May 31 Spy Gap

We hiked to Spy Gap. Saw an amazing sight. A huge tree growing on top of this rock. The roots are wrapped around one side reaching toward the ground.

We hiked with Rhino and Spiceman to the pickup lot for lunch. We are hopeful we can get a ride into Waynesboro so we can get a shower and do laundry before Tom and Sonya get to town. We want to try to spare them the hiker funk smell

When the driver came to pick us up, we asked about a ride and he said he was heading for town in fifteen minutes. Wow,we have felt so blessed. He drove us to a visitor center with a list of trail angels phone numbers. Earl would not let us pay him for the ride and Ann picked us up and drove us to the hotel. Jacuzzi, pool, laundry, shower, lunch, and wait at Outback Steakhouse.

Tom and Sonya are here. They brought us pajamas. I think after reading our blog, they wanted to play it safe since we are sharing a room. Cotton PJs... A treat. Looking forward to spending the next few days together!!

May 30. Wonderful Hike. Passed 800 Miles!!

Quite a climb this morning. We've met two new hikers known as the in-laws. Rhino and Spiceman. They are married to sisters. Rhino is from Germany. He broke his hand putting up a bear bag. The rock got stuck in the tree and when they yanked it down it hit his hand. He had surgery and was laid up for two weeks. He is walking in a cast. Spiceman is military so he met his wife in Germany. He now lives in Wisconsin. Hope to see more of them.

Hiker 501 was walking up the mountain when he suddenly stopped, said he was done, turned around and headed down.

The water filter broke today so pumping water is a two person job until we get to an outfitter. Something chewed on EZs backpack straps. I guess critters go after the salt.

My knee was fine today. We are doing low miles tomorrow. There is a bed and breakfast that offers free lunch so we are stopping there. Then we will have a zero day with Tom and Sonya. My knee should be fully recovered by then. Tom and Sonya plan on hiking a few days with us from there. How sweet it is.

Last night we stayed at the Pedlar river Bridge. So I remember, when you cross the bridge, there is a trail that goes to the right that leads to a camp with many tent sites right next to the river.

May 29th Pedlar River Bridge

Awoke this morning with breakfast on the brain! We had about a 1/2 mile hike to meet Roger. We went across the longest foot bridge on the AT where we were to meet. Arriving about 10 minutes early we had a chance to scope the bridge and see the beautiful morning.
Roger was waiting and off to breakfast we went. Scholar joined us. After a wonderful meal we grabbed a few things and headed back. Roger was so kind he picked up the tab-unbelievable! It is amazing the people you meet and we thank Roger and Dixie Chick.
Upon returning Roger was off again taking another thankful hiker into town for resupply and laundry . We hiked about 10 miles to Bluff mountain and met Spicebag and Rhino for the first time. Come to find out they were given a ride by Roger to a nearby town also for a zero day. A monument atop of Bluff was for a boy 4 yrs 11 months old who wondered off and was not found until 5 months later.
Heading down the mountain and at the bottom is none other than Starcraft the traveling trail angel. Another soda and some resupply of water and we headed in the home stretch for the day-4 more miles to camp.
We arrive and our hopes for some water are fulfilled a decent river to lay down in to soak the bones and sore muscles. Water is a wonderful thing.
After a good soaking I set up camp while Julie makes dinner. As we sit around the thunder is rumbling in the distance. It is now after 8 as we settle in our tent for the evening and the rain arrives. Another good day and hope the rain is through by morning.
We are excited to see our friends Tom and Sonya this Friday.

Note: Julie's knee was bothering her today-hopefully it is just another one
of those that comes and goes.

I have found three ticks on my legs in two days. No more looking for fire wood. Need to wear long pants and socks at camp.

EZ

We are at Pedlar River Bridge. MM 794.4

May 28...feeling like a couple bums

Tonight we are sleeping next to the James River. We met a young woman who is section hiking for the next seven weeks as she works on her thesis for school. She asked to interview us so we had a swim, shared a fire and talked. Mark gave her the trail name Scholar. Her family lives in Montana and she is in college in Maine. She told us it rains 50 percent of the time in Maine and they have no switchbacks (straight up the mountain and straight down). Good thing we have hundreds of miles before that reality sets in. At 8PM, we decide to call it a night.

