Seeley-Woodworth Shelter 1371.2 to US Route 60 1385.2 (14 miles, 1385.2 total miles)
Last night was a rough night of sleep after not being able to fall asleep for an hour, then waking up several times in the night, unable to drift off again. The moonlight was so bright in the clearing in front of the shelter that most of us didn’t sleep very well.
Truman headed out early as Iroh, Ben, and I were waking up. Truman likes to hike big days, so he was out around 8AM, about a half an hour after we all were getting up.
Iroh made hot coffee and oatmeal for him and I, which I added peanut butter to, and he made jasmine tea for Ben. We took our time at camp before leaving, Ben just a couple minutes out before us.
Iroh and I hiked 2 miles on a gentle downhill to the second water source of the day, the north fork of the Piney River. We got there just before 11, and ended up staying until about 12:30, after having lunch and hanging out.
We were only doing 14 miles to Buena Vista to get hot food for dinner, since we’d stretched out our days to Glasgow a bit more than I’d packed food for, but it meant we had time to spare.
As we got back on the trail, the day had warmed into the 70s, with a few clouds rolling in, and bright green ferns fading into golden hues on either side of us.
At a trail junction we met an older man out day hiking 10 miles, and he told us how he took over a year to knock out the 100 miles of Shenandoah National Park just from day hiking.
He was a friendly and cheerful gentleman, who told us he wasn’t trying to do anything ambitious, as the trail was his pastime. When Iroh asked if he had a trail name and he said he did not, I told him it should be Pastime.
He seemed to really like the name as we said goodbye, and I was tickled I’d gotten to bestow a trail name on someone, as I’d never really gotten to do that before.
We descended down a couple miles to a dirt road, then began our first of three climbs of the day. It was only just over a mile and 600 feet of elevation gain, but I was struggling on the way up, feeling the lack of sleep I’d gotten the prior evening.
We stopped at Tar Jacket Ridge at the top, had snacks and both agreed the climb had felt a lot harder than it was. Flies buzzed all around us, and gray clouds had formed overhead, and we left after half an hour or so.
It was around 2:30 in the afternoon with another 7.3 miles to go. I asked Iroh if he minded I put in a podcast, which he didn’t. I really enjoyed hiking with him, but was missing my music and podcasts that I had gotten used to hiking with.
After we descended a mile to another dirt road, we began climbing Cole Mountain, which was a bit less steep than the last one. I turned on some music then, and let Iroh go ahead of me. He zoomed off, seeming to have a bit more energy than I did right then.
The ridge of Cole was absolutely incredible, a wide swath of meadow cut into a mile or so of the top, surrounded by beautiful wildflowers, and excellent views of the blue ridge mountains around us.
I was loving the music in my ears, and staying not far behind Iroh as we hiked down the mountain, waving to each other on alternating switchbacks.
I lost him on the last climb of the day, a steep .8 up to Bald Knob, which actually didn’t have any view on top. It was a grading of over 800 feet per mile, but listening to music for the first time while hiking in days made it go by fast.
Not far past the summit on my way down I saw Iroh sitting with Ben. His girlfriend was driving from Syracuse to meet him at the road, but he hadn’t been in a rush today either because she had gotten caught in traffic and wouldn’t be arriving till 6:45.
I told him we could all hitch into town together, since I seemed to have very good luck with it these days. We hiked the remaining couple miles down to the road together, debating which sports were hobbies or actually sports.
It kept our minds occupied as our knees and feet took a pounding on the steep way down. We could hear the road tantalizingly in the distance, all of us anxious to get to town and, more importantly, town food.
At the road, Iroh and Ben sat back while I flagged down the first car that drove up. That was now three for three on getting a hitch from the first vehicle by.
As we wound our way around the Virginia mountains covered in a carpet of thick green leaves, Sebastian, our kindly driver chatted with us on the nine miles to town.
He was a sweet man, and wished us luck when he dropped us off in Buena Vista around 5:30, a town I remembered vividly from last time. We walked to Burger King, after humorously getting turned around and walking a loop around town, joking the real Buena Vista was the truck yard we found ourselves walking past as we corrected our path.
We ended up back at Hardee’s after we saw the Burger King lobby was closed. I got a burger, fries, milkshake, and a cinnamon bun. I laughed so hard I started to cry when we were sharing the cinnamon bun amongst us and Iroh went right for the middle, instead of eating the outside piece first. Ben and I ragged on him for it till we were all dying laughing.
Iroh and I hit Family Dollar for provisions for tomorrow, though we were planning on trying to make it to Glasgow by the evening. The idea of eating a Knorr side and tuna for dinner, after eating only fancy dehydrated dinners for weeks now, was going to motivate me to get to Glasgow for more town food tomorrow.
Hannah, Ben’s lovely girlfriend, arrived and drove us to the Glen Maury Campground, where I’d stayed the last times I was in town back in 2015 and 2016. They departed off to an Airbnb, while Iroh and I got settled in.
Primarily an RV campground, thru hikers are allowed to sleep under the large pavilion. The camp office was closed when we arrived, but the ice cream stand on premises gave us a free small ice cream each because we were thru hiking, which was very nice.
Iroh and I split the bar of Ivory soap Robyn had handed to us on the hitch from Devil’s Backbone the other day, and it was very enjoyable to take a hot shower in the camp bathroom with soap this time. I couldn’t wait to do laundry, though, and sleep in a bed in Glasgow. Tomorrow would be a long day, so we turned in early, alarms set for 5AM sharp.