Crocs at pearisburg, va. 634 miles

April 28  camped 18 miles north of Damascus 486 Miles

Left town around 12 feeling tired and without motivation even though Blue Blaze had told me the night before that I could take the Creeper Trail, which was easier than the AT and ran parallel with the AT for a number of miles. I planned to listen to the audiobook Lolita on the path, a classic that I have never had the patience to read. Easier than Dostoyevsky I reckoned.
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So I walked through Damascus and onto the Creeper. It was basically a bike path with wholesome looking families riding by in their helmets.
It was weird and incongruous to listen to a novel (read by actor Jeremy Irons) which told in the first person of a highly educated pedophile who was obsessed with a 12 year old girl and who took advantage of her for years; and then walk by these happy innocent folk on their bicycles.
I think old neurotic Poe would have enjoyed the disconnect.

Along the way I came across a six people under a tent selling food to raise money  for a Creationist Museum in Ohio. I definitely had to put Lolita away for this meeting. They were very gracious and fed me chicken, cake and Mt. Dew but they refused my donation because I was a hiker. God bless them and though I am not a Creationist I wished them the best of luck.


Getting Willingly Lost
At a certain point, about thirteen miles, the AT hit the Creeper, and I was supposed to get on it.
But I kept going on the Creeper. I dont know why I did it. I was enjoying walking on flat ground by a river, listening to Lolita, and so I just kept on walking.
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After a while, a few more miles, I walked into a lush landscape and saw deer in the fields and rabbits bouncing across my path and heard deep throated bullfrogs and crickets. Things you rarely see or hear on the trail. I loved it and I didn't want to stop walking in this lush wonderland.

But I began to get worried that this trail was leading me far away from the AT. I remember seeing the map that old Blue Blaze showed me the night before. Didn't the Creeper go South? and I needed to go North on the AT. Well, I didn't want to go back. This trail had to lead somewhere where I could figure out where to go. I hoped so anyway.

I walked till I saw some houses. I crossed the river that I had been walking alongside and started walking down an old country road with little houses alongside it.
I saw a lady in a gray dress hoeing in her garden.  I asked her how to get to the AT.
She told me I could go back 6 miles on the trail that I had taken or take a gravel road  a mile and then go another 2 miles on the highway to where it crosses the AT. I opted to do the latter.

It was a beautiful walk down the gravel road cutting through rolling hills and seeing farmhouses perched in  green pastures and acres of Christmas trees being grown.

I walked the highway hoping that the lady was not delusional, but she was not as I saw the AT on the right. I walked the AT a mile or so and then it was around 7:00 PM and getting dark so I decided to pitch a tent anywhere.
Then I came across a  group pitched behind a rock: Jody, Gears, and Early. There was also a Negro lady who was pitched next to me doing a section hike. The only Negro person I've seen on the trail.
It was a beautiful clear night and not too windy so I pitched a fast fly, ate dinner along with the hikers, and fell fast asleep.
Funny how much I walked that day after feeling so down that afternoon. Maybe I just needed some Me time.

April 29. Grayson Highlands State Park 500 miles

When I woke up Early was gone. That's why they call him Early. I left around 7:30 on a clear day with my new shoes that had got a good 18 mile workout the day before. I liked them so far.

It was a typical day through the woods with nice weather. I was looking forward to seeing the Ponies. Some say it is the highlight of the whole Hike. I remember fourteen year old Spring Dancer was especially excited about seeing them.
At the top of Buzzard Rock was a very beautiful Meadow and then a few miles later after ascending  a pretty steep climb, I came out into a field where there were 20 or so brindled ponies in a huge rolling valley and meadow.
They are partly famous because they will come up to you. I am sure hundreds of hikers have made their acquaintance.
But today sitting by huge boulder in the meadow I saw that they were further afield and I did not feel like pursuing them. I ate a couple of tuna roll ups and relaxed and headed on.
When I got to the local shelter it smelled like piss so I decided to tent somewhere down the trail in Grayson Highlands State Park. LaterI was told the Ponies came to the shelter. That accounts for the smell I guess.
I walked into the rhododendron trail into the Park which was filled with day campers setting up near the Pony meadow. After I set up my tent and ate, I looked at my guidebook to plan for tomorrow and I realized that I had reached the 500 mile mark. But I wasn't that excited about it. Oh well.

April 30  Orchard Shelter 509 miles
I took too many of those sleep aid capsules; last night three of them. I woke up amongst other weekend campers in the Rhododendron shrubs that line the trail. Perhaps that's what was making me down, these sleep aids. No more of them.

