Waynesboro VA, 848.1

Hi Everyone

Patty and I walked into Waynesboro VA this morning from a shelter where we tented about 5 miles away. We walked off of the trail up to Rockfish Gap and as soon as we did an SUV pulled up and asked where we wanted to go. This was really better service than the airport cabs. The driver gave us a card that said trail angel on it and he said there were about 25 people in the local area who helped out hikers. He gave us a little tour of this town of 20,000 and then dropped us off at the Quality Inn. We checked in at 9:30 am and Patty noticed the breakfast buffet was still going so she asked if we could eat and of course they said yes. So we had our second breakfast of the morning. We usually eat our oatmeal on the trail and we even still each had a bagel left, but, the waffles and bisquits and gravey were a lot tastier at the motel.

After checking in we took showers, got laundry done, and then went to the Pizza Hut buffet lunch. We think we will go to some type of Asian buffet for supper. We just seem to have great appetites lately.

I will try to catch up since our last post from Daleville.

On 5-20, we left Daleville after a stay at the Howard Johnson's. Patty did some shopping in the AM and we did not get out of there until 11:00. We hiked a little over 11 miles and camped at the second shelter we came to. After setting up the tent we made supper and then went through the shelter journal. I am not sure if I have talked about shelter journals or not, but, each shelter has a journal. It is usually just a notebook and it is used as a way for people to communicate on the trail. If you stay in the shelter or tent nearby or if you are just passing through or stopping for lunch it is customary to make some type of entry into the journal. It might be as simple as "Red Dog and Lucky Dog stopped for lunch and then note the date. The journals are a way for people to keep track of where other people are on the trail and if you want you can leave notes for people who are behind you. Anyway while I was paging through the journal I noticed an entry from about two weeks before from "Willing and Able", AKA Phil and Val Rogosheske from St Cloud that said "back on the trail after 13 months, now on to Conneticut". Some of you might know them as Rogo coached at St Cloud Tech and is an avid skier and racer. I knew he and Val had pulled off the trail last year, but, did not know where. We have been watching the journals and have gained a day or so on them, but, they are moving about the same speed so I doubt if we will catch them.

On 5-21 we started hiking and following some of the trail that parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway or BRP. The BRP is a scenic road that is part of the National Park system and runs for over 300 miles. Much of this roadway used to be the A.T. and when they put the road in they moved the trail to one side or the other. So at times we are now following the parkway on a trail that is within a half mile of the road and we seem to cross it a number of times each day. If you ever come out east and want a scenic drive I would highly recommend it. I know we will be even closer to it later this week when we enter Shendoah National Park. We hiked 17 miles and tented at a nice site along a river.

5-22 was a great day for hiking and the weather continued to hold with temps getting up into the 70's. We had probably one of the best views of the trail from Apple Orchard Mtn. There are still the remanents of an old Air Force Radar facility at the top, but, you can see forever, because everything around you is flat.

5-23 and 24 continued with great weather and on the 24th we pulled a 20 mile day and hiked into Buena Vista or at least we hiked to the road that leads to Buena Vista. About 16 miles into the hike we came to a road crossing and as we crossed the road an older man motioned us over and asked us if we were hungary. Well at 4 pm after 16 miles we were and these great trail angels fed us sandwiches, smoked cheese, fresh pepperoni and lots of cake. I should have known somethins was up as I approached the vehicle with the license plate that said A T 7. If you say it fast it is 87 and that is when this couple Ruth and Hal better known as Flash and Hotflash on the trail when they hiked completed their thru hike. Ruth had just turned 73 and Hal was 76 so they were the same age as Patty and I when they hiked the trail. They also had two sons and we really enjoyed visiting with them. We left them and had 4 miles to the road crossing that would take us into town to resupply, with the last mile all up hill. We knocked off the last 4 miles in about an hour and 15 minutes and came out to the roadway. As we walked across the road to try to catch a ride into town there was Flash and Hotflash waiting for us. They had sat by the road crossing all day and fed about 10 thru hikers and after they fed us they waited a little longer and then decided to give us a ride into town. They took us to the best motel, let us check in and then gave us a ride to the grocery store and recommended a good place to eat before going on their way. They are true trail angels and I am going to post a picture to show everyone what trail angels look like. We have had many on this trip. Some we see and some we don't, but all of their trail magic is really appreciated. The restaraunt they recommended was a great sea food place called Captain Tim's and we ordered a family style meal where you could eat as much as you wanted. The shark, scallops and shrimp really took a beating. Thanks Hal and Ruth.

