Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Pearisburg, VA to Daleville, VA

Mile 724
We got out of Pearisburg early and were back on the trail at 8:30. Our destination that night was "The Captain's". The Captain lives on property bordering the AT and invites thru hikers to camp in his yard or sleep on his back porch, drink sodas he provides from a mini fridge, and use his bathroom. The best part of this setup is that in order to get to his yard, you need to cross a decent size creek. He's rigged up a zip line, complete with a caribiner to clip your pack to. We have pictures, but they were taken with the camera and we can only post photos from Beau's phone. There were three other hikers there we hadn't met before, but had heard of, so we had a fun evening with them. The other highlight from the experience was their persistent border collie dropping sticks on our sleeping bags early the next morning and barking.
The trail was a little less populated this week because of trail days. Trail Days is an annual festival in Damascus celebrating the AT and many hikers take time off from hiking to attend. We didn't want to leave the trail for that long and decided we'd rather go next year and make a vacation out of it.
One of the shelters we went to this week was a little readjustment (probably because it was within a mile of a road) and we were debating tenting instead. Then Beau spotted a tan snake in it... And another under it... And later another, this one orange and white striped, near it. Nope! We also read in the log book that there were multiple snakes in the privy.
We got to McAfee Knob a couple days ago, and it is fantastic. Photos below.
One last note. Cicadas are out in full force and it is gross.


 

2 comments:

  1. Since no one has commented on your blog about your photo on the top, and you got 29083472908347 comments on facebook, I figured I'd say this here: AWESOME PICTURE!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, great pictures and keep 'em coming!

    I sort of like your plan regarding Trail Days. Maybe it's because I am getting older but I can't imagine stopping the hike for many days to join the party? I may plan on doing exactly what you two did as that sounds good. You'll be able to really enjoy Trail Days later too with many fond memories of now. Awesome!

    Are you two getting along ok? I have read where this sort of adventure is very difficult on a couple. Some it brings closer together, so I wish you both that. :)

    Looking forward to reading more.

    Hike on!

    ReplyDelete