The famous views of this section of trail displayed all the folded ridges, emergent green, and faded Eastern skylines off central Virginia in early April. These photos and those below convey the scale of the cliffs, the emergence of spring, and the setting better than words.
Since leaving Pearisburg, VA, I’ve spent little time in my tent. Except for the rainy day when I stayed at a shelter throughout (and filed my taxes), I’ve been walking for much of sunup to sundown. A few more miles each day than before sometimes takes away my only hour to write. Plus, my writing efforts have recently focused on an article about a more holistic outdoor ethic beyond the Leave No Trace principles. It’s a tricky subject to communicate, I have found. Writing things like this takes concentrated time to focus, a rarer blessing when walking and taking care of myself to be able to walk are higher priorities.
This was a fairly long section without a food resupply: 71 miles until a gas station (thank you for $11 made to order pizza), then another 27 to Kroger in Daleville. This contributed some to more miles at faster pace. When you need to eat around 4000 calories a day, you realize how much 4000 calories weigh. But the greater cause of increased speed, less down time is the train ticket I have from Harpers Ferry WV, 296 miles away in 16 days, to attend a meeting. Each day, I must make substantial progress in order to make it. It’s like leaving home 20 minutes before class starts to make it to school on time, only now it’s leaving 2 months in advance.
I walked this section, or at least camped with, Frodo, Rover, Oz, and Mishap. All of us except Rover started the AT on the same day (Rover caught up), but I was ahead at first, and then they were ahead in the middle. After Pearisburg, we joined together. Mishap has been fun to talk with. He is a father in regular life and I’d say, to this trail family as well. He’s worked as a hospital chaplain, which is his strong listening skills and thoughtful questions, clearly reflect. I’ve also shared hours of wonderful conversation with Rover. We’ve talked at length about our outlook on life and on America, so I must give Rover substantial credit for shaping the perspective I shared in yesterday’s post. She’s extremely smart and has a mature self-awareness about how hard to push her body.
These last days suddenly got dry. The dry air soaked up the abundant sun and became hot. Unacclimated, it felt like we were frying out there today in the long low ridge after descending from Tinker Cliffs.
When Rover and I arrived in Daleville/Troutville, the first town in awhile, we headed straight for Cracker Barrel. No better way to celebrate finishing another section of southern Virginia, we thought, than with apple butter, free refills of sweet tea and lemonade, and fried everything. The plate came out, and seriously, everything was brown. Fried shrimp, potatoes, okra, apples, hush puppies, biscuits, and corn bread. It was amazing.
Such beautiful landscapes. It would be cool to have a conversation with Rover sometimes. Sounds like a great conversation partner!