41.2 miles
in 3 1/2 Days - with Donna & Jim
Objective: To hike with Donna & Jim Miller. I met these wonderful people on my Summer 2007 hike. We
hiked together in Georgia. I had a great time with them. They tried to hike with me on my summer hike
in Virginia, but due to a shuttle
error and a delay in cell phone voice messages being delivered, we failed to
meet up.
Day 0: Wednesday, 11/07/07
Drive to Jim & Donna’s house and then onto Pearisburg,
VA
Drove down to Donna & Jim’s house in
south NJ. Left my car at their
home and enjoyed the long ride in their car down to VA. I got to sleep most of the way down. They did all of the driving.
Day 1: Thursday, 11/08/07
Sinking Creek, VA 663.3 to War Spur Shelter 653.8
Arrived early in the morning. Stopped at a Hardees for breakfast.
Parked the car at the Rendezvous Motel in Pearisburg,
VA; where I left the trail on my summer
hike. Brenda shuttled us north from Pearisburg,
VA to Sinking Creek,
VA 630.
We initially backtracked 0.2
miles to the Keffer Oak, a 300+
year old tree. Mile marker 663.3 Then we hiked
on to War Spur Shelter mile marker 653.8
6:40pm in bed, in
my tent, in the War Spur Shelter, and toasty warm after being out in the cold
all day. I have my polartec
long pants on and long shirt on in my wonderful sleeping bag – with two pads
underneath. Real
comfortable. It started out at
32F this morning. We were dropped off
0.2 miles south of a 300+ year old oak tree.
Walked 0.2 miles north to the tree, took some pictures, and then headed
back north to War Spur Shelter. I had lots
of fun hiking with Donna and Jim. Fell
twice. I twisted my left ankle
twice. I overextended my left knee
once. That hurt a bit. Hiking on leaves and loose rocks is difficult
on declines! Car ride down was
interesting. Jim & Donna swapped
driving all night. Straight
down to Rendezvous Motel. My toes
hurt a lot on the declines. Took one
pair ( of two ) socks off. That improved my toes a bit. I’m having a great time!
Day 2: Friday, 11/09/07 Hiked from War Spur Shelter ( 653.8 )
to Pine Swamp
Branch Shelter ( 641.1 )
6:51pm in
bed. It’s raining lightly and I’m toasty
warm again in bed. I have my tent
pitched up in the Pine Swamp Branch Shelter but the shelter has no roof. It’s an exact copy of the Trimpi
Shelter that I stopped for lunch in ( mile 512.6, 3.9 miles north of Dickey Gap
VA650/VA16 ). Same
fireplace in the middle and the same memorial plaque to Mr. Trimpi,
age 18. I’d like to think that
the family researched what hikers would like in a shelter and built these as a
memorial to their son. I can’t think of
a better way to memorialize a hiker. Unfortunately,
this shelter is being refurbished so the roof was removed. Heavy timbers for the roof were wrapped in
clear plastic and labeled along the shelter.
A large pile of the removed roofing materials was on the other side of
the shelter. Donna and Jim pitched their
tent ten feet from the shelter. Jim and
I placed a discarded piece of plywood across an upper bunk and I pitched my
smaller tent beneath it. I draped my
poncho over the bunk. Between the poncho
and the plywood, my tent should remain pretty dry tonight. I’m in my tent now and it’s raining lightly.
I fell down several
times today. The rocks were difficult
from Winding Rocks to the Bailey Shelter.
Not too great after that either.
My right, big toe hurt all day today.
Found out why just now. Big bruise. The toe
nail appears to be loose, floating. I
guess from yesterday’s declines. I took
off the 2nd pair of socks later in the day and that helped, but I
guess that the damage was done. Oh
well. Lots of gas
today. ( Left
over issue from my summer hike. ) Hiking
was pleasant until the rocks. Not too
bad for the last couple of miles - if my toe didn’t hurt so much. Rained on/off all night
until midnight.
Day 3: Saturday, 11/10/07
Hiked from Pine Swamp
Branch Shelter ( 641.1 ) to Rice Field Shelter ( 628.8
).
Up at 5:00am. Easy walking. Few trail markers between the shelter and
Groundhog Trail. Then
lots of markers for a half mile and then not too bad. Met three hikers in the
morning as we were packing. Met another hiker later on, Warren Doyle. Then another section hiker that just blew
right past us. Heard
some gunshots during the rest of the day. Must be black powder
season. Arrived
at Rice Field Shelter at 3:20pm. Real windy!
Sitting on the privy was cold!
Day 4: Sunday, 11/11/07
Hiked from Rice Field Shelter ( 628.8 ) to Pearisburg,
VA ( 622.1 )
Then the long drive back to NJ. Up at 5:45am. Got on the trail a little after
6:45am. Donna kept
mentioning that the sunrise was pretty at this shelter. As we were doing our morning chores, we
didn’t see much of a sunrise until I walked around the shelter to go to the
privy. The sunrise was beautiful! Sitting on the privy was interesting ( although very cold ).
There was only one wall facing the shelter for “privacy.” You could pretend that you were a king
looking down into Pearisburg from the throne.
Rice field was covered in a frost that gave the landscape a bright white
appearance everywhere. The walk was
pretty nice. No big inclines or
declines. A general
decline all day. Lots of noise though.
There’s some kind of manufacturing plant nearby and the noise was
inescapable. Bright
and sunny all day. Donna took
pictures of me exhaling. So I have a
picture of me and a big cloud of white.
She tried the same with Jim, but no cloud. I guess that I’m full of hot air. We hiked past the plant and up into the
Pearisburg graveyard. We stopped and
paid our respects to Captain George Pearis, Virginia
Militia – Revolutionary War. I took as
many pictures as I could. My camera
wasn’t very cooperative ( a button broke in the down
position. ) Fortunately, Donna and Jim
shared their pictures with me. I gave
them copies of mine from this and my summer hike. As we hiked back to the motel, I went around
the block to trace back to exactly where I got off of the trail at the end of
my summer hike. A true
white-blazer to the end. We got
back to the motel, showered and then drove back to Donna and Jim’s house. Then I had the long drive back to my house.
Epilogue: My toes took a beating on this hike. They bunched up in the front of my boots on
the declines. The sharp twinges are
subsiding. My big toe hurt for a number
of days and eventually the toe nail fell off.
I have to think about what footwear I will use in the future. Destroying my toes like this sounds like a
formula for painful arthritis. My
rearrangement of external frame pack worked out very well on this hike. Lowering the mounting points of the pack on
the frame allowed me to distribute the weight properly. I was very comfortable on this hike ( aside from my toes ).
And it was a real pleasure to be hiking again with Donna and Jim!