On 5-25 we hitched a ride the 9 miles back to where we left off on the trail. The people that gave us a ride were going to the top of the same mountain that we were going to climb and offered to give us a ride to the top, but, we have been true to the "white blazes" and turned them down. We instead did the 3000 foot climb and met them at the top of Cold Mtn. It was a bald and had a beautiful view of the surrounding area. We had lunch at the top of the bald and then came down. There were a lot of people just hiking for the day and also for the weekend. I think we met four different groups of Boyscouts. Coming down from Cold Mtn. we were offered more trail magic by a thru hiker and his wife who offered to cook us burgers, but, we actually turned them down as we had just eaten. We had a nice visit and drank a soda with them.

We did a short day of 13.2 miles on 5-26 as the temps climbed into the 80's and we had a huge climb if we were going to go on any further.

On 5-27 we started the day with a 3 mile climb where we gained 3500 feet, met a section hikers wife at 11:00 that had camped near us the night before and enjoyed some fresh fruit and a cold drink, had lunch with a bear, (see photo) and completed our longest day yet at 22.4 miles, and to top it off I slipt as I was crossing the creek to our tent site below the shelter and washed my socks, shorts, and shirt while I was still wearing them. It was a great day.

Today 5-28, I already explained how we made our way into town.

We were going to take a day off tomorrow, but the weather is supposed to be nice and we are really looking at getting into Shenandoah Nat. Park. We may not get a real early start, but we will probably enter the park sometime tomorrow. We are looking forward to this as the trail follows the BRP and there are a lot of campgrounds, restaraunts, and stores along the way so we are only going to carry about 3 days worth of food for the 5-6 day trip. We still plan on eating good without having to carry all the weight. We also have heard the trail flattens out a little and there is not quite as much hardner in the trail, (rocks).

I hope no one is checking my spelling too closely as I usually do not even have time to proof it and I have not found a spell check for it yet.

The section hiker we were with the other day did give me some interesting info if anyone wants to try and follow the A.T. and are familiar with Google Earth. He told me that Google Earth has an A.T. trail file. If you go to Google Community and then to the Message Board and type Appalachian Trail into the Search Box it will get you to a K and Z file that you can download. The way he explained it you can pull up the terrain and the location of the shelters for the entire trail. If anyone has any luck with this let me know.

The pictures we will post today include:

1. Picture of the Blue Ridge Parkway

2. Picture of me writing in the journal of the Bryant Ridge Shelter

3. Trail Angels, Flash and Hotflash

4. Patty @ an overlook by Cedar Cliffs

5. BoBo joining us for lunch

We are still having fun!!!

Until next time

Red Dog and Lucky Dog

Daleville, VA 714 Miles

Hi Everyone

It has been a good week for Patty and I and we are 93 miles further down the trail. We continue to walk the high ridges of VA and look down on the increasing farm lands of VA. We still have not found the easy rolling hills of VA that we heard about, but, hopefully in the next few weeks???

We left Parisburg on 5-14 with a full 6 days of food after our first buy at the local grocery. Up until last week we had my dad shipping boxes of supplies we had prepared for each of our locations. Our first day was a 20 mile day and we really did not see any other hikers for the first three days of our hike. I think a lot of people took off for "Trail Days" in Damascus VA. This is an annual celebration of the trail and consists of a big party and a lot of vendors. We heard that as many as 10,000 to 20,000 people attend. We hope to come back another year to participate. We have yet to talk to anyone who was there this year, but, as hikers filter back to various locations along the trail, I am sure we will run into a few who attended.

