Friday, May 17, 2019

I’m in Pearisburg, VA, where Confederate troops defeated Union soldiers commanded by Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes. Who went on to bigger and better things like the presidency.

There’s always a sign when they wupped up on the Yankees.

I’m taking a zero (no hiking) day. My most recent hiking partner, Kris (Shocktop), and I came in yesterday thinking we would do one night here. She wasn’t feeling well so decided to layover a day. Good call on her part. Woke to looking at lightning hitting the hills we would have been walking.

View from the motel.

It’s been a while since I last posted. Some of the delay is technology related. Connectivity is always an issue. Sometimes just getting enough cell service to send a text is a major accomplishment, yet alone internetd connectivity that allows photo uploads. And then there’s my general ineptness with cell phones.

Another issue that has surprised me is just having time to write. Especially as my daily mileage has increased. I’m reminded of the the old Far Side cartoon showing a T Rex daily planner. Every day was “Kill something, eat it”. My on trail daily routine is; wake up, break camp, walk, eat something, walk some more, set up camp, sleep. Generally I don’t make breakfast, I just eat some breakfast bars while breaking camp. Instead of stopping for lunch, I eat constantly while walking. We try to do 12 – 15 miles by say 3:00 – 4:00, then we stop at a shelter to prepare the evening meal. After that roughly hour long break, we hike to a campsite and set up our tents and hang our food bags out of bear reach. Then it’s crawl into bed, maybe take some notes, plan tomorrow’s route, then go to sleep. Then repeat.

Even town or hostel days aren’t much better for posting. Planning resupply and the next week or so of hiking eats up the time. Even when in civilization, connectivity is an issue. Some of these small rural towns have very limited or no connectivity. One gets better cell reception up on the mountains and ridges than in the towns.

I’ve covered a lot of ground, both literally and mentally, since my last post. Right now l’m at mile 636, over 1/4 of the to Mt. Katahdin. I have now walked through parts of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and now I’m solidly in Virginia.

Quarter way marker.

Six-hundred mile marker.

There’s more to covering ground than mileage and the trail isn’t just a walk in the woods. Sure there may be miles of walking through the same forest type, what’s termed “the green tunnel”. But, there’s a surprising amount of variety in terms of weather, trail conditions, terrain, ecological systems, wildlife, and plants. There really is no “one” Appalachian Trail. Rather it is a continuously varying mosaic of biotic and abiotic components. That includes an endless variety of people, both hikers and nonhikers that one encounters. That’s the subject of a different post.