Virginia is for Mainers, Hikers, and Lovers

Hi All,

We are doing well and are in Pearisburg VA at 622 miles from Springer. My parents came to visit from Maine and helped us slackpack (allowed us to day hike and shuttled us around) for two days. It was great to see them and to get to spend some time with them while they were on vacation (it almost never happens). We have been loving VA, it is by far our favorite state thus far, with easy terriain and more wildlife than the other states we have passed through. We also have been enjoying the warmer weather and lack of snow and rain. As you can see from two of the pictures we havn't been so lucky in the past.

The other pictures are of a snake that we saw along the trail ( a king snake we are told) around four feet long, and of a man who goes by the name Jake that we have been hiking with. He is a really great guy from Georgia that has spent many years on the trail and is full of great knowledge, which I probe him for at every oportunity ( I'm sure this comes as a big suprise to everyone who knows me). The picture with ponies is from Grayson Highlands State Park in southern Virginia. The US Forest Service maintains a heard of around 100 ponies that keep the area open and grazed down. This leads to a huge open area that resembles a high elevation pasture. The picture of Amanda and I standing near the sign for the Mt. Rogers NRA is actually the Tenn. / VA. state line. It seems odd but there is no sign to designate the border. Last is the picture of the horses and riders in the pond.

-Ben

If anyone out there knows how to arrange the pictures on the page and to place captions under them please help us out. We have yet to figure it out.

Damascus, VA

Greetings,
We arrived in Damascus, Virginia yesterday late afternoon after doing the "damascathon"( it was a 26 mile day over fairly mild terrain). We have now hiked ~460 miles of the trail and passed the 20% mark yesterday. The weather yesterday was still cool, but warmer and sunny and hopefully things will keep trending upwards. Both Ben and I are pretty tired of the cold, but are just taking things one step at a time literally. Once again I am at a library and the computer will not allow pictures to be downloaded...sorry we've got some good ones too!

We are planning to head out in just a bit so I will end this post with one amazing story.

O.k. here we go....I own a pair of Crocs (you know those strange rubber clog like things), they are my "camp shoes" a welcome change to the leather boots I wear all day. ~ 7 days ago after having walked ~12 miles we took our packs off for a rest and I realized one of my Crocs had fallen off my bag. Ugghhhh what a bummer I thought, but maybe someone will pick it up and bring it to the next shelter. Later that evening one hiker came into the shelter and I asked "did you happen to see a green croc on the trail?" She replied "yes I did." "Did you pick it up?" I asked. "No, I wasn't sure how long it had been there and didn't want to carry it for too long."
"oh too bad it was mine." She felt badly, but oh well. So I continued to carry my one Croc in my bag for ~4-5 days. We then stopped in Hampton, TN and stayed at a hostel for several nights to avoid more extreme weather. Well one of the evenings Ben, I and another fellow hiker were walking from the hostel to the grocery store in the rain when I looked up to see a car pulled over on the side of the road and a hiker whom I had previously met running towards me with my Croc!! He had carried it for 5 days and somehow had learned that it was mine, but he had no idea I was in that town. It was such a crazy coincidence. Now that's some trail magic for you.

We're heading out for a 75 mile stretch to Atkins, VA where our next box of food is. Hope everyone is well.

Love to you all!

O.k. Seriously It's Cold Outside!

Hi All,
We are in Hampton, TN. We are staying at a hostel here and originally planned on only spending last night, but we are supposed to be getting 2 inches of rain with winds up to 45mph tonight so staying in for another. The weather has been crazy! It has continued to be quite cold and was just starting to warm up but they are calling for snow tomorrow?!?
We've had some good and tough days since we left Erwin Monday AM. We left Erwin after a great FREE Easter Dinner put on by the famous "Miss Janet", a woman who will do just about anything to help a hiker out. With full tummy's we headed out Monday morning and have had 5 days of mileage in the range of 15-18/day. We ran into snow on Roan Mountain (it's above 6,000 ft) something I thought we had left behind when we left Maine. The day after Roan Mountain was just CRAZY! I have never walked in weather of this type in my life and I'm not sure I want to again. We climbed over 3-4 bald mountains (remember big and grassy) with temperatures in the 30's, wind blowing 50-70 miles per hour and rain coming at us sideways! It was a struggle just to stay on the trail and continue to climb upward. We walked from 8AM until 4:30PM in those conditions ahhhh! We made it, sorry no pictures were taken cause it was just not really possible...I did however manage to eat a pop tart while walking, but I almost went blind as the pop tart dust flew into my eyes :)

We plan to head out tomorrow morning and have ~ 2 days until we reach Damascus, VA which feels like we're really making progress.

Oh my back has been doing much better thanks to some good help from my momma and a fellow thru hiker who showed my a great yoga pose. I've improved my posture and am taking more stretch breaks.

Well as usual there are more stories, but I'm in an internet cafe that was closing when I arrived and the woman was kind enough to stay an extra 2o min for me so I've got to run. I'll post pictures next chance I get.

Love to you all!

Still in Erwin

Surviving a cold night

Ben on Big Bald

Filtering water

Fur therapy in Georgia

Hello from snowy Erwin, Tenn!

We are still here..taking a a little time to hopefully get my back feeling better and to avoid the cold.

Everyone reading please go to bed tonight telling themselves I will wake up tomorrow morning with the best feeling back on the planet.

Above are some more random photos from our trip.

Baby it's cold outside...

Our trailer hitch

Above me on "big bald"
Ben excited about his food! A Shelter in the Smokies

Hi All,

We are in Erwin, Tenn arrived here is afternoon. Many things to talk about, but I've got about 20 minutes until the Library here and my computer access goes away, so I'll do my best.

Well,we had our first true "zero" ( a day without any hiking) back in Hot Springs, which felt really good and we were reunited with "The Iron Chefs" friends we've been camping with on and off. We got to meet some of their family which was reallly nice.

So we left Hot Springs Monday AM and did our first 20 mile day and had another near 20 miles yesterday. On Monday as we (Ben, I and our friend Patrick) were hiking ~15 miles into the day we came accross a sign reading "attention thru hikers walk 300 yards to your left and up the driveway to pecan waffles, pulled pork, potato salad, beef stew homemade desserts etc. I was having what I now know is called "town tummy" when your stomach doesn't know what to do with real food so looked to Ben who of course with a huge smile said "we're going". Let's just say I've never seen Ben consume so much in a hour period the folks who brought us into their home hiked the trail in 1999 and were just amazing. Ben had a root beer float followed by pecan waffles, fruit salad, pulled pork, potato salad, homemade bread and butter, a huge brownie sundae and more! Trail magic here is just amazing!!

So in regards to the title of this post, Monday and Tuesday were warm days in the 70's and we were hiking in shorts and t-shirts with sunburns then yesterday a cold front came through with some rain and we awoke this morning to cold and snow! I thought we left Maine??? The cold is supposed to be here for the next few days ( in the teens in the town so likely single digits at night in the mountains, burr!!). One more note yesterday we went over "Big Bald" it was my favorite place thus far, amazing 360 degree views and just a huge grassy summit, it was cold and windy but made my day!

We are both still well, my back has been giving me a little trouble but other than that all is good.

I'm going to try to at least get one picture on here in the next 10 minutes that I have.

Oh yeah we have now hiked 340 miles!!

Love to everyone!!