Mid-Virginia (Mile 1800)

I have some catching up to do. Here goes - mid-Virginia was fantastic.

We were served a curveball on Halloween: Snow. Already. Way sooner than we anticipated. Fortunately it didn't stick around for too long but from then on it just got colder and we learned to move faster.

The thing that really got us through the cold was the people. We received some incredible trail magic from a fellow hiker: a paid stay at Woods Hole Hostel near Pearisburg, VA. This was the nicest hostel we've been to on the trail and I highly recommend it to anyone in the area. From what I remember reading while I was there, the original cabin was built in the late 1800s and has been restored beautifully with salvaged wood from other historical buildings. The resident farmers/hostel owners/massage therapists/yoga instructors/artists (yeah, they're busy) are a couple of awesome people that are great to talk to and learn from.

The stay was so appreciated - Thanks Rockstar!! An incredible gesture from an awesome person.

Another hostel on the trail had a beautiful station wagon (the "Dragon Wagon") depicted below, which shuttled hikers to a family style all-you-can-eat restaurant called the Homestead rumored to be the best on the trail. (Other hikers were legitimately sorry for me that I didn't go.) Sometimes you finish hiking in the dark and are just too tired for anything besides poptarts and bed.

Some more trail magic occured going into Blacksburg, VA. We met up with Marathon Man - an incredible event because we had last seen him 3 months prior in Maine and he had caught up to us despite our missed miles. He is an impressive hiker. The next morning, our water filter broke and we didn't have any clean water. Fortunately there was a road 3 miles away from our camp, and were given a ride by a really generous hiker into Blacksburg, VA, where the kind people at Back Country Ski & Sport replaced our filter free of charge. After finishing a meal downtown, we were approached by some VT students that provided a place to crash, brought us fishing on the New River, and drove us back to the trail the next day.

With this kind of support, how could you quit?

First half of Virginia (Mile 1404)

Just to be clear, the mileage in the title is our distance from the northern terminus of the AT and no longer reflects the distance we have covered. We have hiked about 1100 miles so far.

Today we decided to only hike a couple miles and decided take the rest of the day to hang out in the woods. We stayed in a hiker pavilion built by the boy scouts in Glasgow, VA last night and picked up a care package from my lovely and generous friend Nicole at the post office. The shelter is wonderfully built and maintained but the town is small and it was hard to get a hitch back to the trailhead. We didn't start hiking until 11 and decided against pushing it 17 miles to the next water source (apparently it's dry in this area).

I have too many stories to share from Virginia already. Our best experience on the trail so far happened last weekend. We met a rad hiker named Stef and hiked with her for a few days in Shenandoah National Park. She took us to a folk, funk, and bluegrass music festival called Festy at a brewery a few miles from the trail. We spent the weekend getting down with the locals in the valley and it was incredible. 

Now we are back up at high elevations and have been climbing more and walking around on ridgelines overlooking miles of Virginia wilderness.

Our only worry is the encroaching cold weather, particularly in the high elevations of the Smokies, but we can get through it! Less than 800 miles to go!