We ran into a little rain on 5-15, but, Patty's luck was with us as we made it to a shelter just before the rain started and had the shelter to ourselves.

We did another 20 mile day on 5-16 and saw the Keffer Oak. This is supposed to be the larges oak on the AT and I posted a picture for you to see. It is supposed to be over 300 years old. We were also the first ones to a fresh cooler of trail magic full of soda and treats. This was rather satisfying as we had found a couple of empty coolers and full garbage bags the previous few days. Thanks to all the trail angels out there.

On 5-17 we hiked up to Dragon Tooth and camped at the base of this huge rock with great views. We had great cell phone reception as we were looking across and down at a number of towers. I also had my first encounter with a rattlesnake. Once you hear that rattle you will never forget it. It really got my attention and was just a foot off the trail. I have also posted a picture of this. I am able to post picture this week thanks to a great librarian from Hot Springs NC who was nice enough to mail my camera cable back to me. Thanks

Yesterday we hiked down from Dragon's Tooth and went by one of the classic photo spots on the AT at McAfee Knob. We got a shot of the rock, but, the ceiling was so low that we were in the clouds once again and the views left something to be desired. We had a great evening visiting with our fellow shelter mates after a late afternoon thunderstorm drove us into a shelter for the night. We met Rhino from Germany and his Swiss Mountain dog who had thru hiked two years ago and are doing it again. We also met Pickle and Ragedy Andy, both from Israel and are thru hiking for the first time. They are both 25 and both served their mandatory 3 years in the military in Israel. They also both had duel citezenship. We had a some very interesting conversations.

Today we came down about 16 miles and are staying at a Howard Johnson's. We had our to friends from Israel shoot some photo's since we both got there about the same time, even though they left about a half hour behind us. They are doing 20 and 25 mile days almost every day.

Things are still going well, but, it is nice to come in for a shower once a week. We do brush our teeth every morning and floss, but, we don't always get to wash our face.

The pictures I posted are as follows:

The largest oak on the AT

My friendly rattlesnake

One of the many lady slippers we are seeing

Me in the Rhododendrums that are really starting to bloom.

Patty and I on Tinker Cliffs not quite ready to jump.

Until next time.

Red Dog and Lucky Dog on the trail.

Pearisburg VA, 622.1

Hi Everyone. It has been almost two weeks since our last post, but you have to remember, we do not always have access to computers and the internet.

While waiting for a computer at the public library in Pearisburg I was looking through a few newspapers and I see that the world goes on as Patty and I spend our time in the woods.

A lot of people probably think we are a little crazy to be doing this. We stopped at a small cafe/store on Saturday and a local character struck up a conversation with us. There were 3 other thru hikers who he had seen outside and then he came in and talked to Patty and I. He asked us what we got out of hiking the trail. We have pondered this a lot as we walked so it was not too difficult to answer him. We told him that we got one of the best experiences in the world. That we were able to meet great people from all over the country and also from the local areas we passed through. We told him that we were able to see some fantastic scenery, great views, flora and fauna that we don't normally get to see and even some wildlife. We also told him that we both enjoyed the physical and mental challenge the trip provided and the opportunity to spend time together. I asked him what he did and what he was passionate about. He told me he worked at an iron works and liked to mow lawns on his days off. We visited for a while longer and then he went on his way, hopefully not quite so miffed by the hikers he happens across.

Since we left Damascus on May 1 we have started to see the changes that we have heard about the trail in VA. Instead of 5000-6000 foot mountains the highest point so far has been just under 5000. We still have 2000 foot climbs and desents and there is still plenty of hardener (rocks) on the trails, but we have also come across a few long stretches of trail that are covered with just leaves and pine needles. The trail still follows the high ridges as much as possible, but, now it is harder to see the views below because the trees are leafing out. When you do have a view you see much more open farm land and open fields then trees.