 It was pretty rocky leaving there  with hardly any ground to walk on for about a mile. Then I came out on a meadow where there were a few horses.
 I met a middle-aged guy taking a group of boys out for a two day trip.
He was amazed that I could or would want to walk to Maine.
He said how do you handle the rain? It was wet this morning.
 I thought that was nothing you should be there when it actually does rain.
 But what I said was being a thru-hiker is like being a hippie marine, walking is part of the job and the joy and the challenge. It requires perseverance but it's all up to you. It's your hike, you do it your way--which is the hippie part.
Yeah, I don't see me doing it. I don't like getting wet. Boys did you hear that? He is walking to Maine. Boys? ...Boys!

The trail is an obstacle course and an amusement park and a bitch. But isn't all art that way? Isn't putting yourself into any pastime or pursuit only really satisfying if it is challenging? And if the result is beautiful or interesting somehow? What good is turning out stuff just for the money if you don't enjoy doing it, if it's just the usual grind?

The weather is a part of the trail. The heat the cold the wind the rain the sunshine are all part of it, the crazy amusement and challenge of it all.
 But really it's all about the walk, the Zen of walking, the rhythm of the walk, the step by step heartbeat and breath of the walk. And the Creeper Trail was a nice change. But in the long run it would be a bore to walk on level ground for more than twenty miles. That's not hiking because you are walking on man-made material and so you become a machine, a unit, and not a human animal.

I was tired when I left Greyson Highlands and I could barely keep my eyes open when I arrived at Orchard shelter. Why was I so tired? I realized the last day two days I was trying out the sleep aid that I got from the drugstore. That had to be it because I relaxed enough in Damascus.
I meant Gerbil, the German couple, and Eight-Track at Orchard. Gerbil and the German couple went on and I retired to my tent early. That German guy wouldn't give me one of his thirty or forty tortillas when I asked for one. Not hiker friendly. 8-track gave one and was surprised to at the guy's tight behavior. Eight -track, a Seventies guy obviously, has shin splint problem and his wife is coming down from Michigan to help.

It was supposed to rain tomorrow but I needed my space in the tent .

May 1 Trimpi Shelter  522 miles

I woke up at 3 AM and had a couple of trail bars. At 730 AM it was raining and I saw people packing up. But I went back to sleep and didn't get out of there until 10 o'clock. I knew I needed the rest.
It rained all morning but the wind and the drizzle was refreshing, better than sweat. And I had a good night sleep without drugs. I walked three miles and stopped at Hurricane Shelter and had a tuna packet, a nice privy break, and let my clothes dry during a downpour.
Around 130 sun came out and I left to the next shelter 9 miles away. It started raining again but it was nice hike anyway. Never underestimate the power of sleep. When I do, I regret it.
I came across eight tracks wife. She was in an RV when I came out of woods onto a road. She invited me in and I got a couple of beers and some chicken and deviled eggs! Nice! Hated to leave.
When I got to the next shelter, Trimpi Shelter,  I saw Eight-track and John Boat and a few other guys there. I gave him some of his wife's cake and he gave me a bud. Trail magic indeed.

May 2  econolodge/Marion va.  532 miles
Walked with personal trainer the next morning until he left me in the dust. Eight-track was hurting and taking it easy and John Boat with his huge pack was in major foot pain when I passed him. His pack must be 45 to 50 pounds at least. Too much I think.
Had a blister but I didn't mind. Taped it up.
Got to town and got a room and a shower and hung my tent out over the TV  to dry.
Caught a taxi to the laundry and went for BBQ and bluegrass. I called 8 track and Kathy and we had a good time listening to the Tennessee Stud.
Got back to the Indian run motel. What is it that all the dumpy motels are run by Indians? Toilet ran all night.
Resupplied for five days on the trail at the dollar general.

May 3 relax inn/Atkins va 543.8 miles
I didn't want to stay in another Patel motel but I did again.
Today, I passed the quarter mark of the thruhike. Met Skip and we almost ran a few miles for a hamburger at The Barn in Atkins. He is in his twenties and I had to zoom to keep up with him. We came across a turn of the century schoolhouse that had been restored. Old desks and benches and inkwells. Students left school at age ten to work the fields.
Most of the hikers were more into the food-laden hiker box that a church group left in the schoolroom rather than the school itself.

Skip wanted to get that hamburger before it closed at eight PM. . Wow, it was a beautiful valley and pastureland that we sped through.  Fragrant grasses waist high and blooming trees with white blossoms. My first taste of Virginia, open fields. Nice.
Arrived at 8, just at closing. Shared a room at a Patel hole with cobwebs in the medicine cabinet.
That is racist, to call this a Patel, says Skip.
Yes, I said, it could be.

May 4 knot maul branch shelter 558 miles

I walked 15 miles in a hurry to beat rain but the rain arrived late. We had a nice fire with Fish Sticks and Blink and a nice young couple with two huskies. Then it began to pour.

