Huffhike

Day 53 (Mile 788)

After reaching the playground, I made camp and hung around for a little bit. After watching the new season of Tom Segora’s show I fell asleep. I was sound alseep until 12:30 when I woke up to the sound of a train whistle and the earth shaking. I instantly dropped some “what the hell” before falling back asleep.

Knowing I was 2 miles off of the trail, I knew I needed to pack up quickly. So by 7am I had my whole tent packed and was walking up the road with my thumb out. After a handful of cars drove by someone driving a paint truck drove by and offered me a drive. After a quick drive he dropped me and within a mile I passed the 1/3 mark on the trail. As I continued to hike, I corssed some beautiful portion of trail, after a bit I crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Like most Parkways, the views where immaculate. Rather than the trail staying consistent on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Appalachian Trail instead would zig zag on and off of the parkway, meaning the views were inconsistent. Knowing that I decided I would instead just walk the Blue Ridge Parkway until the last zig zag. Although the black top was incredibly hot, I made the right choice as the views were breathtaking.

Later that day, I made camp at a shelter. Knowing how rampant the Noro Virus has been,  I opted to sleep in my tent instead of the shelter. As I fell asleep I heard some russelling, knowing the amount of deers I passed throughout the day I knew it was a deer. That was confirmed when I heard a buck outside of my tent huffing.

The following day, I woke up at 5am and started to knock out some miles. For the most part the miles were fairly easy, there was some normal appalachian trail ups and downs, but for the most part it was uneventful until noonish. When noon hit, I was sitting around the 15 mile mark. I ran into a hiker named Rabbit, and he mentioned to myself and a few other people that if we stuck around there would be beer and subway up ahead. Naturally, when I heard free food and beer I agreed and devoured a 6 inch sub and a Corona.

After two hikers, Pig Pen and Tombstone mentioned they were staying at the next shelter and I should join them to play cards. I agreed and played some cards. The following morning, I pushed 15 miles before 9am and was shuttled from the James River to Stanimals. After arriving at Stanimals, I ran into another thru hiker Always who is finishing his Tripple Crown. We then went to the pizza restaurant where I ate a salad and a buffalo chicken sub.

While eating, I did my best to engulf any / all advice from him as I would like to get my tripple crown at some point. One piece of advice that stood out the most was this idea of two types of thru-hiking. One group is thruhiking for the adventure while the other is doing it to complete the trail.

Obviously, you cant have one without the other, but knowing your own personal motivation is important. For me, Im on the trail to finish the trail, so sometimes I have to pass up the “adventures” or “fun” to instead push miles. But that is what will help me get closer to finishing the trail.

I then spent the remainder of my day at Stanimals, eating food (they had a killer hiker feast) and eventually hung out by a fire and called it a day. The next morning I had 10 blueberry pancakes and was shuttled back to the trailhead.