37°11′10″ N 80°54′5″ W
Southern Virginia
After a few light days to align ourselves for the Paige meet, we discovered that she would be with us on Sunday rather than Friday. So we pushed on. We moved along the 60 miles to Pearisburg over the weekend and arrived at the Angels Rest Hostel at sunset on Sunday. Knowing now that Paige will join us early Monday for the walk out of town, this stop is perfect. We also met up with our trail friend Hawkwoman whom we had not seen since leaving her home in Pottsville PA. Made for a nice reunion.
The hostel is brand new to the trail and wasn't in our guide. We found a card earlier in the week stapled to a bridge. Doc Peppa picked us up on the trail and drove us to the luxurious double-wide where we checked in, grocered up at the Food Lion and watched movies until way past bedtime. We didn't think this to be a problem since we were breaking in a new hiker (Paige and dog Penny) in the morning.
We also knew it would be a short day (11.4) because we wanted to stay at the Woods Hole Hostel on Sunday night. This mileage was perfect for the first day. Woods Hole didn't disappoint either as we enjoyed showers, fresh garden vegetables in the salad, bruschetta, soup and all. Excellent dinner topped off with homemade strawberry ice cream.
We then gorged on French toast, bacon, coffee, donuts… for breakfast! All in the 1880s log cabin deep in the woods. Organic all!
Paige (Peach) and Penny (Panda) both earned their trail names today in a 13.4 day. Tomorrow, will be another of about the same distance unless they feel up to an 18. That would be tough. Regardless, that will be their last day since I'll be hitching back to the Angel’s Rest to get Paige's car early Wed.
After this, hummingbird and I will be putting in some serious miles to beat some of the snow in the many 6,000 footers yet to come. The Smokies have many. Nine out of our ten highest peaks are yet to come.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be our 21st day in a row hiking since coming back to the trail following the wedding of Colin and Hannah at Briar Hill. We'll have walked 360 miles over this time or roughly 120 miles/week. In order to finish by 12/2, we need to hit 133 per. Boots…get walking.
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