Into Virginia!

I woke up on the floor of the lodge in Mountain Harbour Hostel after a surprisingly restful night and headed down to the all-you-can-eat breakfast. I got my fill of blueberry pancakes, sausage, potatoes, omelets, biscuits and gravy, fruit, juice and coffee. With a full belly I walked back up US 19 to the trail. The trail that day looked like it would be relatively mellow and I was hoping to make it 24 miles to Watauga Lake. 

About a mile in for the day I came across a hiker named Sloth - she started the trail on February 14th. She was interested in botany and gave me a lesson about the plants on the side of the trail. Within in the immediate area she talked about a half dozen plants and which were good for eating. I don't remember any of them but at the time it was pretty neat.

It started to drizzle and it was pretty refreshing. I hiked quickly, the rain kept coming and going. Most of the hikers I saw throughout the day were hiking south, slack packing. Even though the miles weren't too strenuous it was still easier going south.

By 10AM I got to Jones Falls at AT mile 400.1! I had a mini celebration with a couple other thru hikers that stopped there. About 8 miles into the day I passed Mountaineer Falls and took a quick lunch break at the shelter. I saw very few people and it was rather lonely. I got to Moreland Gap Shelter at around 4:40PM, the rain had stopped but my feet were aching. There were a bunch of hikers at the shelter, some of which were making dinner and continuing to Kincora, Bob Peoples' hiker hostel.

I hustled down the mountain, Prime and Walkman who I met at Moreland Gap, passed me on the way down. When I got to Dennis Cove Road (AT mile 419.5) after 24.5 miles of hiking, I hiked 0.2 miles west up the road to Kincora Hostel. There were surprisingly only 3 hikers there when Prime, Walkman, and I walked in. Shortly after ToCrows and Last Spot walked in and the 5 of us claimed beds in the bunkroom upstairs. Three more hikers showed up, Giggles, Happy Feet, and Sticks, who shared the lower bunkroom. We all piled into Bob’s truck and he drove us to Hampton, TN to McDonald's for dinner. We had a nice quiet evening listening to Bob’s stories. He has led such an interesting life, he grew up in Boston, hiked the trail 25 years ago and loved it so much he bought a piece of property by the trail, sight unseen, and created the Kincora Hostel where hikers can sleep, shower, and do laundry with free shuttles, all with a suggested $5 donation. He is an expert trail maintainer and volunteers year round with different organizations like Habitat for Humanity. I found myself saying, “Bob Peoples told me that…” constantly for days after meeting him because I learned so much from him in the short time I spent at Kincora.

The next morning (Monday, May 7th) we piled until Bob's truck again to get breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. We were in town until around 9AM and I was still determined to get some miles in, even though Walkman and Prime had decided to take a zero day at Kincora. ToCrows and Last Spot decided to take up Bob's offer to slack pack - they would get dropped off all Lake Watauga and walk the 8.6 miles south back to Kincora and Bob would drop them off at the same spot on Tuesday so they could continue north. Bob said it was a good section to slack pack and when Bob Peoples gives you a suggestion you take it! So I broke my own rules about no slack packing and only hiking north and joined ToCrows (from New Hampshire who has hiked plenty in the White Mountains) and Last Spot (from upstate NY) for an easy day.

We didn't start hiking until around 11AM but it felt effortless with the borrowed day packs that we were practically running up the mountain. It was nice to hike with other people again after spending several days alone - we took many breaks, soaked our feet in the stream, and had a really great day. Since we were carrying such small packs we decided we would collect trash we found along the trail - found tons of half burnt beer cans in fire pits, I’m surprised people don't know they don't burn, or maybe they just don't care. We saw a lot of hikers going north and felt some shame slacking, especially since I had made my own judgments about all the slack packers I had seen in the past few days. But Bob Peoples said I should!

We got back to the hostel at 4PM and many more hikers had shown up. Another trip to town packed into the truck!

I woke up early the next morning (Tuesday May 8th) so ToCrows, Last Spot, and I could get dropped off at Lake Watauga and we continue north. We managed to make another stop at Dunkin Donuts before hitting the trail. We started hiking around 8:30AM and had a pretty easy few miles around the lake and over the dam. The trail went up and down all day, not very difficult but enough to keep us working hard. It got warm so we took plenty of breaks. By noon we had only gone about 7 miles. Last Spot started talking about hitting 30 miles by night hiking - “getting flirty with 30” he called it. We continued to make slow progress through the day.

We met a section hiker who was finishing up his hike at a parking lot down the trail and promised us Gatorades, so we walked and talked with him until we got to his car. By then it was approaching 8PM and had started raining. We cooked dinner in the parking lot as we drank our Gatorade. The rain stopped and we continued north through a cow pasture. I know it's easy to say you shouldn't be afraid of cows, but some of them were with their babies and blocking the trail and did not appear to want us to come closer. We probably wasted 15 minutes of daylight trying to get around these cows! It was dark the last 30 minutes we hiked but luckily the trail was nicely graded with very few rocks or roots. By 9:30PM we arrived at Double Spring Shelter (AT mile 451.6) after hiking 23.5 miles that day. Motivation to night hike and do 30 miles was gone after getting rained on.

I woke ToCrows and Last Spot up at 5:00AM (Wednesday May 9th, day 30!) and we were hiking by 5:30, excited knowing we would cross into Virginia and be in Damascus by the afternoon! ToCrows and I hiked the first 3.5 miles together to a parking lot where we had a big breakfast and waited for Last Spot who was struggling with a blister. A group of hikers we had seen on and off the past two days arrived - Translator, Santa, Hook, and Das Haut (unsure about that last trail name). They are a friendly group making good miles.

About 7 miles into the day we took a break at Queen's Knob Shelter, which is no longer maintained and leaning to one side, but it looked like maybe two people could sleep in there if they were desperate and the fire pit had recently been used. The bugs scared us off and we kept pushing forward. It was getting hot and I was getting irritable. ToCrows hiked ahead and Last Spot hiked behind so at least I didn't spoil anyone else's mood on such a nice day. At about 15 miles into the day I got to the Virginia border! Three states down! Virginia has the most amount of miles - over 500 so it'd be awhile before I'd see a new state. But it felt like a great milestone and gave me a boost of energy to make it the final 3 miles into Damascus (AT mile 469.9), making it a 18.3 mile day.

When I got to town I saw Giggles, Happy Feet, and Sticks who I had met at Kincora on Sunday - they were trying to hitch a ride so they could see someone's new baby..good luck to them. I got a message from ToCrows that he was at the Old Mill Inn having a drink so I joined him. It was just before 3 so we ate lunch and waited for Last Spot.

Sixlegs, who had hiked the trail in 2016 with his dog (hence the trail name) was driving down from DC for a visit! He had rented a tiny home on the Creeper Trail, so I checked in and showered and relaxed until he arrived around 8PM. I was excited to take a zero day - I had hiked from Hot Springs to Damascus, around 195 miles, in about 9 days! I was excited to see Sixlegs, hang out around Damascus, and eat! He was planning on hiking the next 40 miles with me through Grayson Highlands so I had a lot to look forward to!