July 6 - 12 (Miles 767.1 to 843.0)

July 6 - Thunder Ridge to Johns Hollow Shelter

We weren't on the trail until 1 o'clock and we had 15 miles to do! Oops! When were filtering water, I dropped my water bottle in the rushing creek! Will ran after it and fell in the creek twice! So much for staying dry! Atleast he got my water bottle! It was a rush to get to the shelter before dark, but we made it!

July 7 - Johns Hollow to Brown Mountain Shelter

We were hoping to to do a 24 mile day but because of rain, the Virginia Blues, and I having a hard time climbing for some reason, we ended up stopping one shelter short at 18 miles.

July 8 - Brown Mountain Shelter to Hog Camp Gap

It was a dreary morning and the Virginia Blues were hitting me so hard. One forth of the trail, 500 miles, are in Virginia. It kind of gets depressing. The past couple weeks, with all the rain and the so few views, have lowered our spirits. Around noon we reached a bald. A bald! My favorite parts of the trail! So we spent a few hours up there, on accident.... :D We stopped for water when it started raining. Not again! :( So we were like 'What the heck, we'll just camp here'. It was a cute field and it was so nice relaxing in my hammock. Exactly what I needed to raise my spirits.

July 9 - Hog Camp Gap to Harpers Creek Shelter

Finally saw another bear! Yay! Climbed Spy Rock, a nice rock scramble to a view. While hiking down The Priest I rolled my ankle and smacked my knee on a rock. Man that hurt! And to add insult to injury, an hour later my foot caught climbing over a fallen tree and I landed on the same knee. Owww. We ended our 22 mile day with a few minutes of hiking in the dark. Not to bad though, I only barely needed my head lamp.

July 10 - Harpers Creek Shelter to Maupin Field Shelter

We had planned for another 22 mile day, but a couple of things didn't go as planned... As we were nearing the top of the mountain, Will stepped off to the side of the trail to a view. I hadn't seen him do this and thought he was still ahead of me. When I reached the top and saw he wasn't there, I assumed he had continued on without me. I tried to catch up but couldn't see him, which was weird because usually when he gets too far ahead of me he usually stops and waits. So I start screaming for him, trying to catch him, but I had a little thought in the back of my head that maybe he is behind me. I don't know what to do, keep going, turn around, or just sit there. When you are separated from someone, you are supposed to stay put, but what if Will was waiting for me and not looking? I got part of the way down the mountain stopped and waited for 5 to 10 minutes and decided he must be behind me and turned around and started climbing the mountain. In the mean time Will had hiked back down the other side of the mountain looking for me, saw I wasn't there, ran up the mountain, and started down the side of the mountain I was actually on. When we finally found each other, we had probably been apart for about 45 minutes. This event combined with our 2 thousand foot climb that took longer than expected, we decided that we weren't going to make 22 miles. The day wasn't a whole loss though! A family on a short trip stayed at the shelter with us and they had an adorable puppy!

July 11 - Maupin Field Shelter to Waynesboro, VA

We hiked 6.5 miles and got a shuttle into town. Food! Mountain Dew! A bed!

July 12 - Waynesboro, VA

The weather said it is supposed to storm. I know, I know, 'You can't make it to Maine, if you don't hike in the rain'. But at this point we don't care anymore. We are sooo sick of rain. Our shuttle driver even said yesterday that this has been the wettest season in years. So we stayed in town. 

July 6 - Thunder Ridge Overlook to Johns Hollow Shelter ( mile 767.1 to 782.0)

We thought about leaving the hotel early. But it didn't happen. We left the hotel and drove to the overlook and took pictures. The weather was beautiful!

The sky really WAS this blue and the clouds just hung right there!

Views of the trail on either side of the overlook.

Hi, Dad! Wish you were here!

The gnats were out in big clouds, flying around our faces. ugh!

Time for us to head back to the trail.

July 5- Buena Vista (zero day #2)

Mom didn't like like the motel we were in, so we found a new one. We had lunch at Applebee's and drove to downtown Lexington, VA, and saw Despicable Me 2. I tried on some new shorts Mom brought, finding out I can actually wear pants 4 sizes smaller than I used to wear! Woot! Woot! We packed our food supplies and hung out at the motel. Tomorrow we say goodby to Rachel, Katie, and Mom.

July 4- Buena Vista (zero day) Happy Independence Day!

We slept late and then got sandwiches, potato salad, and sodas from the Amish store. Then we waited for Mom and Katie to get here. Their ride was not uneventful. A four month old tire blew out while they were traveling 65mph down a highway in the middle of nowhere. A nice Ohio state trooper and a firefighter/emt pulled over and changed the tire. Then, while on the interstate in the middle of Charleston, WV, a sudden downpour, including lots of hail hit.

 

We had a late dinner at DQ with the sounds of fireworks outside and then went to sleep.

July 3- Thunderhill Shelter to shuttle ride to Buena Vista, VA (1.5 miles)

We stayed in the shelter until everyone left, so we had room to move around. We hiked 1.5miles to the Blue Ridge Parkway where we had a shuttle come rescue us from the nasty weather and take us to a motel. We hung all of our belongings out to dry, went to Subway, took showers, ate Mexican and went to bed.

July 2- Bryant Ridge Shelter to Thunderhill Shelter (mile 755.5 to 765.7)

It rained today.

A lot.

It flooded.

We got wet.

Very.

The trail was a creek.

Literally.

We had lots of fun complaining about it.

We reached a one mile side trail to a waterfall. We all thought, 'We can't get any more wet, what the heck!'

We were wrong.

We all fell down.

Will and I fell on the stupid wooden stairs that didn't have any traction on them. Rachel fell on a slippery rock, somehow getting even more wet and muddy than she was before!

We were supposed to see an FAA tower. Will saw it for a moment, turned around to see if Rachel and I were close behind and when he turned back, it was lost in the fog! Here's what we SHOULD have seen as one of our landmarks. (We did end up seeing it in the distance on July 6 while Mom was driving us back to the trail!)

You can see the trail cutting through the grass. Can you believe we couldn't see this!
 

Soon after this we came to a rock formation called, 'The Guillotine'. The trail goes underneath this boulder.

We hiked through ankle deep water to the shelter we thought we'd never get to. It was a 6-person shelter that housed 7 on the floor and 2 hanging from the rafters in their hammocks that night. We couldn't hang out our wet belongings to dry, just balled them up in a corner.

July 1 - Cove Mountain Shelter to Bryant Ridge Shelter (mile 748.5 to 755.5)

Swimming Hole Day! We played in a swimming hole. I saw a snake on the other side of the creek, sunning itself. Will threw rocks at it and we are 99% sure he severed it in half. Heeheehee!

We spent a couple of hours there building cairns and playing in the water.

 

We hiked 7miles to a big, beautiful 20-person shelter with a nice privy, except for the palm-sized spider inside. Will was our hero and killed it. The shelter had two posts that had eyelets in them that were the perfect space apart to hang my hammock, so I lounged for a bit.