Blue Ridge Parkway

We left Pearisburg around noon, and hiked through fields of freshly cut grass, farmsteads, trees and the heat. We met Gutsy, a lady who was section hiking and picking up pieces of each of the three long trails. We got a lot of information from her regarding the Continental Divide Trail. Don't Panic at on point saw a copperhead by the trail, and used Gutsy's trekking pole to fling it off into the woods. Wing It wasn't feeling well, but we somehow still made it 20 miles to Pine Swamp Branch Shelter. There, we met the snore swallower, a section hiker with the loudest, most strange snore we had ever heard.

We walked through fairly nondescript land, and even night hiked a bit to get to Keffer's Oak, the largest oak on the AT in the south. It was a pretty impressive tree. The next morning we hiked through more fields and saw a lot of cows. We had to go up and over many stiles, wooden structures for hikers to safely climb over barbed wire, which got annoying after the 20th time. We made our way to Pickle Branch Shelter, named, we think, because the stream had a very alkaline flavor. There we met Miles, someone from Seattle that we bonded to right away.

The next few days we were hiking through more farms and fields, then the skies opened up and poured on us. We hoped we would get views by the time we got to the Tinker Cliffs, and sure enough the rain stopped and the clouds began to clear in the sunset. We had our first great views in a long while. We then pushed on to Lamberts Meadow and stayed at the shelter.

We got into Daleville, VA for Miles' birthday, and had lunch with his folks. They brought grilled chicken, potato salad and an upside down pineapple cake. Wing It even had some, though she is allergic to pineapple. Don't Panic got his wish to watch some basketball playoffs and dink some beer.

The next day we resupplied and bought much needed new shoes. We hiked out and stayed in the Wilson Creek Shelter. We were now approaching the Blue Ridge Parkway, which the trail once used. The ATC (or local hiking club) decided to move the trail back into the woods, thus missing every possible view. The only time we had views was when we would cross the road. Very disappointing. We stayed at shelters Bryant Ridge, a massive structure that could sleep 20, and Matts Creek.