Damascus to Pearisburg VA

Greetings from Mile 637

  

April 25th at 5:45pm

I arrived in Pearisburg yesterday morning, May 5th for a couple of zero days. The descent into town was brief but steep --  a 1500 foot drop from my previous night's campsite on Pearis Mountain. There, I was not serenaded by whippoorwills or owls overnight, but rather by Norfolk Southern locomotive whistles in the New River valley below, to the tune of one about every 10 minutes, no doubt hauling coal to tidewater for export. I had dinner around the fire that evening with 4 other delightful folk in my age bracket. Doug, a 70 year old section hiker and Tampa Bay Lightening fan, was showing me his schedules for where he has to be each day, what he will be eating, and where all of his food and clothing caches are hidden. Forty years in the military taught this man a thing or two about organization!

The weather has morphed from cold to warm in the last 2 weeks. Hikers are starting to send winter apparel home. With any luck, that stuff shouldn’t be required until those of us still at it in July hit New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where weather can be brutal, even in summer. With my current weight loss and feet/ankle swelling, I must reduce pack weight and increase calorie intake any way I can. I will send what I can north with Pam when I see her next week 🧗‍♂️!!! Together we will hit the “1/3 of the way to Maine". 

I just about stepped on a 4-foot grey rat snake 10 or so days ago. Non-venomous but told daughter Alida if I cannot spot a black snake, how am I going to see one coloured to blend?

I came across a small maple bush at a place called Elk Garden on April 25th, on the approach to Mt Rogers. It even had some pipeline.

Many of you are aware that I reached the 500 mile mark near the summit of Mt Rogers on the 25th of April. My MFS “US GIRLS” friends sent me the most clever and appropriate tribute to mark the occasion.

MFS "Us Girls"

Grayson Highlands State Park, most of which is just below 5000 feet in elevation, proved to be as memorable and unique as advertised. It is rocky, windy, at times barren, and otherwise covered with rhododendron groves AND has a resident, fenced-in herd of feral ponies to keep the landscape as it was when cattle grazed extensively until it was purchased by the state in the late 1960’s. Signs warned us that the ponies would bite, kick, or gnaw on our sweat-soaked salty gear, so to please keep our distance. And then it started to pour!

The Wild Ponies of Grayson Highlands

Ever the romantic, I celebrated 38 years of marriage to Pam on the 28th with a phone call from a ridge, once I got a signal! I had to get to a food drop at a post office in Sugar Grove that same day… a 3.2 mile walk downhill, and the same uphill but with 12 more pounds of food on my back. I must be looking a little sketchy these days because hitchhiking was most unsuccessful, and those 6.4 miles don’t even count! There was trail magic in the old Lindamood Schoolhouse on the 29th, and I scored a rain poncho for Pam in the process! This was a lucky find as she was having difficulty finding one at the outfitters back home.

The Old Lindamood Schoolhouse

Around this time, Big Payne, a hiker from NYC, was trying to reconnect with his wallet that he'd lost days earlier (many times, when Big Payne would tell hikers where he was from, they would immediately ask, “Yankees or Mets?!” His reply: “Neither, I like opera”. Good answer!). At any rate, another hiker actually found the wallet, which is a bit ironic given that it had a CAMOUFLAGE pattern on it. They were able to connect via social media. Big Payne could take a life lesson from Candice, my beloved daughter-in-law. As an environmental biologist, Candice spends a good deal of time doing studies in the field. She has pink flagging tape on her cell phone in case she drops it in the vegetation. So, the wallet was making its way north and the reunion was expected to be imminent. But Big Payne was getting off trail that night, so he says to me, “Apparently the guy is hiking with, not one, but 2 canes. If he catches up with you, would you mind telling him I’m spending the night at the Alpaca Farm Hostel?” NOW WAIT A MINUTE: I may not be the fastest hiker out here, but no way is a guy with 2 canes gonna pass me, jerk! Kidding aside, hopefully Big Payne has his wallet back!