May 5 chestnut knob shelter  567.7 miles
Left shelter around nine thirty with Skip. I fell behind on a five mile long long hill. A cloudy day. Skip and Fish going to do 20 miles but when I got to the top of the hill and saw a beautiful view and a stone, not a lumber, shelter with a picnic table inside,  I decided to stay. 10 miles was enough.
Told Skip to move on and meet up with that girlfriend he is really running fast for. Doubt I'll see him for a long while if at all. It is what it is.

Nice stone shelter with widows and a door even. Have not seen this. Met the girl, lumberjack, and the couple inside the shelter. I haven't seen those three in two months.
Before I fell asleep I got a phone message from my wife. Guess where we are she says.
At Marlows drinking beer and cocktails and having great family fun.
Guess where I am I typed. I took a picture of the wood bunks and the people all wrapped up in clothes in their bags on the wood bunks.
My brother said: You look like a French Communist with your black shirt. You need a beret. He had watched too many WW11 flicks and probably had one or two beers.
But I wasn't in the mood. It was cold for May 5 and I was wrapped up tight. The whole thing was off-putting. I couldn't come close to getting their sense of humor.
Then a noisy girl came in the door in the dark and parked next to me on the wood slab. I got up and went to pee outside.
Are you all right she said.
A weird question. Yes, I replied.

May 6 Jenkins shelter    578.6 miles
The girl next to me was an Indian lady named Gotta Go. We left together at 730 in a cold wind, a cloudy mist on top of that hill and hail. She said she was slow. The temperature stayed in the 20's all morning and I kept blowing into my hands to keep them warm.
By the afternoon the Indian girl with the white streak in her hair passed me like a bullet. She said that lunch had given her some power and she was going to do twenty miles to get into town.
Gotta Go is not slow.

That afternoon was nice if rocky and hard on my pedals. What's new?

May 7 wapiti shelter  616 miles miles
I left the shelter at seven. Shuttled into Bland and resupplied at a grocery store.
Then I hitched a ride to Trent's Grocery with a guy just out of prison. Nice guy with a hard luck story of job and romance. He wouldn't take any money. Small towns in America suffer today with the loss of jobs. How can grown people survive on nine dollars an hour in this economy?

Walked to Walpiti Shelter and  sat around a fire with a bunch of guys and girls.
We talked about trail  names.
Someone mentioned that a guy named Jim picked up a bag lying on the trail. He looked into the bag and he  pulled out a dildo.
And that's how Jim got the name Dildo Baggins.

Later a serious girl who had hiked the Pacific Trail joined us at the fire.
We talked about the differences between walking the desert and the Sierra's and the high social climate of the AT.
Your trail name is Blue Sky, someone said. So what was your husband's name?
Well, I don't like to say it, because it's not a good name. A little embarrassing really.
Yeah.
It wouldn't be Dildo Baggins, would it?  I said.

We all laughed.
No, she said, not getting the reference, it was Scout. Like Boy Scout.
Yeah, we said. That could be embarrassing.


May 8 Pearisburg, Va.   634 Miles
Left at 7:30 under cold and cloudy sky.
Momentum caught up with me and we walked the 18 miles into Pearisburg. Then Minnie Mouse joined us and we had a nice chatty walk which is kind of rare for us we agreed.
By the time we got to town my peds were really aching from all those rocks however.
I checked into the Holiday Motor Lodge and got a good shower in.
But the place was expensive for this hiker.

May 9  Pearisburg, Va.  634 Miles

Getting low on money. Spending too much money at these little motels. Need to stay out on the trail more. It's raining the next four days. Bummer.

I moved to a thirty bunk room for twenty a night. Damn if the overhead lights wouldn't turn off in the room. There were birds behind the room of the bathroom. But I had the whole place to myself.

Then around 8 a guy came in and offed me a sip of moonshine and settled into a bed.

He said he had been in town four days. That he had spent 17 thousand on the trail last year.

Wow, I thought, I though the few thousand that I had spent on inappropriate gear and shoes and food-for-a week and motels was way too much. I knew I had to tighten up.

It can  get expensive out here. Lots of people have left the trail because they ran out of money.
Many spend over a $125 a week on food alone.

This guy looked a little pudgy and a little depressed. He could have been tired. But he had been in town 4 days. It didn't look like he had been walking the trail. By this time most of us look skeletal and he looked flabby. He had been in town a lot I guessed. That's how he spent 17K.

The next morning I looked in the Hiker's Box, the box most hiker motels have for hiker's that leave behind shirts, food, books, etc. for other hikers. In it I saw a book on suicide that wasn't there when I went to bed.

When I left the next morning, I left the guy an orange alongside his book. I hope that perks him up a bit.

I went and bitched  about  the lights and she said you don't have to use them words. There is no refund.
I didn't expect one but maybe they will fix the electrical outlet for Depressed Guy if I bitched enough.

I was ready for the trail.