It is very warm here so we did not use our fly which means the top half of our tent is all screen. Gives us a view of the sky and plenty of air flow. EZ is half asleep when we hear someone calling from the trail if there are any thru hikers. Scholar shares she is a section hiker and the gentleman starts to move on. This is where the bum mentality shows up. I yell out "Are you looking for a certain thru hiker?". He sees our tent and his wife and him start heading to our tent. Did I mention it's warm and we don't carry pajamas. We are scurrying to cover ourselves. He says he has some trail magic for us. We were dressed and out of the tent in two minutes. They offer us bananas and ice cold Gatorade. Roger and Bev (Dixie Chick) volunteer to maintain a section of the trail. Bev has section hiked up to Vermont. They were a pleasure to talk to. Asked if we wanted a ride into town tomorrow I have been craving breakfast so Roger offers to pick us up at 7:30 and take us to a restaurant.

After they leave, we get back in our tent. I look at Mark and start laughing at how ridiculous that was. We have had plenty to eat and drink, why do we get so excited. I guess when you don't have a vehicle to get those things that you desire, you know that you either do without or you accept the generosity of others. I have been wanting a good breakfast for some time and will enjoy getting to know Roger over an omelette, bacon, and hash browns.

May 27. Good weather, good swim, good food, good day

We hiked 5 miles to a great swimming hole and spent some time there. Then we heard about a hiker feed in 14 miles. It's 12:30, can we make it? We decide to go for it unaware that we would be going up to one of the highest peaks. We climbed mostly up for ten miles. We were feeling it and taking no breaks. This was one of the toughest days we have had since North Carolina partly because of our goal to hurry along. Those breaks are so important! EZ is particularly missing cold drinks. Our water bladders do not keep our water cold especially on these 85-90 degree days

We did make the feast: quesadillas, cold drinks, chips and hummus, lasagna, fresh fruit, cookies, ice cream....four ladies who have thru hiked do this every year to give back. We even had lawn chairs and a fire. Great ending to a difficult day. I think we will take it easy tomorrow.

We are at Thunder Hill Shelter. Mike 764.7

Hiker News: Slowfoot has left the trail and gone back to Germany. He could not help himself from doing the big miles, 20-27 a day. Ankle got worse so he had to quit. Socks filled us in today.

May 26 Zero Day Ahhhhhhhhh in Dalesville

Took some needed R & R yesterday in Daleville. I bought some new toe sock liners and Darn Tough socks. EZ has been moleskin and duct taping several of my toes. I also have some rough looking heels. Our hope is the break and the new socks will solve the problem. We did a resupply to last us six days and then Tom and Sonya Shepard will be here. Whoooooo! Of course we tried the different diners in town. My favorite was the time we spent in the pool and resting in regular beds with sheets and big puffy pillows!!!

We ran into Plant Man. Rosanna and Robin may remember him from the hostile we stayed in. He had shin splints. He is struggling mentally. He said he had to take five zero days to get his head together. He did not seem happy hitting the trail today.

Also ran into Long Stride and Silver Girl. They were sick for two weeks with diarrhea and nausea. They kept hiking but came close to quitting. We were told at the outfitters that there is questionable water out here and a lot of hikers do not filter. EZ and I filter every drop so no trouble with us.

It seems like many of the hikers are hitting some kind of wall. I have had a couple hard days but feel good now. We are feeling strong.

Today we hiked past Buchannan and are part way to the next shelter. We came across a couple from Nova Scotia. He, Spot, is thru hiking and being supported by his wife, Starcraft. They offered us a seat and a cold Pepsi after 22 miles. Sweethearts. We look forward to seeing them tomorrow. We also met Arian from Lithuania. I believe we have hiked 24 miles but will have to check the book. My feet did great. We are hiking alongside the Blue Ridge Hwy We see lots of Harley's.

EZ took a picture of a snake and was thinking of his dad.

Periodical Cicadas...everywhere and loud

As we walk the trail we hear these Cicadas. There are holes in the ground where they come up around every 17 years. I looked them up and found this interesting...


17-Year Cicadas Invade Northeast & Midwest

The Return of Brood X
After 17 Years, the Cicadas Are Coming

They're back... After a 17-year wait, billions of large, noisy, winged, red-eyed insects known as periodical cicadas will overrun large sections of the eastern United States. The first sign of the cicada emergence will be little mounds or mud turrets that look like miniature volcanoes around the bases of trees. The insects emerge soon after. Also called the 17-year Locust (a misnomer - locusts are actually in the grasshopper family), the periodical cicada requires 17 years to complete its life cycle.
When and Where?
The large cicada outbreak begins around the third week in May in parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, western North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and southern Michigan. They're expected to be especially prevalent in the DC Capital Region. The cicada activity will peak between mid-May and mid-June, and the insects will die off about four weeks after first emerging.

