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.