The forecast called for rain last night but we made it through the night without any at all– until now. I awoke to the sounds of rain spitting on my tent. Packing up a wet tent and carrying it on your back all day is never fun. I typically like to take my time in the morning but with the constant pitter-patter of rain on my tent I was motivated to get up and get things packed before everything got soaked. Within 15 – 20 minutes I had everything shoved in my backpack and made my way to the shelter to check on the others.

Just as I found a spot to sit on the shelter floor both Double Stuff and Wild Card got up. They just finished packing up their things, snapped their packs on, and jumped down to the ground to start their hike for the day. I wasn’t quite ready to hike yet so we said fare well to one another as they stepped back onto the AT and disappeared into the forest. About at that time Rambles rolls over in his sleeping bag and lights his first cigarette of the day. I chuckled to myself. Not even out of his sleeping bag and already smoking. It’s amazing how some of these guys can smoke and pound out 15 – 20+ miles a day.

The Colonel finished packing up his belongings and sat down next to me. He’s hiking the AT in 3 years. So essentially doing about 733 miles a year. He has a van he drives to one part of the trail, hikes for days, then gets a shuttle back to his van. He said he started doing this, this year, as it cuts down on the costs of relying on shuttles all of the time. He’s able to get back to Michigan, where he lives, for less too, instead of renting vehicles one way every year as well.

We discussed our plans for the day. His van was parked 14 miles ahead of us. Mulligan and I planned on hiking to a hostel up ahead. When we stopped at this shelter the night before, we stopped a little short of where we needed to be, to make it to the hostel by nightfall the next day. There was a really bad storm coming in today and was supposed to last all weekend. We were running low on food too. So it was time to resupply. The Colonel offered to take us into town if we planned on stopping where his van was located 14 miles ahead. 14 miles isn’t a bad day at all. Since Mulligan wasn’t up yet, I told the Colonel I’d talk to him about this later today and perhaps we’d see him in the parking lot later.

Again I was fortunate to start my day off on flat land (not climbing a mountain). The trail meandered its way down hill for a few miles until coming to an open field and farm on the left. I stopped and snapped a few pics before moving on. I came out of the woods into more farm pastures and a big old grey barn. The trail followed a dirt road across a creek beside an old house. In the yard were two abandoned cars. One of them was the first car I ever owned…a Nissan Pulsar! This one was red. Mine was black. It brought back some memories though. Memories of when I was 16 years old in high school. Man those were the days. Not a care in the world. I snapped some pics and moved on.

I passed an old abandoned barn next. It hadn’t been occupied in a long time. Well maybe by one of us HoBos hiking the trail if the weather got really bad. It was falling apart though and looked dangerously close to collapsing. I climbed a steep hill next that seemed to go on forever. I made my way to the top and walked along a ridgeline that was covered with these huge stones piled up every 20 yards or so. I wasn’t sure why they were there but it was pretty cool to see. I captured some video walking through it.

I was really low on water but knew a water source was coming up soon. The only challenge was, it was .5 miles off the trail. That might not sound like a lot, but when its straight down hill, it means you have to climb back up it, and 2 half miles = 1 extra mile for the day. I didn’t have a choice though so I headed down the hill. I was bit ahead of Mulligan and the Colonel. I figured I could go refill myself, then bring back a litter or two for the others– so they wouldn’t need to make the trek down the hill and back as well. I dropped my pack and headed down the steep decline to the bottom.

There was a really nice, newer shelter, at the bottom. Not too much further was the first water source. It was a natural spring that was pretty deep down in a stone walled well. I saw a sign pointing to another water source further away. Since the well was pretty deep I decided to look for the other water source. I found the location of the old, original shelter. It was in pretty bad shape and falling apart as well.

A bit further was an old homesite with two large fireplaces. The house, when it was there, had a nice view of the mountains. Next to it was the creek and the 2nd water source I was looking for. Wow, I thought. A house with a creek and view of the mountains. What a nice spot. I have no idea how they would have gotten up to this place though. Maybe there was a road back then. We had to climb a pretty steep hill to get up here. Too steep for any cars or horses to travel. This would be a great place to camp as well. But I was just there for water. So I pounded a litter of water myself, filled up two more litters, snapped some more photos, and headed back up the hill.