I met the most delightful gent on the 27th. We were both getting water from a spring near the Hurricane Shelter, and ended up yakking for over an hour. “All In”, aged 71 and doing a long section hike, is a retired teacher and football coach from Bethlehem PA, and he is expecting me to call him when I get to Duncannon PA so he can take me to dinner and we can continue our visit. Lovely guy!

Spring Near Hurricane Shelter

News Briefs:

Wildlife sightings: deer, ovenbirds, indigo bunting, and black-throated blue warbler are some recent finds.

Black Swallowtail

If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear! Yes, Bruce Cockburn, I have watched and heard 2 large trees just fall at random, for no particular reason other than it was time to go. One was along the NC/TN border eerily close by, and the second at a campsite while I was cooking dinner.

I met “Transfer” (he farted in a crowded shelter and the girl next to him got blamed for it) and “Bovi Gyn" (she hails from a cattle farm in Kentucky). When others learned of her background and that she had assisted with difficult birthings over the years, she was given this awesome name. I met them again a few days later and Bovi Gyn was lamenting that the trick for re-shaping stretched Crocs (at least 90% of hikers wear Crocs in camp) she saw on the internet didn’t work. “Don’t put y’all’s Crocs in boiling water… mine just melted!”  I’d suggest that internet hack to re-shape Crocs is simply a crock of $#!+ !!!

I found a Gnome Village by a tree one day about 3000 feet up when I stopped for water. Pam asked me if there was a sign or explanation of any kind. Maybe I have been out here too long but I don’t think this requires an explanation. Clearly a group of gnomes just live there. Period.

Gnome Home

On May 3rd I crossed a really cool suspension bridge over Kimberling Creek. What was waiting for me on the other side? Not gnomes but hippies in a van who offered their own version of trail magic. “Would you like a soda? How about a joint?” I accepted a Dr Pepper but passed up on the joint. Couldn’t risk buddy with the 2 canes overtaking me while I was ransacking imaginary gnome villages looking for chips.

Kimberly Creek Suspension Bridge

Fording rivers: is great for sore and swollen feet. The footbridge across Lick Creek had been obliterated so had to wade across it. Hiker “Clyde” and dog “Bud” (chillest Dalmatian I have ever met) and I agreed it would have been a great place to stay and just soak.

Ahhhhh! Not-Too-Dismal Dismal Creek

The view of Burke’s Garden on April 30 (aka God’s Thumbprint) from Chestnut Knob was outstanding. From a vantage of about 4400 feet, you look down on an agricultural setting surrounded entirely by mountains. Photos don’t do it justice.

God's Thumbprint

There is nothing dismal about Dismal Creek. In fact, I had the good fortune to camp alongside it two nights running and was able to do blissful foot soaks.

Met a guy on the trail from Abercorn QC, just “down the line” from my Mom’s hometown of Sutton, near the border with Vermont.

Trail Names: Cowboy from Wisconsin, Strider (New Mexico), Try Try (Texas, her 4th attempt at thru-hiking the A.T.), Out and About (Minnesota), Good News (NJ, camped with him and had very enjoyable evening), Frogger (Georgia), Trail Maintainer (a retired mine inspector from KY -- we had a good long chat), Mountain Drew (TN), Spicy ATG (Appalachian Trail Gangsta) and daughter Tumbler (caught being mesmerized by a clothes drier while doing laundry on a zero day). I met these ladies back in NC so it was nice to reconnect. Gave 'em toilet paper which made them VERY happy!

Vista From Pearis Mountain

Finally, I walked down the street a few hours ago to mail myself a resupply box and run a few other errands. A merchant asked me where I was staying. (Read the rest of this in whisper volume….) “I am so sorry you are staying there. The health department is watching that place, the law is watching that place, the fire department is watching that place. There have been a lot of problems. Have you had any problems?? Don’t hesitate to report any problems. Ahh, you are just being polite. The more complaints, the better chance we have of correcting that place!"

BACK TO FULL VOLUME: I have not had any problems but it is rather a hole.

Rob: when I get home am gonna eat everything in site, including stuff normally reserved for you, so I hope you are still a fast eater, for your sake!

Pierre (AKA Sponge FOB)