We ended up leaving Damascus around 4 in the afternoon with a 9 mile day planned, however when we got to the shelter around nightfall and found it full, we figured a little more night hiking wouldn't hurt us and continued on to the next shelter. The next morning we left the shelter with two friends, LaLa and Moose, who we ended up sticking with for most of Virginia. We hiked up Whitecap Mountain and Mt. Rogers (the two highest peaks in Virginia) in sub-par conditions before ending up in the Highlands. The Highlands were a very different landscape than we had been used to on the trail, and supposedly wild ponies wander all around. Reading the logbooks we found out that the ponies enjoy messing with hikers, like our friend South Butt who had his pack slobbered on by the ponies or our friend Denver was violently chased by a lonely mare that wanted a "friend". We figured that since we badly wanted to see the wild ponies they messed with us by standing us up! How rude. The next day we were back under the familiar cover of trees and away from the empty plains of the Highlands. We were walking along at a pretty good pace and were ahead of schedule, so when we ran into a man and his dog who offered to give hikers rides into town in his ambulance for free, we figured why not? After a quick lunch at a dinner we were back on the trail. The storm that was supposed to happen that night seemed to be starting a bit earlier, and we ended up running the last four miles to Trimpi Shelter. We spent at least the first hour in the shelter trying to dry out and stay warm with our buddies Moose and LaLa; we were all spread out and had our wet gear hanging everywhere when we heard more people coming. At first we were bummed cause we were cold and wet and wanted all the space we could get...but then we saw who it was--IceAxe and Mancub! Quick breakdown: IceAxe is going to be a Triple Crowner this year when he finishes the AT, in '09 he hiked north on the Pacific Crest Trail, in '10 he hiked north on the Continental Divide Trail, and he will complete the TC on top of Katahdin in Maine. Mancub is a fellow New Englander who is famous on the AT for doing crazy miles (35+), with shin splints, in sandals, during winter. They both started March 15 and are more than a week ahead (ultralight insanity!). They told us we would definitely be expecting one more guest in the shelter that night, a fellow Triple Crowner and friend of IceAxe named Handlebar (who wore a hiking kilt!!). We spent one of the most unreal nights on the trail crammed into a tiny shelter, hiding from the rain, listening to Iceaxe and Handlebar exchange epic stories about climbing insane mountains all across the country. The magic of the night continued the next afternoon when we found some trail magic that Handlebar had dropped off at a shelter up the trail from us. Before long we were at the outskirts of Atkins staying at the Relax Inn and bouncing back and forth between gas stations getting some eats. After Atkins the next stop was Pearisburg, and we looked forward to being in a real town. We figure it would take us about 5 days of hiking to get to Pearisburg, and it would have...if we hadn't done another crazy night hike! We were on our fourth day of hiking and had stopped by a gas station/dinner deal just off trail for an extra treat. Back on the trail with full stomachs we somehow convinced ourselves that instead of hiking just a few miles short of Pearisburg we could go the whole distance that night. We couldn't convince Moose or Lala to join us on this adventure, so we headed out just the two of us. We ended up getting into town around 11 at night and had plans to get to the 24 hour Wal-mart for some victory food. It took us about an hour to get to the Wal-mart...but we made it, and ended up staying over 3 hours just bumming around the store. We left at about 3:30 in the morning and decided to check out the hospital so that Johnny Appleseed could get his feet looked at. If you ever wanna beat the wait at an emergency room, we recommend going in just before 4am on a Friday morning. It turned out that Johnny had a case of trench foot. His gortex shoes kept too much moisture in and his feet got a bunch of infections. The doctors there hooked him up with some antibiotics and a foot creme and ordered at least a few days rest. Things seemed to be looking pretty good...the only question left was what to do for the rest of the night? We tried crashing on the floor of the hospital, but were quickly approached and offered a ride. A very friendly cop gave us a ride in the cruiser (Johnny got to ride in the back) to the cheapest motel we could find where we had to wake up the attendant and get a room. We were bummed thinking that we would have to pay for an extra night since we were checking in so early, but the lady really dug hikers and ended up hooking us up with the best price she could give. We stayed a few nights, dug the town of Pearisburg, dodged some nasty rain, and healed our bodies. Before long we were headed back to the trail and onward to our next stop: Daleville.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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