What's the Big Deal?
Often confused with their annual cousins, the Annual or Dogday Cicadas we hear every year around late July and August, Periodical Cicadas emerge in much larger numbers. Literally appearing by the trillions, expect the periodical cicadas to overrun many yards, pelt windows, fly into people, clog storm drains and basically wreak buggy havoc.

Will They Hurt Me?
Although cicadas may give many people the creeps, the bugs won't sting or bite. They may cause vomiting or constipation in dogs, cats and other animals who find the cicadas tasty and injest too many, however.

What Can I Do to Prevent Landscape Damage?
Although cicadas rarely cause major damage to plants, they may harm young or newly-planted hardwood and fruit trees, as the female cicadas make small incisions near the tips of tree branches, where they lay eggs. The branch beyond the incisions often dies.

What's Brood X?
The 17-year cicada (Magicicada sp.) is the largest of the various cicada populations, so it is referred to as Brood X, or the Big Brood. Other cicada broods have different cycles, and are not as intensely populated.

May 24 Love Tinker Cliff

What a magical evening. We watched the most incredible sunset I've ever seen. It was exciting to watch the changes in colors and intensity until it became dark. Pinks, oranges, large puffy clouds glowing across the sky. It was hard to see it all because of the expanse of sky in front of us. As if God was showing us his majesty in technicolor. Then it became dark and to our left we saw city lights flickering and above us a sky full of stars. To add to that, there was this perfect breeze. We never left the cliff. I woke up when i heard an owl hooting it was just below the rock we were on i was overwhelmed by the stars and the sounds, smells, feel of the air... wish I could put words to how content, peaceful, and connected I felt.

On to town for a zero day to let the body recover.

May 23...712 miles!!!

I am laying on this huge rock at Tinker Cliffs. We hiked a good 15 mile day. We came across the most photographed place on the AT and were lucky to have some clearing in the fog.
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It rained again today; however, we are getting smarter (and desperate to keep our poor feet dry). We ran under a big tree and threw the footprint to our tent over our heads. It rained hard for about 15 minutes and continued to sprinkle so we carried on.

At one point, there was this loud buzzing from some kind of bug to our right and another deeper sound like a frog orchestra on our left. It was incredibly loud

When we came to these cliffs with this view, we stopped and set up camp.

We tried a new meal. We discovered through observation that there is this vine that you can peel the bark off that makes a great fire starter. EZ made a fire and I made grilled cheese tortillas in foil. Delicious! As I was cooking, three deer walked through our camp area. Wow, we are having a perfect ending to our day. Even our socks are drying out by the fire.

We brought our thermarest pads and sleeping bags out on the rock to enjoy the sunset. We may just sleep here under the stars. The skies our finally clearing. I hope the pictures show just a touch of what we are experiencing. Unexplainable!?

May 22...(Gravity)

One of my favorite moments today was as the thunderstorm calmed down, we were at a high elevation. We came to an outcropping of rocks and we had a set of clouds above us, then a clearing, and another set of clouds down in the valley below us. It is these moments that make me forget my wet feet, my sweaty body, my soaked clothes. I just stand in awe of God's creation.

May 22nd

After 14 hours of sleep gravity was asking me if I was ready to start our day at 5:30-I pretended not to hear her
We packed up our soggy belongings and on the trail at 6:45.
the rain had stopped during the night and we started our day with dry feet and wet pants. After a 4 mile climb up Brush Mtn an angel had left us an ice cold tea and peanut butter crackers-the best tea I've ever had. A short distance brought us to a WWII monument honoring Audie Murphy who had earned 24 merits including 3 purple hearts-he died in a plane crash at the age of 47 close to the monument site.
From there we descended down to a river where we had lunch, laid out our tent to dry as well as our feet from yesterday's rain. We packed up to start the afternoon shift when we heard the sound of thunder. Within 10 minutes of our hike up our 2nd mountain of the day it started to rain. We knew of a hostel 9 miles away which would mean a place to dry out. We were not sure if hiking up into a thunder storm was wise but did not think standing in the rain was a good option. The rain was steady for a good hour and then slowly stopped as we made the top of the ridge. The thunder and lighting kept our minds off the rain and made things interesting. We decided to wring out our socks and dry our feet for twenty minutes.
This mountain top was called dragons teeth because of the rocks sticking out at the top of the ridge. The climb down was interesting and very steep as you can hopefully see in the photos. We made the hostel by 5:30 and had our clothes washed , a shower and a large pizza with everything along with a few other goodies.
A fine day and 16.8 miles closer to Katadin, ME. Tomorrows forecast 60% chance of rain. Looking forward to seeing Tom and Sonya next week.
Tomorrow we will pass the 700 mile mark.
EZ