Day 52

I was so excited about doing 25 miles yesterday that I could hardly sleep last night. I saw times on the clock that I hadn’t seen in months. It was 11, 11:30, midnight, even 1am before I finally drifted off to sleep. But today was actually going to be 15 miles, so once again, I didn’t feel the need to be up at the break of dawn or rush through my morning chores.

It wasn’t raining as I started walking like I had feared it would be. But it was misty. The incredible views that we had yesterday were now covered by curtains of white clouds, drawn tight with only tiny gaps for the trees to stick out.

I passed the third part of the Virginia Triple Crown that I hadn’t seen yesterday, the Tinker Cliffs. But unlike the incredible views and climbs yesterday, there was nothing to see today. I walked on. Extra glad I had pushed on for the 25 and the views.

Today was headed for a town, so I spent much of the day counting down to the intersection. When I finally made it to the road, I crossed the street and headed to a gas station. I knew woodsman was at a bbq restaurant a mile or so down the road. So I grabbed a Gatorade and stuck out my thumb.

I was picked up by the owner of the other restaurant in town. When he told me that, I immediately made the decision to just to tell him the shopping center I was headed to, not that I was on my way to his competitor. Didn’t want to lose a ride!

I’ve lost the ability to control myself when food is around. When I got to the restaurant, I stuffed myself full of pork, hushpuppies, sweet potato fries, banana pudding and a beer. I then fell into a food coma. And from a fit of the sweats. Once again, I had eaten myself sick.

After a food buy and a stop at the outfitters, Woodsman and I asked for some leftover cardboard and a sharpie. A few minutes later we had a sign, “ AT hikers to Roanoke.” And a few minutes after that we were in the back seat of a car with a highschooler at the wheel and his friend riding shotgun. They drove and spoke as only high schoolers could – clearly trying to impress the two “cool guys” in the back seat.

Somehow, we made it to our Airbnb and are going to call it a night soon. A movie tonight and a day off tomorrow – not bad!

Key stats:

Miles: 16

Elevation gained:

Mile marker: 730