Day 1

Wed July 22
10 miles
Finally, I hit the trail again. James and I drove on up to Lickskillet Hollow near Bland, VA. Debating how much food to carry, I just decide to stuff my pack full so I don't have to resupply any time soon. Unfortunately this meant turning a nice comfortable weight into a bit more of a burden. I realized I forgot to bring an extra cell phone battery causing a bit of frustration. As soon as we hit the trail, it starts downpouring and continues on and off for the next hour. We didn't mind much though. After an hour and a half of hiking it was time for James to head back to his car to head home. Soon I came to a road and took a look at my guide book. I thought I had left the trail at Trent's grocerie and had 8 miles to the first shelter. I soon realize that I was standing at the road that leads to the store and had another 8 miles to the shelter after the 6 I had already completed. So I continued on as it was getting dark, taking the opportunity to take a side trail down to a waterfall. It added half a mile to my hike, but was well worth it. I wasn't expecting to make it to the shelter anyway. I continued on with my diminishing daylight until I hit a creek where I stopped to cook dinner. Stupid me managed to loose my only spoon after eating having been on the trail for only a couple hours. It's only 20 miles to Pearls, so I think I'll be able to manage. I dawned the headlamp and hiked for another 45min until my knees started hurting and set up my new MSR tarp. I absolutely love it so far. I'll be getting some more rain tonight so we'll see how well it works. I'm thinking the dental floss as tie lines might have been a bit too extreme.