REALLY?!!

Have you ever sat on a bench for so long that a bird used you as toilet paper?! Just happened!

YUCK! Now I've got to go back to the room and wash my hands!

Thanks nature!

HAPPY D800YS DAY!!!

Some say its determination others call it stubbornness. Whatever it is that has gotten me 800 miles, I must have gotten it from you, daddy!

I broke 800miles today, so you'd have something to be proud of me for on Fathers Day!

We are in Buena Vista, VA now! 801.1mi

I LOVE YOU DADDY!

Bears!

It took 2 months for me to see a bear! Two months!
I have come to discover that the woods aren't as 'wild' and active as Disney cartoons and the Discovery Channel would have you believe. Most days we see a few chipmunks, squirrels, frogs, lizards, and birds while hiking and hear them around camp at night. On a good day we'll see a deer or two, maybe a turtle or snake and hear some owls and/or woodpeckers, but it's pretty rare to see a bear.

Hiking into Damascus the trail registers, and shelter logs were filled with comments about bear sightings. Multiple hikers even reported seeing numerous bears in a day. Want to know how many I saw?!

NONE

And to really rub it in, one apparently descended a tree, crossed the trail, and disappeared into the woods on the other side just after I passed the tree. Another hiker saw me turn the corner and then watched the bear perform this illusive act! I'm told that if I would have turned around, I would have seen it!

BUMMER

I did eventually see one though! About a week ago, when I was having lunch with Onkelz a bear walked by while we were eating lunch (about 30 yards from our lunch spot). He just walked by rummaging in the leaves, totally unaware of our presence!

IT WAS SO COOL!

Aqua crew!

So our group keeps changing, so instead of writing about all of the amazing folks I've met and confusing you all, I've accidentally omitted them from my posts :( My blog makes it seem as though I'm wandering around out here on my own, which is COMPLETELY false. In fact, I've spent so little time alone in the three months I've been on the trail that I often have to ask for alone time or sneak away for a bit while in a town!

Here is a short list of the crew with whom I will be aquablazing:

Gerber (as in the baby, not the tool)
Onkelz (German for Uncles)
Two Pair
Hammer
Windmills
Sketch
Chatty Kathy (the dude)
Sacagawea (FINALLY another girl in the group!)

And whoever else we pick up along the way!

Every member of this crew is excellent in his/her own way and I can't wait to get on the river with them! I wish I had more time to draft a short description of each one of these characters, perhaps future posts will paint a better picture of this colorful crew!

Shoes

So in the last few days my feet have swollen up! I was doing just fine with the boots I started with and then... POOF! My feet are visibly swollen in the morning and at night. My little toes are all puffed up and pink! I could only walk about 5mi in the boots I started with before I was in a decent amount of pain; I had to stop, take my shoes off, and elevate my feet once an hour or so to keep the pain down. Luckily, when we got to VA624 we stopped at Four Pines Hostel and what was in the hiker box?! A pair of trail runners that are a size bigger than my boots! I walked in them for two days to get me to Daleville, VA. I like them okay and should be able to wear them until they blow out. Plus, you've got to love the price-FREE!

Lexi- I still would like to hold off on you sending my spare boots. When we get to the Shenandoah we are probably going to aqua blaze (take a canoe on the river for a week instead of hiking), so I won't want/need them until around the 1,000mi mark. Thank you doll, your support and flexibility is greatly appreciated!

Karissa- I sent my old hiking boots home, they are yours if you want them, little sis! Oh, but you are going to have to put new insoles in them ;)

Real food!!!

I've had about four REAL meals since being on the trail. Four. Now, when i say real i mean the ingredient list is made up of recognizable things of decent quality. A lot of the restaurants in the small towns we pass through serve pre-packaged or previously frozen items that are probably packed full of ingredients I shouldn't eat. It makes grabbing a meal with friends extremely difficult, more difficult than at home for sure.

I'm all excited about the real food at Woods Hole Hostel. They offer breakfast and dinner for an additional price. Both of which were made from 100% fresh ingredients, many of which are grown on site! Awe, real food!

Smart choices, close calls...

We may have gotten lost and ended up night hiking in the rain a few nights ago...

Yep, we had an 'epic'

In trying to make Lambert Meadow shelter after a late summit of McAffees Knobon a cloudy day (photos) we found ourselves turned around at Tinker Cliffs. The trail scampered up through some large boulders but we got distracted by an adorable baby bunny rabbit and walked down a trail to the cliffs' base. As we hiked under overhangs and through rock tunnels we realized we had lost the official trail. But instead of turning back we kept 'exploring' eventually blazed our own trail out and back up to the AT. There may have been some rock climbing and crawling involved...

Then it started raining...

Then it got dark...

As we hit the AT we just picked a direction, hoping it would take us north (less than 2mi to the next shelter) and not back to where things had originally gone awry. As we ran down the trail, we came to a fork where I all three paths were marked with white blazes! WTF?! A poorly pointed sign made us more sure of one path than the others, so we took it.

It ended up being right in the end, thankfully, and there was room in the shelter when we got there! Crisis averted, adventure had!

The following day was a 9mi hike into Daleville, VA where the people are extremely friendly and the banana pudding is free!

New record

We broke 600miles today!!!

Glad to be one of the 50%

Man, it felt good to cross a state line! Hello Virginia!

So, they say that 50% of people who leave Springer with the intent of thru-hiking either quit before Damascus, VA or get off the trail in Damascus. Guess what? I walked out of Damacus via the AT and intend to go all of the way! The farther I make it, the better my chances get!

I stayed at a donation only hostel called the place with a group of really great guys.

Back together

So I've been travelling in this bubble of really great people who have been intermittently going their own way and enjoying eachother's company at shelters  and in towns for a while now. Slowly I have been adopted into a crew. We all zeroed together in Bland, VA today.

Right now its Two Pair, Onklez, Sketch, Gerber and me but we hope to add Hammer (and catch Ultimatum) here in a few days.

Milestones

I passed 500mi and 1/4 of the way in the same week! Cranking out the miles feels good!