When I got to the top of the steep climb back up I grabbed my pack and sat down on a large boulder under a shady tree. I was surprised no one had caught up to me yet. I sat and ate lunch quietly by myself. It was a beautiful day. It was supposed to rain but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I finished my lunch, which happened to be all of the food I had left. I knew we were going into town to resupply later today so I wasn’t too worried. Being out in the middle of nowhere with no food is a little unsettling though.

I got a text from Mulligan. He saw a bear cub in a tree not too far from the trail. He knew where there was a cub, there was a mama bear. He didn’t see her though. So he traced his steps backwards until he got to a clearing a good distance from where he saw the cub. He wanted to give them some space. After some time he ventured back into the woods and didn’t see the cub, or the mama bear, so he continued on his path north towards my location

Mulligan and the Colonel finally showed up. I gave them the water I brought up the hill for them. About that time Saunter caught up as well. Mulligan discussed how I was completely out of food so Saunter graciously offered me some of his. I felt bad taking any as I knew I’d be resupplying later in the day. He insisted though. I thanked him for his kindness and told him I’d repay him later. He said that wouldn’t be necessary. Mulligan and I decided to take Colonel’s offer up to meet him at his van and get a ride into town. Saunter was interested in doing the same. So we agreed to meet at the next shelter.

We climbed up and found ourselves scaling large rockface ledges walking almost vertically straight up at times. The views were breathtaking. Mulligan, myself and Saunter decided to take a break, take in the views, and wait for the Colonel for a bit. We snapped some photos, and even took some of each other for once, and grabbed some water while we waited. Still no Colonel so we marched on.

We came to the Eastern Continental Divide sign. It read 1920 miles to the Gulf of Mexico and 405 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. We snapped some more pics and carried on. We made it to the shelter, our meeting point, dropped our bags and headed down another slightly sloped hill to refill on water again. We returned to the shelter and met several new hikers: Little Blade, Mama Lion, Maine Man and Foundation.

Foundation was a young guy in his early 20’s. He was knocking out some big miles. He did 30 miles this day and 40 miles the day before. He too was looking for a ride into town. Little Blade was just stopping for a break. She took some time to hike with her father so she fell behind her Tramily. She needed to put in some pretty big miles to catch them, but she was determined to do so.

We learned Saunter was a nurse who lived in VA, close to the mid-way point on the AT around Harper’s Ferry. While talking to him he told me he purchased some insoles that weren’t working out for him so he offered them to me. I took them and put them in on top of my other insoles that came with my trail runners. The felt pretty good. While talking to the other hikers we learned that Evergreen got off the AT due to an ankle injury and wasn’t going to be returning. That was sad. He was such a nice guy.

Colonel caught up with us. He was beat. 14 miles was a big day for him. He was averaging about 10 miles a day. I was so impressed with this gentlemen. He was 50+ years old and weighed 300+ lbs. He took a break at the shelter with us, had a snack, got some water, and we were off again heading towards his van. My feet felt amazing. The extra insoles made a world of difference. I felt like I was floating and I could run. I didn’t run but my pace was pretty fast– especially for it being the end of the day. I was twirling my trekking poles as I walked like some sort of Kungfu master. This startled some deer we passed grazing in the woods just off the trail.

We made it to Colonel’s van at dusk and all piled in. The Colonel’s hotel was in Christiansburg, so that’s where we were all headed. On the way we found a restaurant in Blacksburg called Abby’s. We decided to stop there for dinner. We had a nice size group with us. It was me, Mulligan, Colonel, Saunter and Foundation. We all washed up, sat down, and quickly ordered our dinner. We were starving. I had two entrees. I had a big burger and the special was open face roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy. It was amazing. We all went from starving to stuffed pretty quickly.

He headed back to the Colonel’s hotel, grabbed a few rooms, unpacked our stuff, showered, and crashed into our beds. As I laid there I thought about how strangely cool it was for 5 almost complete strangers to meet, have dinner together, and then sleep in the same rooms with one another. Mulligan I had known and hiked with for weeks. The Colonel and Saunter we just met within the past few days. Foundation we just met a few hours ago. And here we all were sleeping in the same rooms together. The culture on the AT is so trusting. It’s too bad the rest of the world couldn’t be like this… [5/10/19]

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