Mission Out of a Backpack: Day 40-46

Day 40 12-miles 05-09-14

Partnership shelter-Atkins VA comfort inn

What an easy day! No big hills, no crazy nat attacks. We started hiking at 7:30 in the cool of the day. Around 11:00 we came across a settlers museum. The first building we saw was a restored farm from the late 1800's. The coolest building we looked at was a school house. In it was a ton of free drinks supplied by a local church and the most intense set of rules and punishments I've ever seen. We then hiked another hour to "The Barn" restaurant. Just before the barn we came across a baby stroller sitting on the trail, and no baby. It had a little monkey doll in the stroller. How creepy is that! After taking some pics we kept hiking. As we walked across the restaurant parking lot we noticed some sheriff deputes talking. One pulled over and asked if we had seen a baby stroller, I told him we had and even showed him the picture we took of it. Apparently it has caused quite a stir in the community. So much so even the state police had been out to investigate. The deputy was a nice guy and recommended the restaurant we were going to. Dawn and I both order their "Hillbilly burger." It came slathered in mushrooms cheese BBQ sauce, and a 3/4lbs beef patty. When we got done our plan was to keep hiking another 6 miles, but the clouds in the sky started to rain a little. I called my Dad and he booked us a nice room down at the Comfort Inn. Going to an air conditioned, wifi capable, hot shower, soft bed kingdom like that place was beyond a treat! For the rest of the day I sat sipping coffee and watching tv. Life goes easy.

Day 41 0-miles 05-10-14

Zero day

We had the best of intentions to hike today. But as our checkout time got close, it was still raining. The only logical thing was to stay another night. We were so sad. NOT! Two nights in the most comfortable bed I've had thus far on the trail was just what we needed. I even got some ice for my knees to get maximum recovery for my body. It wasn't until 4:30 when we ventured out to look what was outside the hotel. It wasn't much. Only two gas stations and a restaurant called the Atkins tank. We did meet a hiker today called hog-driver. He is a retired air force pilot that flew the A-10 Warthog during his career. He now flys for delta airlines. What's even cooler than that is he is a creation expert. He's spent a large portion of his life learning the science behind creation and even does church and school talks to give the creation view. It's obvious he's very knowledgable. Dawn and I got dinner with him across the street. Hopefully we'll hike together tomorrow. As for the rest of the day, we got back to our room and got yet another restful comfortable nights sleep. Life goes easy.

Day 42 17-miles 05-11-14

Comfort inn Atkins va-lick creek

Breakfast this morning was wonderful. For the second day in a row a splurged with a waffle, eggs, and yogurt. Lucky for us we got a ride from another hiker who had a prearranged ride back to the trail. Hitch hiking is always exciting but we avoid it when we can. We made it back to the trail around 8:45. One of the random things of the trail is you never know who you're going to run into. This morning we saw our long lost friend Mary and Ryan. They had stayed at a hotel a couple miles further down the road from us. We chatted for a while and then they ate at the barn restaurant, which has awesome food. The scenery was truly beautiful today. It had lots of meadows and pasture land to wander across. Thus far Virginia has been much hotter than Tennessee. I've taken to using one of Dawns bandannas as a sweat rag, and my backpack is developing sweat lines on the shoulder straps. I think it's going to be this way for a while. Right before bed we had a bible study at camp. It was awesome! I got to lead it and it was really cool to see what thoughts and question people had.

Day 43 20-miles 04-12-14

Lick creek-fort bastion

It's been a long long long day! Normally if we start by 8:30, like we did today, we're done by 5. Not today. Along with it being warmer, it was a day of tough terrain. One positive is we found a place to stay that gives a shuttle to and from the trail head, with breakfast! It's only $7 a person so we are curious to what it's like. When we made it to the pickup point we were greeted by a British guy name trubrit and his land rover. He gave up a life of designing and building vacation homes to come play in the woods, and he's super nice. Upon arriving to his place our hopes were dashed. The shower he had described was a creek, and he has no running water. This guy seriously lives off the land, and drives a land rover. Based on first impression, I didn't see this coming.

Day 44 20-miles 05-13-14

Fort bastion-camp site by a road

This morning started off odd. The guy I told you about, trubrit, said we would have all you can eat bacon eggs and pancakes. That sounded awesome. What we got was completely different. He made enough food to feed my immediate family. What needed to be made was at least 4 times as much. This has been our least favorite lodging experience. To be nice, it was extremely misrepresented from the beginning. But it's all in hiking the trail. We finally got hiking around 9:30am. Today's big challenge was our water situation. There was no water for 18-miles. Which meant we needed to carry every drop we could. Our hiking pace was much faster today. We did the 18-miles by 5:00pm and made it to camp by 6:30pm. We stopped and grabbed water. The terrain today was 10x better today. We were extremely grateful for that! Lately I've taken to creek bathing. Meaning I use my bandana to wipe off all the caked on sweat lines from that days hike. Also I would highly recommend Mitchum deodorant. I've been walking for three days in the hot Virginia sun and I still don't smell like B.O. Dawn is very excited about that. I'm finally getting to bed before 9:00pm, which is awesome! Time for some rest. Life is good.

Day 45 23-miles 05-14-14

Camp site by the road-doc knob shelter

Today my sinuses have waged a full-scale war against pollen, and I'm the victim. I knew this day would come, thankfully tomorrow it's going to storm all day and get the pollen out of the air. We passed a shelter today where 25-years ago 3 people were murdered. I didn't know that until after we had passed, and we ate lunch in it. The most eventful part of today was what happened as we cooked dinner. After looking at the weather forecast we decided to sleep in the shelter because it was going to rain cats and dogs. Another hiker saw a mouse and kicked it. The mouse then ran up the wall into a hole. Normally hikers are at the mercy of shelter mice, but not tonight. We took a bunch of sticks and clog up the hole. All night the mice chewed, squeaked, and gnawed at the wood to get out without success. Not only did we avoid having to pack up a wet tent, but we successfully put the shelter mice in jail. Life goes easy.

Day 46 8-miles 05-15-14

Doc knob shelter-Josh and Beth's house

It started pouring rain last night around 4:00am and it still hasn't quit. We were very glad to have stayed in a shelter that kept us dry all night, and we didn't have to pack up a wet tent. Around 7:00am we got up and started having breakfast. We knew it was only 8-miles into town, but it was going to be a very wet 8-miles. We started out hiking with full rain gear on and very soon got really hot and sweaty. There's a balance to be had with rain gear during physical activity. Basically, if it's causing you to sweat more than it's keeping out rain it's not worth wearing. Right after we took off our rain jackets (we left on our rain pants to keep the water and mud out of our boots) it really started raining. At that point, who cares. I'm going to get wet one way or another. We made it into town and since nobody wants to pick up a soaking wet hiker(I don't blame them) we walked the half mile to pizza plus. Then we did laundry. After that we made our way to the grocery store to buy 5-days of food to make it to our next town. As we were de-boxing all the snack bars in front of the store we watched the rain pick back up to full strength again. This is the type of rain where if you walk from your car to the door of Walmart you get soaked. As I'm sitting there I'm praying "God I really don't want to hike in this rain, get us a place to stay." All the hotels in town were full. Not five minutes later a very nice lady walks out and ask if we need a place to stay. PRAYER ANSWERED!! Her name is Beth, and she is awesome! She took us to her super nice home, gave us their guest bedroom, cooked us steak, and let us shower. We got to sit around and chat with her husband Josh and her for the rest of the evening. All I can say is God is so good! As I lay here in their guest bedroom warm, dry, and clean the wind and rain are still howling outside. I am so thankful for this house! Life goes easy.