US Route 60 1385.2 to Glasgow, VA 1407 (21.8 miles, 1407 total miles)
Waking up at 5AM hadn’t ended up working out, because my alarm played through my earbuds instead of the phone speaker as normal. However, Iroh woke me up at 6:15, and we started packing up as quick as we could in the dark.
We wanted to get out of town as early as possible, because we had almost 22 miles to hike up and over a large ridge, and then would have to hitch into Glasgow before dark.
It was 7:40 and light out when we were walking out of the campground, and made our way a quarter mile to a gas station, where I bought a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich, an energy drink, and snacks.
We had our thumbs out for about ten minutes before a wonderful woman in a Subaru pulled over and said she’d bring us to the trail. Her name was Joy, and she was very interesting to talk to.
Joy had been on an AT thru hike attempt when she met her husband, also thru hiking, from Australia. They ended up making it to Waynesboro, and got off trail to get married, since there was a lot of paperwork involved. They now have two children, and Joy just retired from teaching as well.
We got to the trail at 8:28, and as we were crossing the road to get into the woods, we saw and said hi to the group of male section hikers we’d met outside of Waynesboro, who happened to be driving up to work on another section.
The first 7 miles of the day were extremely enjoyable, the weather was perfect again, and the terrain very easy. It feels like there is always a big climb out of town, but we had a gradual downward slope to hike, with only a couple mild ascents to Reservoir Road.
Iroh and I hiked together, listening to music on my phone as we went. We had a brief stop at the shelter a couple miles in, and saw two signs near the trail about a farming community of freed slaves that had been located in the area we were hiking through.
We passed another flip flopper that Iroh knew, Sprouts, a middle aged woman from Arizona, on our way to Reservoir Road. At the road just before 11AM, we crossed another beautiful suspension bridge over a river, and ran into a group of men on motorcycles who’d stopped there, too.
They were all nice people, and interested in learning about our hikes. One of them gave us some mixed nuts he had in a plastic container, and a bag of Utz salt & vinegar chips, my favorite flavor of chip.
It was a really nice bit of trail magic, and as they left Iroh and I were settling in to eat lunch. Sprouts joined us after a bit for some jasmine tea and conversation, before heading out after a short while.
We got hiking again around noon, for our climb up to Bluff Mountain, 6.2 miles ahead. There was a 2 mile steep climb, a 2 mile section of small ups and downs, and another 2 miles to the top.
Iroh and I hiked up together, alternating who went first. Sprouts had mentioned silk blazing earlier, which was a cute term for whoever was the one first ahead, walking into the cobwebs that spanned the trail.
We passed Sprouts within the first couple miles, and saw two section hikers just ahead of her. After that we had the trail to ourselves, and it was hot, sweaty work on the two steepest inclines.
At Punchbowl Overlook, 2 miles from the top, we talked to a few older folks who’d just arrived to do trail maintenance. We’d seen many places where the foliage had been trimmed back recently, and we told them we really appreciated all the volunteer work they were doing.
I had an almond snickers bar before the last bit of the climb, and we finally arrived on the summit of Bluff Mountain at 2:40, where the remains of a fire tower were, and a memorial to Ottie Cline Powell, a four year old boy whose body had been found on the mountain.
We rested at the summit for an hour, having second lunch and enjoying the view. We saw Sprouts briefly, and a couple younger male hikers who’d climb the mountain wearing jeans and steel toed boots.
For the next 4 miles we descended from Bluff, into a gradual climb up to a cliff view, where we stopped just before 5PM. We were both feeling quite tired, and when we started hiking again, I dropped behind Iroh, my feet sliding on the loose rock at the top of the drop.
I listened to a couple podcast episodes as I switchbacked my way down the ridge, made my way up one brief climb in the middle, and passed a few more beautiful views in the distance to my left.
A 2 mile further descent brought me to a brook, where I found Iroh filtering water just after 6:00. I filtered and drank 3/4 of a liter there, having been out of water for the last few miles. I left him at the water source around 6:30, just 1.5 miles to the road to go.
It was a very easy 1.5, the downhill had mellowed out immensely, and I switched to music and sang aloud as I hiked into the evening light. I said hi to a couple rangers driving by a gravel road when I was crossing, and got to US 501 just before 7, right before Iroh.
We tried to hitch for a bit, but it was a narrow, fast road to hitch on, with little traffic due to the late hour. After several minutes, we heard the sound of a door closing, and we saw a white van was getting ready to pull out at a parking lot .1 up the road.
We ran down the road, knowing it could be our only chance to get a ride into town, since we had no cell service to call a shuttle. Iroh got there before me, and by the time I arrived was putting his pack in the back of the small Ford van.
The two young men who picked us up lived in Buena Vista, and had been swimming in the James River off the bridge that evening. They were members of the Latter Day Saints, which apparently have a big presence in that area we’d been learning. We’d met several young people of the same religion in Buena Vista at the campground the prior evening.
Jordan and Nate were fun to talk to on the 15 minute ride to town, and Jordan showed us some photos of stone sculptures he’d done, and they told us they were in a band called Bird Club. I thought that was fitting, because I’d asked Frankie to help us get a ride to town when we were at the road earlier.
We had dinner at Scotto’s, a delicious Italian restaurant in town, with an amazing server named Elijah, who hooked us up with all the right food to eat, including baked ziti and a cheesesteak salad.
I was very proud of Iroh and I, having made it out of town early (always a difficult thing to do), hiked 21.8 miles, and then made it back into the next town, especially given how much less daylight we had to work with these days.
Dinner hit the spot, and the portions were huge, so I was able to pack out half for lunch tomorrow. It was a quick walk over to the free shelter in town that we were spending the night, arriving after dark to a place I remembered very well from last time.
There was no one else around, but we did see Back to Back and Lost and Found’s things there, so we were glad to know they were in the area. I’d seen Truman had posted photos with them in town today, but wasn’t sure if they’d hiked out or not.
B2B and LAF arrived while we were setting up in the shelter bunks, and we got to hang out with them for a while before they turned in. They’d be hiking out tomorrow, while Iroh and I would be having a zero in town, desperately in need of laundry and a chore day.
It had been an excellent day, and I felt quite accomplished with what we’d done. Tomorrow we would be checking out a very well known hostel in town I hadn’t had the chance to visit yet, and I was already excited to sleep in a real bed again.