Miles: 757.4 | A sluggish morning and lingering exhaustion shape an intentionally easy day. After a forgotten bear line and a brief logistical hiccup, the trail delivers exactly what we need: unexpected cell service, generous trail magic, and a swimming hole just ten miles ahead. We camp early beside the river, float in cold water with friends, and let the heat and fatigue rinse away. It’s not ambitious—but it’s restorative, and finally, I sleep.
We woke up late again. Still felt really exhausted. I started wondering if maybe I was ill. My joints hurt, I'd been getting migraine headaches, I was having trouble sleeping, I had very little motivation. Maybe it was just my depression, I dismissed.
Perhaps I just wasn't recovering enough. We sat and ate our cereal and powdered milk at the picnic table. We got packed up and climbed hard out of the shelter. Halfway up the climb Miles realized he had forgotten his bear line at the shelter because he had gotten my bear bag down for me that morning and his hands had been too full to carry both our bags and lines.
He dropped his pack on the side of the trail and started running down the hill back to the shelter. I told him I'd meet him up ahead, where the trail met the Blue Ridge Parkway again.
I turned and walked uphill toward the road. When I got there the sun was finally out. It was hot and humid. I sat by the sign for the overlook and ate a snack while I waited. Five minutes later, I turned my phone off of airplane mode. Surprisingly, unlike most of Virgina, I had signal! I checked my texts. My phone started ringing, it was Miles. "Do you have my poles?" He asked. I told him I had left all of his stuff with his pack on the side of the trail. I hadn't seen his poles. He hung up. He had left them at the shelter when he was getting his bear line.
Twenty minutes later he came running up the hill, out of breath and drenched in sweat. He had his poles, his pack, and his bear line, finally. Not far behind him was Snow Angel. She told us that there was a swimming hole at the next gap! It was a hot, sunny day. A swim sounded really nice. She went ahead of us and we looked at the map. There was a camp site right next to the swimming hole. It was perfect! But it was only a 10 mile day. We said, "Fuck it." And decided we would camp there that night.
The trail followed the Blue Ridge Parkway for the next few miles, crossing it a few times. At one of the overlooks a man in his van was handing out trail magic! He gave us coffee, cookies, crackers, olives, and water. For some reason I'd been CRAVING olives for almost a week but I hadn't come across any that would be easy to carry. They were so salty and satisfying. I probably was just craving the salt and fat. The trail magic was a great surprise.
When we arrived at the creek (more like river) we got even more trail magic! A woman stopped and gave us Gatorade and Pringles! We set up our tents at the campsite and then headed down to the water. We swam with Snow Angel and a few other hikers.
Some trout swam around our feet and nipped at our legs. The cool river was so refreshing. I sat in the water for a solid half hour. After we swam, Miles and I sat on the shore listening to Levar Burton Reads "The Lighthouse Keeper". We gathered water upstream and went back up to our tents. Some dark clouds started rolling in.
We had dinner in Miles' tent and fell asleep as the rain came back. I was finally exhausted enough to sleep. Not the whole night, but a solid five hours.