I had planned on posting pictures of some of the flowers we have been seeing, but, we left the cable that connects the camera at a library in Hot Springs and I won't have it until our next town in a week or so. The librarian is going to mail it to me.

I will try to give you an update of what we have done since I last posted. To save weight, Patty is keeping the only journal, and I have made notes from her journal for the post.

May 1, 0 miles, a good day off in Damascus VA. It was 80 degrees and sunny. We did some shopping and Patty bought me some new rain gear, the spendy stuff that is light weight and supposed to breath. I shipped my state issued DNR rain gear home. So far it has been worth the price. Days off really are not days off as we usually have to do things like; laundry, resupply food and equipment, fix any gear, blog, and mail or call friends and family. One of these days we will have to take more than one day off. We might even take a day off on the trail if the campsite is nice enough.

May 2, 17.5 miles, Highs in the 80s and a beautiful day. We had breakfast as we left town and then started the climb that comes with leaving every town. The climbs are always made harder because you have the most food you will be carrying all at one time. In this case we had planned food for a 6 day trip. There is another trail that goes through the town of Damascus called the Virginia Creeper Trail. It is an old rail bed that is quite the bike trail. There were at least 3 bike rental businesses in town that shuttle people out about 30 miles on this trail who then bike back to town. The trip back is at the 5% grade that railroad used and almost all down hill. The trail follows or parallels the AT at times and goes through steep ravines and along the river. The parts of the trail we saw were fantastic. Judging by the numbers of Vans and trailers at the bike rental places this is a huge business and very popular spot. I would highly recommend it. We finished our hike and camped by a small creek. These are our favorite campsites because water is so close.

May 3, 11.1 miles, cloudy in the 50's and rain in the afternoon. We climbed the highes point in VA today, Mt. Rogers. The funny thing is the trail did not actually go up and over the summit. What a big change over the last 3 states where the trail went to the top of every high point you could see. The line we always used was that if you saw a high point, you either just came down from it or were going to climb it. Anyway this was a shorter day for us as the rain tends to slow you down a bit and the climb was not an easy one. We stayed in Thomas Knob shelter and listened the wild ponies whinny in the fog and rain. We also shared a meal of Ramps and Morell mushrooms with another hiker. Ramps are a wild onion that has a flavor that is a cross between onions and garlic. The saying is when one eats ramps all eat ramps.

May 4, 15.5 miles, rain and fog in the early am and beautiful and 65 late morning and afternoon.
I mentioned we listened to the wild ponies from the shelter. We had seen a few glimpses of them from the shelter, but, today we crossed into Grayson Highlands State Park and walked through a couple small herds of these small ferral ponies. We shot plenty of pictures and I even have Patty petting one. She really liked a small black colt. After another great hike we were able to camp by a small very pretty stream.

May 5, 20 miles, 65-70 for highs and a beautiful day. Our biggest day yet and we both survived. We still had some good ups and downs and there was still plenty of hardener in the trail, but, Patty was on a mission to order pizza for supper. We tented at the nicest shelter we have seen along the trail so far, Partnership Shelter. There were probably 8 or 9 other tents around a shelter that could hold 14 and had 4 people staying in. By this time most people value their sleep and would much rather tent then put up with one person who snores in the shelter. I did take a cold water shower at the shelter just so I could say I did. This shelter is adjacent to the hdqtrs of the Mt. Rogers National Forest and Pizza Hut delivers up to the gate of the hdqtrs., so we ordered a large supreme. We also had the opportunity to visit with a Ridge Runner, earlier in the day. Ridge runners are employed by the Nat. Park Service and Forest Service for 12 weeks at a time. They earn about $ 8.50/hr and are the "rangers" for the trail. They have no enforcement authority, and spend most of their time gathering information and educating hikers along with a small amount of maintainance to the trail.

