Reeds Gap (near Waynesboro, VA)

I left town late with Shoofly and Nero, but only scheduled 11.3 miles to Wilson Creek Shelter. The leaves are finally here, so the scenery is changing a bit. We've been hiking without them for two months, so I'm actually looking forward to the long green tunnel.

This part of the AT in Virginia has some longer climbs. It is true that there is a great deal of ridge walking in VA, but there are also days where you go uphill for miles.We slowed down a bit here because of a planned meeting with Vachon (AT '08) and his wife Mary Lynn who have invited me to slack pack when we get near their house. Like a typical thru-hiker, I had to bring along a couple of extras, so I invited Shoofly and Nero to come along.

We hiked to Middle Creek Campground and stayed the night with Maniac. Its unfortunate that this campground is more than a mile off the trail because its a fun little stop and they make burgers and fries. We were able to get a ride from Steve in his pick-up. He came around the corner at the perfect time and left us each with a beer.

The following day, I saw my first rattlesnake of this hike and ran into some folks I hadn't seen for a bit. We cross the Blue Ridge Parkway pretty regularly since leaving Daleville. At the shelter that night, we met John Hastey who drove up the BRP and brought in dinner! He made us all eggs, sausage, and pancakes. His trail name is "Angle" because of a misspelling on a thank you card he received.

We headed out later on the next day because we were only going to the James River to meet Mary Lynn.  This day was beautiful, and this little section before the river is really nice and fairly easy walking. We met section hikers Gerda and Papa Doc. They get to the shelter at 2pm and set up for the night. We were pretty amazed by this because we usually eat lunch around that time. We got to the shelter early and decided to cook dinners for lunch because we had extra food. We hung out for a bit and tried to stay dry once the showers started but we got a little wet when we finally left for the bridge.

Mary Lynn greeted us with hugs and ice cream at the James River and so began 5 days of incredible Southern Hospitality. We went back to Casa Lipscomb and had venison roast for dinner. Yum. We decided to zero the next day and we helped our hosts plant potatoes and corn, saw a movie, and went to lunch. Oh the luxury.

We had to get back to work after the day off, and we slackpacked 22.5 miles on the first day of the great slack-pack-athon, and 25.1 the next day. On the third day, I got very sick, but hiked anyway and it will now be known as my worst day on the trail ever. I was nauseous the whole time but luckily made it. I had to take the next day off.

I am writing this from Marie's parents house where I have been for the last few days attending the wedding events for her brother, Pete and his new wife Leah. Last night was super fun, margarita filled, and lots of dancing. Its gonna be hard to get back on the trail, but I've got miles to go...