Melissa called from a hotel they are staying at in Buena Vista 799.1 NoBo for a zero day. It is almost 100% humidity right now and it is too oppressive to hike. Lots of fellow thru hikers have descended on the hotel. This past week has shown little improvement for Hollywood’s feet and ankle. She has gotten an ankle brace and she thinks it is helping. Coconut is holding up perfectly, so far. Jordan has become a tick magnet and has been banned to outside the tent at night for a while.
As you can tell, they have backed off the mileage totals a bit, but they have been doing it by taking Neros and long 20 plus mile days. They have slowly but surely started reconnecting with some of their fellow hikers they lost in Vicksburg at Trail Days. Modifying the mileage has also helped Melissa.
They planned on a 12 mile day after the night off with the friends I told you about in the last post. Before returning to the trail, they went to an outfitter so Melissa could check in on warranty status of her now leaking tent, and deflating mattress. The outfitter called Big Agnes, the maker of the tent, and they just told them to issue her a new one. The outfitter didn’t have her tent model, but one at another outfitter a couple towns away, did. For the Thermarest deflation issue, they gave her a patch kit for free.
So they called on a Trail Angel. Trail Angels are the great people who setup and give away Trail Magic. They often ferry items to and from towns as needed for thru-hikers too. These are true salt of the earth, plain ol good people. The first Trail Angel they called was unable to, so they called a second who was in town. So this random woman she had never met agreed to go into the town that had it, pick up the tent, and meet her on the trail with it.
By the time they get everything dealt with, it is well after 3:00PM. They were both thinking they should just zero the day, but now they have made a commitment to meet the trail angel with the tent plus too obsessed with mileage, but never communicated that to each other. It was too late to patch the mattress there ,so she figured she’d sleep with it one more night deflated and patch it the next.
And back on the trail they head at 3:30 PM. They hike until 7:30 PM and come to a road. Melissa is sure this ISN’T the road she is supposed to meet the trail angel at. Out comes the map and they find it is six more miles to the road. They did only six miles in four hours. They normally average 2.5 miles per hour so this was awfully depressing for Melissa. They call the trail angel and ask her to meet them at the road they are on now. She says OK, it’s closer for her anyway.
They see a friend from the trail while waiting for the tent and he recommends they walk down the road to a convenience store to grab a beer, and the next thing you know its party time. They take the booze up to a campsite and weary hikers imbibe in alcoholic pleasures until the wee hours of the morning. They all decided to stick together and invade a restaurant in the next town up the line. Seven hikers strong, they hike into Catawba, Va. 700.0 NoBo. The restaurant, The Home Place, doesn’t open until 4:00 PM. What else is there to do but hang at another convenience store; by the time all the hikers gathered, there were thirty people descending on The Home Place Once open, the restaurant puts all the hikers in one area and put up a wall for privacy / isolation / quarantine J. This is an all-you-can-eat family style restaurant. Everyone sits around the table and they bring out big containers of endless food for all to eat. Our vegetarian filled up on mashed potatoes, biscuits and cherry cobbler. You know, the healthy stuff. Even the vegetables had been cooked in chicken stock. These two days of low miles, camaraderie and partying restored a lot of Melissa’s cheer. The Virginia blues had started to sink in, but it took just a couple days of fun times and relaxing to push them away again.
Next day they all decide to hike to McAfee Knob 703.5 NoBo, one of the most photographed locations on the AT, to catch the sunset, and then head up the trail a bit to the Campbell Shelter 704.5NoBo. A third short day. They get on the trail and less than a half mile in, Hollywood rolls her ankle the worst she has done so far. Her knee was all scraped up, she is a total mess. Even still, she commits to the next four miles. There are places to stop on the way and at every one, Coconut offers to just camp there, but Hollywood is determined to catch up with the whole group and see McAfee Knob. On they hobble to the Knob and then to the shelter.
There was a nurse staying at the shelter, and she applied the Ace bandage for Melissa. Next day she was pretty solid on her feet and they had a good day of hiking. They got to Daleville, Va. 719.8 NoBo. A decent 15 mile trek. All thirty hikers that had hit the Home Place hit a Mexican restaurant in Daleville and took it over. Next they went on to the Howard Johnson’s and took that over for the night. Backtrack’s food drop was waiting for her there. Overnight at HoJo’s and back on the trail.
This week has been pretty decent so far. She has an ankle brace which seems to help, and there has been an overnight with hardcore downpours and the tent has stayed bone dry. Unfortunately, the patch job on the sleeping pad didn’t work, so that is still an issue. But very minor in the grand scheme. Hollywood got a summer bag so is sleeping better. The horror show week described in the previous post was only leaving Melissa with 2-4 hours of sleep per night. The slower pace and equipment replacement has meant more relaxed nights for potentially better sleeping. The past couple days the temp has gotten over 100 degrees with 90 plus percent humidity so nights have been oppressive and miserable to sleep in. She still isn’t getting a good night’s sleep because of the heat, but what little there has been has been refreshing. To top it off, both have featured 20 plus mile days.
Jordan is a tick magnet. He is easily getting twenty ticks a day. His Frontline is working at killing them when they bite, but that doesn’t keep them off to begin with. I’m sending another 10 days food to . Along with the food will go another Frontline as well as a prescription flea / tick collar. His doggy doctor has prescribed the collar and an increase in his Frontline due to the tick barrage on him. So every night is a toe to head check for ticks and STILL he has to stay outside the tent. This has made his barking worse, but extreme measures need to be taken until some kind of control over the ticks can be made. Even during the hotel stays when she went over him more closely, he inevitably has a tick or two that is missed. Next town nets a comb for Tripwire so he can be gone over, literally, with a fine toothed comb every night.
Ice cream last night and catching up with fellow hiker Sno, who they lost in Damascus, has lifted spirits again. Sno has been trying to catch up and his group has been slower. He rejoined the team at the hotel last night, but his buddies haven’t caught up yet. Just the fact that it is one extra person in the group makes the whole that much stronger and safer.
So the Zero today, sitting in Air Conditioning with 100 plus degree weather outside, kicking back and watching movies, and hanging out with trail friends has been a treat. Tomorrow, it’s back on the trail again. They will hit 800 Miles tomorrow. Hopefully, adding a collar will allow Jordan back into the tent soon. Until next call, take care kids.
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