100 More Miles

We hung out with Jon Schleef in Marion for a couple of days and had a great time!
Thanks for visiting us Jon!!

5-25 We could only hike 11.5 miles from Marion to Atinks because we had to send Elliott phone home and the post office was closed by the time we got there. We camped just outside of town, we call it hobo camping when you are on the out skirts of town. We met a man who calls himself Dman he is 65 and hikes about 5 miles a day. We admired his patients and persistence.

5-26 This day we hiked through lots of cow pastures and took a ton of breaks by streams and rivers. We camped near the road by a pavilion. While we were cooking dinner a man drove up in a truck got out, in the puring rain, went to the back of his truck, made himself a mixed drink in an open cup, got a beer and got back in his truck and drove away. This made us thankful that we were in the woods and not on the roads. He tried saying something to us, but we couldn't understand him. That night it stormed lightly, but we missed the worst of it. A shelter just 15 mile away got rain, hail and thunder. There were 4 live trees that fell over, but thankfully everyone was alright. 

5-27 We saw 5 orange newts and 1 orange salamander today. They are pretty cool looking! We hiked about 12.1 miles this day to a shelter called Chestnut Knob. It is an old fire warden's house, it was enclosed with a door!  Shelters hardly ever have doors. Elliott and I set our tent up inside to dry it off and luckily not many people came so we got to keep it up.

5-28 We did 18.9 miles to a great campsite with a view of the the sun setting over the mountains. There were tons of millipedes by our tent though... yucky...

5-29 We went into Bland to do a light resupply and get lunch. Elliott wasn't feeling well so we spent a few hours in the shade just resting. At around 5 pm Elliott started to feel better so we hiked about 7 miles before setting up camp. We met some section hikers that come out every year for about 2 weeks. They seemed to be having a blast- a few days later we saw them in Pearisburg... all of them had poison ivy, but were still in high spirits.

5- 30 Great time at a waterfall, Dismal Falls, today for a couple of hours. 19.6 miles today. The heat makes it hard for Elliott and I to move fast so we try to take big breaks in the middle of the day and save our energy for when it cools off.

5-31 Camped by some power lines on a bald part of a mountain. The sunset was beautiful and the sunrise was amazing. 12.8 miles that day.

6-1 We hiked 5 miles into Pearisburg and saw 3 snacks, a tons of toads and one little baby deer that scared us a little. We walked past a tree and then heard this really loud noise. When I turned to look Elliott was in the woods in the other direction yelling "What is that?" It was a cute little baby deer yelling at the top of its lungs for its momma. The momma deer came running so Elliott and I walked away slowly. We did get one photo of the cute little guy.

Once in town we got our room. While Elliott was setting things up a car pulled in and everyone started walking toward it. Someone walked by me with an arm full of bread and fruit saying "Its the food car go get some." It was a woman that worked at the sore who fills up her car with food that the store can't sell and brings it to the hotel a couple times a week for the people who live here. Elliott and I grabbed some fruit after everyone else got what they needed.

Little Notes
- We still have not seen a bear, but we have heard them.
- As of this time we have hitch hiked 12 times
-We will be in WI June 23 to July 3 for Paul and Cathy's wedding


Thanks for reading :)
Hope you are all staying cool and having fun