May 6, 11.5 miles, 50-75 degrees and a beautiful day for hiking. This was a short day as we had a mail drop that was shipped to the Relax Inn. Since it was shipped there we stopped and relaxed once we arrived.

May 7, 14.3 miles, 50-80 degrees. Heavy packs again after a resupply and almost a dozen fence crossings. Yes I said fence crossings. Remember we are now in farm country and we have the occassional pasture to cross. We talk nice to the cows when we go through their territory. Anyway crossing fences with packs is enabled by stiles that either go up and over a fence as a form of steps, or as a gate that you have to weave through that a cow could not. I will try to post a picture of some of these when we get the cable back. Some were quite steep and Patty said she used some muscles that she had not used yet.

May 8, 18.6 miles, 50-65, cloudy and thunder storms by 6pm. After climbing a really high ridge we really could not see anything because of the trees and the way the ridge followed the landscape. I went ahead to the shelter to see if we would have to set up a tent or not and made it by 6pm. The sky opened up at 6:01 and we had about an inch of rain by the time Patty arrived at 6:10. We shared the shelter with a Southern Baptist Minister and his wife from Salt Lake. Had some interesting conversations.

May 9, 13.8 miles, 45-65. Another rainy day and we stayed at another shelter. Patty found another adoped son, a 22 year old from VA with a trail name of Bad Idea. She was very impressed with the quilt he had made to use in lieu of a sleeping bag.

May 10, 18.2 miles, 50-70. A great day for hiking with a stop for a double cheesburger at a small cafe/convienience store. We ate and picked up a few things and then caught a ride on the back of a flat bed pickup the 1/2 mile back to the trail. You will have to ask Patty about that ride. We hiked up another 2 miles and camped at the base of Dismall Falls. A great spot, even though it was a little loud.

May 11, 14.2, Cool and rainy, thunder, lightning, hail and wind. Stayed in a shelter after a very wet day and fixed all of our remaining food. A four course meal for mothers day. Patty enjoyed it.

May 12, 10 miles cool, foggy and rainy with a lot of wind. We hiked into Pearisburg and are staying at the Holiday Motor Lodge. Hopefully will take a day off tomorrow.

Until next time take care. We are still having fun

Red Dog and Lucky Dog.

Damascus VA.

We arrived in Damascus VA. yesterday and are taking a day off today. Days off are good for both of us. We have now completed 460 miles of the AT and three states. We have seen some beautiful country and met some great people. I really want to come back to Georgia and North Carolina and do some paddling there are some great rivers that need exploring. Everyone that is a paddler should consider coming down here.

I was last able to post in Erwin TN. Since then we have lightened up a bit. We both have new packs and new Therma Rest pads. Our old packs were great packs, but weighed in at over 8 pounds. Our new packs are around 3.5 pounds. Saving 5 pounds is huge. We did not save as much with the new pads, but our old pads were older than a lot of the people we are hiking with. They were some of the original Therma Rest pads. Anyway Patty is a lot happier and so am I.

We left Uncle Johnny's on 4-22. It was cloudy and about 60 degrees. We even had to wait for a train as we went to work for the day. Just like in Little Falls. We really enjoyed Erwin and Uncle Johnny's. He was very helpful and it was a great place to stay. After hiking 16 miles we stopped for the day and about an hour later we were joined by 13 High School students from Kent Ohio on a hiking field trip. Supposedly there were 4 groups fo 13 who were all hiking different sections of the AT. They were pretty tired and were a pretty quiet group. We set up the tent near the shelter. We try to camp at shelters because that is usually where the water is.

