Four Long Hot Days

Day 52 – Mount Rodgers Visitor Center to Reed Creek: mile 534.3 to mile 552.5

Today was the first of three long days in a row. To help us get a jump on the day, we got an early shuttle from the inn and was able to get back on the trail by 7:20 am. The weather had changed to summer and would be so for the next several days.  It was relatively cool when we started but quickly got into the mid to upper 70’s by noon.

Hiking was pleasant with uphills that weren’t too challenging and a significant amount of flat terrain. Maybe what we’ve been hearing about Virginia is going to be true and the trail will be less difficult.

At about 10 miles into our day, we came to a small settler’s museum that was closed but an interesting volunteer for the place was around. He pulled up in a 1927 Ford that he said was his primary vehicle. He does have a newer vehicle but prefers the ‘27. The newer vehicle is a 1929 Ford.

A little further down from the old homestead where the volunteer was stood an old one room schoolhouse, complete with boys and girls privies out back. We put them to good use. The schoolhouse had desks and a chalkboard.

One highlight we had planned for the day was to have our big meal for the day at the Sweetwater Venue restaurant. The food was excellent as had been reported on the hiking apps. Several other thru hikers were there, some we had already met and others we met there. In fact, at the 2:00 – 3:00 hour all their guests were thru hikers. As we checked out, I snagged a giant cinnamon roll to have at the end of the day. Calories is what you need and they might as well taste good.

We finished our 18 mile day by finding a sweet tent site nestled in the rhododendron bushes right next to a stream. We were not sure about the sound of the stream as we try to sleep. There may have been more trips to the nearby tree tonight than usual.

Day 53 – Reed Creek to Walker Gap: mile 552.5 to mile 571.3

Today’s hike had several hills to go over, making for a long strenuous day. The worse part about it was that the biggest climb of 2200 feet over 4 miles occurred after we had already hiked 12 miles. We might have handled the climb much better had it been at the beginning of the day. Oh, and to top it off, the afternoon temperatures were in the 80’s under bright sun. We aren’t going to complain about that… yet.

As we climbed our first PUD (pointless up and down), we saw several deer that did not seem to be the least bit concerned about our presence. We watched them for a few minutes, taking pictures and some video. We had a lot of miles still to go, so we moved on.

Shortly after lunch, we had our first true stream crossing where we had to ford across. The water was only calf deep so it was an easy crossing to break us in. Hopefully future ones, and there will be more, are equally east.

The last climb was arduous and we were both very tired during the slow trudge uphill. At the summit was a nice fully enclosed shelter and tent sites with awesome views of the valley below. We decided to hike down the other side another mile and a half to a tent site off trail. We had over 20 miles planned for the next day and we wanted to shorten it as much as possible.

Day 54 – Walker Gap to Helveys Mill Shelter: mile 571.3 to mile 594.0

We started hiking at 6:20 am in order to get as much time in as possible. We had about 23 miles to do and it was going to take all day. The early part of the day had rocky terrain which really slowed us down.  After we left the first ridge and headed to the second ridge, the terrain got less rocky and our pace picked up.

Water is scarce in this section of the trail so when we came to a road crossing with water jugs, we were pretty excited and filled our bottles.  The next water opportunity was a big stream where we saw several people we knew hanging out and soaking their feet in the stream to get relief from the heat.

Near the end of our long day, we crossed over Interstate 77, our second interstate crossing in the past 2 days.

Day 55 – Helveys Mill Shelter to Weary Feet Hostel: mile 594.0 to mile 610.2

We had about 16 miles to our hostel and a warm shower so we got up early and started hiking before sunrise again. The terrain for the first several miles was relatively flat and free of roots and rocks. This is the kind of terrain we can really move in and we quickly found ourselves at mile marker 600. It took us 13 days to go from mile 0 to mile 100 and took us just 6 days to go from 500 to 600.  It’s worth mentioning that the temperature was 60+ degrees warmer at mile 600 than it was at mile 500 just 6 days ago.

The ridge we were walking on had a strong cell signal and we were headed to a hostel with electricity so I kept airplane mode off on my phone.  As I was checking up on a fellow hiker via text, a message came in from our good friend, Jane. We knew she and her husband, Paul, were on a vacationing road-trip through North Carolina and Virginia. She asked where we were going to spend the night. We told them and after a few text exchanges they decided to route their day in our direction.

They parked near the hostel and hiked south to meet us on the trail. They spent the afternoon with us, sitting on the lovely porch of the hostel and catching up. They joined us for the hungry hiker dinner at the hostel and secretly picked up the tab for dinner.  We had a great time and it was wonderful to see them.

Daily Stats Table

Day	Miles	Total Asc	Total Desc	Steps
52	18.2	3717	4337	48325
53	18.8	5114	4173	51651
54	22.7	4622	5088	65140
55	16.2	3024	4025	45074