Miles: 655.8 | A late start doesn’t dampen the excitement—spring has finally arrived, with green leaves, flowers, and a totally different feel to the forest. The climb out of Pearisburg brings pipeline construction zones, protests, and a strange, heavy energy on trail. New shoes turn out to be harder than expected, forcing tired calves and achy Achilles to work overtime. As daylight fades and camping options disappear, we push on, laughing through small panics and miscommunications, and finally collapse into camp after a tough 20.5-mile day—hungry, worn down, and completely spent.
We tried to catch a shuttle out of the hostel at 9am but they were a little late. We ended up getting on trail around 10am. The forests were suddenly green and blooming. The leaves were on the trees and the flowers were out! SPRING HAD FINALLY ARRIVED FOR REAL!
We walked along some roads and up out of Pearisburg. On our way up the mountain we came to a gravel forest road where a Forest Service officer was waiting in his car. He stepped out of his car and gave us a run down on the 'project' we would be coming upon. We were told not to get off trail at all in this next section. We would be crossing the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction which was currently being protested.
We got up to Rice Field Shelter and ate lunch there. We saw a few hikers from the day before that were slackpacking: Savage, Josh, Half Moon, Little Foot, Grandma Shorty, Plod Along, and Tang.
My new shoes were kind of weird. They had no drop from heel to toe and the grip was weird. I had to lace them differently because my toe kept slipping. They weren’t stable like my old ones. I was over compensating for a every step I made and it was surprisingly exhausting. I started feeling it pretty badly in my Achilles. My calves were having a hard time with the drop difference.
The shelter near the Captain’s Place was also ‘closed’ but we decided to check it out anyway. (WARNING: I strongly recommended not defying ATC ordinances and camping at closed shelters. It is not safe.)
On our way down to the shelter Miles and I walked separately. We listened to music and podcasts. I was singing along to music when he caught up to me finally and he thought my singing was actually me crying for help. I fall a lot so this wasn’t exactly an unfounded worry. He ran down the mountainside to meet me and when he finally did he realized that I was totally fine. His panic was for naught. After a long, hard day I felt so bad that he ran after me in panic. We laughed it off and started back down the hill for the shelter.
We kept walking. We passed a Mountain Valley Pipeline protest site and saw some Forest Service Rangers set up near the trail. We also saw their damage and heard their generator.
As we walked we realized we would be getting to camp late. We started looking for places to camp. The terrain wasn’t exactly suited for stealth camping. The Captain’s Place, which was recommended to us, we found out was closed.
When we arrived at the shelter there were four other hikers already there. We decided to risk it since it was dark. We sat up Miles’ tent and I got water. We ate dinner quickly, basically just cramming as many calories in our mouths as we could in half an hour. We went to bed, 20.5 miles later: exhausted.