Spring has Sprung....?

Pearisburg to Daleville, Virginia


After drying out in Peasburg we were ready to get back on the trail.  We weren't sure how far we wanted to hike that day, so we figured we would let the day decide for us.  We finished off all the snacks we bought from the night before that we weren't willing to carry in our packs, made a last stop at the mexican restaurant on the way out of town, then got back in the woods.

Puddin' downing some mello yello before we left the hotel

We ended up hiking 12 miles to an area on the trail with a beautiful view.  I think we were still feeling it from the push into town the day before so we set up the tent and enjoyed the company and the views.  Sleeping Beauty was nice enough to pack out some hot dogs and buns from town so we showed the others how to spiral their weenies and we busted out the condiment packets after cooking the dogs over the fire.

A panoramic of the view from our campsite the first night

Nova was still behind us and Fatty had hiked on ahead of us so it was Puddin, myself, Sleeping Beauty and Spanky at the campsite.  We also ran back into Funnybone!



Yes, Spanky was actually showing his teeth in this picture, a very rare occasion.



The biggest black snake we have seen on the trail yet.  It was climbing the tree and enjoying the sun as much as we were.



Taking a moment to stop and smell the flowers



We  weren't the only campers enjoying the view that night.  

The sunset that night was amazing and brought out the inner child in me.  There was a good climbing tree nearby, so I pressed my 34 year old luck and climbed up it to get a better view.



The start of the sunset



My heightened view from the tree



Checking out the valley down below



It was amazing

The price of the amazing sunset was soon found out when people started noticing ticks on themselves.  Puddin had two and I found one.  Luckily they had not embedded themselves in our skin yet so we just got grossed out and flicked them off.

The next day was great weather, great flowers and great views.  There was only one big climb. We saw two more snakes and a deer and finished with 21 miles for the day.  It sprinkled on us just a bit towards the end of our hike, but we got to camp and got the tent set up a bit before it really started to come down.  We washed off in the river next to our campsite and did a bit of laundry then hid out in the tent while the clouds dumped their precipitation.



Beautiful flowers early in the day.



The silk worms were out and in full effect.



This is the largest oak tree on the southern part of the AT



Stopping to enjoy the view.  Not sure what expression I was making.  Apparently it hurts when the camera cuts off part of your face.  



Some more beautiful flowers.

The next day we hiked 16.4 miles to the Niday shelter.  Not a real eventful day.

On our next to last day before going into town we knew we would need to push. We planned on somewhere around 24 miles for the day with some amazing viewpoints along the way, but were also very aware of the difficult terrain that lay ahead of us for the day.  It wasn't going to be easy.



The Audie Murphy Memorial.  He was the most decorated soldier of WWII.  

One of the highlights for the day was a place called Dragon's Tooth.  It is some very large upturned rocks with amazing views from the top.  It is a very popular area and there were lots of locals there, but we had fun none the less.



Climbing up onto the rocks to see the views



Puddin showing off her rock climbing skills



Nice butt shot.  That was about as far as I was willing to go.  Puddin showed me up.  



Puddin ontop of Dragon's Tooth.  This picture does absolutely no justice of how high up she was.



Views of the valley below



This one was called fire pink or something like that.  

For some reason we got a hair up our butts and decided we were close enough to our personal best mileage wise that we might as well try to break it.  That would also put us on top of McAfee Knob for sunset if we were able to keep up our pace.  We finished the day with a beautiful view, great sunset and a new personal record of 27 miles for the day.



Puddin on top of McAfee Knob (the most photographed spot on the entire AT)



Cooking dinner on the Knob after a long day

We woke up the next day sore from our previous days mileage, but were driven by the thoughts of clean clothes, clean bodies, and town food.  Daleville here we come!!


A view from the ridge before we descended into Daleville



Enjoying more views

We made it down into town and are going to rest our weary feet and enjoy someone cooking our food for us.  It is currently myself, Puddin, and Spanky since Sleeping Beauty wasn't feeling good one of the days and had to take an extra day off in town to get feeling better.  We plan on picking him up in a couple of days when Merry gets us to bring us back to Damascus for the biggest hiker gathering on the east coast......  TRAIL DAYS!!!!!!!!!

 

-Paddy Cakes