On 4-23 we crossed Round Bald and just happened to meet Bob Peebles. Bob runs the hostel near Hampton TN called Kincora and told us if we made it to the hostel on Saturday by 4pm we could go to church with him as he was the head usher. We hiked on and came over another huge bald and had thoughts of camping on the top because the views were fantastic. It was a little windy and then I noticed that we were not alone. There was a herd of about 15 Texas Long Horns and some of them had really long horns. Patty took one look and started moving. I did get the camera from her and shot a picture. They seemed pretty docile to me. After coming down from the bald we hiked another couple of miles and camped in an open area that still had a pretty good view. The balds are areas on the tops of mountains that have been cleared and kept cleared for some reason. They are nice because they offer great views of the surrounding area.

On 4-25 we were both a little tired after a couple of hard days and we stayed at the newest shelter on the AT. It was built by Bob Peebles and his crew in 2006. It was actually a triple decker. We thought it was going to rain, but, as it turned out we stayed dry all nite.

On Saturday 4-26 we left the shelter at 7am and started the 16 miles we needed to go to get to the Kincora Hostel. We actually made it in by 2:30 so Patty and I had plenty of time to shower and get ready for church with Bob and his wife. The hostels are first come first serve and one of the hikers we had met gave up the "tree house" for us. It was a great spot up the hill from the main hostel and really was a tree house. It did have a double bed. I will try to post a picture so you can see some of the places we are staying.

We left Kincora on Sunday morning about 10:00 am and walked by some of the best scenery we have seen so far. The first 5 miles went along a river and then by Laurel Falls. Huge cliffs and great views. It was also just nice to walk along the river. It started raining on us just after lunch and we made it to the shelter we planned on staying in by around 3 pm. When it is raining it is nice not to have to set up the tent.

On 4-28 we woke up to more rain. It was not raining hard but enough to be a nuisance. We crossed the Wautaga Dam, a TVA project from the 30's after walking around Wautaga Lake. As we walked it started raining harder and harder and then it turned cold. We made it to the next shelter and were glad to get out of the weather. It really rained all nite long and we would have been soaked in the tent. There was a lot of lightening and thunder and even some hail. We woke up after a damp cold nite to frozen boots and temp's in the upper 20's. It took a while to get feeling in our feet and hands even after cooking a hot breakfast. We walked through some snow that had accumulated and it warmed up later in the day on the 29th.

We camped at the Abingdon Shelter and actually had the entire shelter to ourselves on the 29th and then walked the 10 miles into Damascus on the 30th. It was mostly downhill and we into town by 11:30, or a little better than a 3 mph pace. We usually figure we travel 2 mph or better over mixed terrain of ups and downs. They say it is flatter in VA and we are looking to possibly do some 20 mile days.

We are staying in the house of the woman who runs the Hikers Inn. She has two rooms she rents upstaris in her house. We have a huge room with a great King Bed. She let us use her new Mini Cooper to get groceries last nite and we really had a feast for supper. You should never let a hungry hiker shop for food. We had shrimp, steak, a couple of sides, some beer and Patty even finished off a bottle of wine by herself. We were joined by a couple of other hikers and had a great time. I even found a new beer, "Flying Dog". Pretty good stuff.

We are just lounging today, a little reading a little shopping and a little eating. Doing what a day off is supposed to be, Off.

I am going to try and post a couple of pictues of places we have stayed or camped. I think Patty and I have worked out the numbering system. I found out that she was using a different number than the one I was using for the photo's.

I will try to post again in a week or so from Rural Retreat VA. We have a mail drop going to the Relax Inn there so I guess we will probably spend at least one nite.

Hope all is well with everyone.

I put up a new link on the blog called Trail Journals. Many of the people we are hiking with have journals on this site. Some even have pictures of us on them. If you are interested and want to check some of them out you can go to the link and then check out journals for the following people; Sea to Land, No Car, and Pip's. We also ran into the guy who does most of the posting on the White Blaze site. His name is Mountain Squid and he was going to mention that we were making progress on our hike.

Until next time, Red Dog and Lucky Dog.