat pointless for me. Then, we got a ride from a nice man with a rifle. He was nice enough to take us on the interstate all the way back to Catawba, talkin' about turkey huntin' and such. We got dropped off at an AYCE where we met up with a bunch of udder hikers. We stuffed the hell out of ourselves, of course. After a brief nap, I put on my pack, and one of the pins that holds my hip belt on snapped straight through and the thing fell off. I cursed, loudly, in front of a bunch of kids, but I got a decent jury rig going until I got get to an outfitter store. So then we got a ride from Melissa. We convinced her to ditch her friends and night hike with us to McAfee Knob. We gave her the appropriate sobriquet "one night stand," and had the time of our lives camped out in the open, under the stars, on some uncomfortable rocks. 5/12/01, day 59. Econolodge in Troutville, VA. ~16.5m in 10h Today was blah. We walked, tiredly, to an overpriced hotel where I could not sleep so well. 5/13/01, day 60. Camping just north of Bobetts Gap Shelter. ~18.7m in 11h. Today marks my second completed month on the Trail, and I was rewarded with the Rhododendron finally in bloom. Our little trio decided to do our own things today, so I had a lot of the day with the Trail to myself. W and I spent some time feeding pizza to some minnows (and an 8 foot lobster, he claims), but I didn't see T all day, save for a brief bit in the morning. It's very weird not seeing her. The AT sometimes is a place of routine. Get up, have oatmeal and coffee, leave ~7am with T and W, find them once or twice during the day (at which times we complain and consider cutting our day's goal short), then catch up to them at the campsite, where we either make fun of each other or sit around and look like we're about to die. My legs feel like jello. I've lost so much weight I have trouble keeping my shorts on. I'm alone tonight, a feat that can only be accomplished on the AT by finding a crappy campsite without water. Holy hell, I'm tired.
|
