I awoke in my “he shed” out behind Woodchuck Hostel. It got pretty cold last night. Like I think I would have been warmer in my sleeping bag in my tent. The little electric heater in my room didn’t do much good. But regardless, I got some sleep, and I had some privacy in the morning to work a little more before venturing into the hostel for a shower.

When I got into the hostel there was a group getting ready to go out for breakfast at the Damascus Diner. They asked me if I wanted to join. “Sure!” I said. They were leaving in 15 minutes. Just enough time for me to take a shower and get ready. We hoped in a van and off we went. The lady working at the hostel dropped us off. They had a big table waiting on us. As soon as we got there they brought out the food.

It was me, Spirit, Sookie, Tom and a few new folks I hadn’t met yet…Candy man and Ocean. The food was really good. We had juice and coffee, eggs, bacon, biscuits, fruit, and waffles. The breakfast was part of our stay. It was something new, the new hostel owner was doing. The staff asked us how we liked it and if there was anything different they could do to improve things. They suggested cereal and oatmeal. We told them we eat that on the trail. So definitely not that. Real food, meats, fruits, pancakes and waffles, are all good.

We finished up our meal and the hostel van was there to pick us up and take us back. We got back and packed up. We all seemed to be heading in separate directions, or north but at different times, so I headed back up the trail by myself.

There was a slightly steep climb back up into the woods. Another beautiful walk with creeks and small waterfalls to start the day off. I saw a nice paved bike path following alongside an amazing creek that looked big enough enough be considered a river. This was the Virginia Creeper. The Virginia Creeper is a 34.3 recreation trail, that traverses thru Abingdon and Damascus, and ends in Mount Rogers.

I’ve heard some hikers rent bikes and ride this part of the trail vs hiking it. A “Purest” is someone who hikes the entire trail and never skips a white blaze. Yellow blazers are hikers who hitch rides with automobiles and skip parts of the trail. I wonder what they call those who ride bikes and skip parts of the trail? Anyway, walking or riding a bike on the Virginia Creeper would be amazing. The rushing creeks were wide and deep. There were people of all ages on bikes zipping by.

I continued my trek through the woods following the white blazes. I came out on top of a hill looking down at a road and a nice new footbridge leading a couple, who just parked their truck, across the creek away from me. They stopped for a second to admire the creek and continued into the woods on the other side. I came down the hill, crossed the bridge, took some pics, and followed down the other side into the woods behind them.

I wasn’t more than 50 feet into the woods when I heard a woman moaning. I glanced to me left and saw the couple about 15-20 feet off of the trail. I heard more moaning when I noticed the woman was up against the tree with her shirt hiked up and the man was behind her with his pants down. They heard me, stopped and looked back at me. I quickly shifted my focus ahead of me and kept walking pretending like I didn’t see them! I didn’t know what else to do. Of course as I walked off I thought of all kinds of witty things to say like “looking good”, “need a hand?”, “fire in the hole.” Virginia’s state slogan is “Virginia is for lovers”… now I see why ?

I ran into Savage and Bruiser. We hiked for a bit before getting split up. I met a few new hikers….Honey Bun, Pretzel and Which Way. Of course I was telling everybody about the “wildlife” I saw earlier that day. We hiked for a bit before stopping for lunch. I had leftover pizza from last nights dinner. We had some left over and no one wanted to carry it out so I did. It was cold but better there trail food. So I scarfed it down. We finished our lunch and continued on hiking together.

We had huge climb to the top of a mountain. I passed Ocean about halfway up. I asked where she was headed for the evening. She told me not the next shelter but the one after. That was my plan as well so I told her I’d see her there. Not too much further was the next shelter though and I was running low on water. So I went with the others there to resupply. They planned on staying there for the evening.

When I arrived at the shelter there were quite a few people there. And amazingly, I knew almost everyone. Bruiser and Savage were there, Sookie, Spirit and Tom, were there. Then Honey Bun, Pretzel and Which Way were there too. Up and Over, and a few new guys I hadn’t met yet… Early, Pirate and Goat, were hunkering down in the shelter. I said hello to everyone and got my water and was about to leave. It was getting late and it was nice knowing so many people here. I was contemplating staying. Pretzel starts chanting “one of us, one of us, one of us” so how could I leave? I decided to stay. I setup camp and joined several people at the shelter table for dinner.

After eating I helped Savage and Bruiser collect wood for a fire. We got the fire going and all sat around it. Not everyone knew each other so I listened as they became acquainted with one another. Spirit told us about losing her son. He had major substance abuse issues, overcame them, started hiking the AT, and had a heart attack, and died She feels closer to him on the AT. She feels his…Spirit.

A guy by the name of Mulligan came in pretty late. He chatted with the guys at the shelter for a few minutes before finding a spot for his tent and setting it up.

I was trying to bring everyone together but there were just too many people to all sit around the fire. So Pretzel, Honey Bun and  Which Way stayed by their tents and ate dinner. I went over to chat with them before heading to my tent to see what the game plan was for tomorrow. They were getting up at 5am and heading out for a 20+ mile day ? Yikes. I told them I’d try to catch up with them later.

I said goodnight to everyone and climbed in my tent, caught up on some work and writing, and curled up in my sleeping bag and passed out.

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