I awoke in my tent. I slept pretty well. The weather has been fairly nice lately. Not too hot, not too cold. And obviously it gets a little cooler at night but it’s comfortable. I got a little work done, did some writing, made and ate a quick breakfast, packed my stuff, and was ready to hit the trail. The others had already left the campsite… except for Mulligan and I as usual. I told him I was off and I’d see him up the trail.

One thing I may not have mentioned is, Mulligan was in the marine corps. Which you can imagine is very structured. Because of this he wants nothing to do with structure, organization, or planning out here on the AT. Which was rather challenging for me to adjust to in the beginning. Seeing how I live my life that way. Planning, tracking, reporting everything to a “T”. I started doing this for my business. It transitioned over into my personal life… since I’ve worked for myself for so long. So parting ways and saying “I’ll see you up the trail” is not like me at all. Especially when you’d like to and “plan” on seeing the other person later. It has worked out for the most part so far. One of us will get ahead of the other but we stop and take breaks so we eventually run into each at some point.

I climbed a mountain and walked on a ridge line for quite some time. I got a taste of what is known as “the green tunnel”. Virginia is known for it but this is the first I’ve seen of it. It’s when the trees and foliage come in and block your views. So it feels like you’re just hiking in a green tunnel of leaves forever.

As I hiked I listened to Mighty Blue’s podcast. Again he’s hiking the AT this year and just ahead of me. So by listening to his latest episodes I can learn about things like the terrain, restaurants, hostels and hotels ahead of me. This episode he was interviewing a guy I met called Bed Pan. When I met this guy and he told me that was his name I thought it was strange, but didn’t question how he got his name. I thought maybe he got up in the middle of the night a lot to pee or something. So he needed a bed pan. Nope. He’s a nurse.

He was being interviewed because he had a story to tell. He got off the trail, went to a nearby hotel, and got bed bugs. He discussed how he had to get rid of them. Basically wash all of his stuff, including his backpack, in scorching hot water, then in the dryer in medium heat. He couldn’t dry everything and high heat because his pack would catch on fire (so he was told by the manufacturer of the pack). It worked though. He was able to continue his hike with all of his gear and clothes… bed bug free.

I finally came down out of the green tunnel to some beautiful views of mountains and rolling hills. I crossed over a long suspension bridge spanning the width of a river. Before I left camp this morning, Mulligan and I did discuss stopping at a convenient store off the trail a ways down the road. So I headed that way.

I arrived and he was sitting outside eating. I grabbed a drink and some food and sat outside with him. We discussed hiking a little further to see Dismal Falls before my cousin Terri picked me up in the afternoon. We had time to get there and get back so we figured why not. We finished our food and headed that way.

Dismal Falls was beautiful. Sweat Cicles was there and another guy Mulligan knew, Kiwi, was there also. It was a popular place to camp because of the waterfall, but also because it was close to the convenient store. You could buy food, drinks, including alcohol, and carry it a short distance, setup camp, and spend the night there. The water was deep so you could take a dip too if you needed to wash the sweat off after a long days hike.   We hung out and talked with them for a bit about our experiences on the trail over the past few days.

We parted ways and headed back to the store to wait for my cousin to arrive. While waiting Fire Plug showed up. He told us Bacon, who we hiked with a few days ago, went to the emergency room because he was peeing blood. Apparently he hiked 26 miles without water so he got really dehydrated. Wow that’s dangerous! It sounded like he was going to be ok though, seeing how he was already back out on the trail hiking again.

My cousin, Terri, arrived. It was so great to see her. We gave each other a big hug and then chatted for a bit discussing our plans for the next few days. Mulligan needed to get to Pearisburg, VA. Terri said she’d be happy to take him. Which was really nice as it was in the opposite direction we were heading. We hoped in her car and were off. Mulligan was going to stay in a hotel for a few days doing his video work, while I visited with Terri and her family. We dropped him off and headed to Sparta, VA.

Terri and I talked for hours catching up on things. We grabbed some food on the way… which I of course scarfed down within minutes. We arrived at her house. It’s a beautiful large log home with a view of mountains off the back porch. Her husband, Scott, and son, John Michael, pulled into their driveway within minutes of our arrival. I smiled and greeted Scott by shaking his hand. He smiled back and told me he had the perfect thing for us to do while I visited them. I said, “oh yeah, what’s that?” He said, “how about we go hiking!?” We both laughed as he clearly was joking. He knew that would be the last thing I’d be interested in doing on my break from hiking the AT 🙂

They took me on a tour of their house, showed me to my room, and collected my dirty hiker clothes to be washed. I unpacked my backpack, showered, and joined them in the living room. We talked for hours. It was really nice being out of the woods, clean, comfortable, and catching up with family I hadn’t seen in years. It was getting petty late so we decided to call it a night and retire to our bedrooms for the evening.

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