Distance Covered: 51.5 miles
Miles to Finish: 1500.7 miles
We left Pearisburg late in the evening and camped out a couple of miles up the trail. Tom stayed and left the following afternoon and also got bitten by a spider on the back of his calf. It was excrutiatingly painful so he thus feared it could be the notorious Brown Recluse, the 2nd most deadly spider in America. The bite area swelled up the next day as they are known to do when it is a brown recluse bite, so leaving Tom more convinced that it was the brown recluse that got him. After a couple of days the wound subsided much to his relief. We reccommend that you type in 'brown recluse bite' into google.
Charlie bumped into another rattlesnake and attempted to handle it. He managed to get quite near to it and even stroked it a couple of times but it kept coiling up as Charlie's inexperienced hand movements were slightly too jerky due to the nerves kicking in. He decided not to push his luck and let the rattler be. He is adamant that with enough experience of being around them you will learn not to fear them and also learn how to handle them with ease.
Much to Toms surprise he caught up with the others during a storm. They were sheltering from the storm in a couple of disabled toilets next to a road, at the entrance to a park. They informed Tom that they were planning on getting a lift to the nearest town where 'bear's cousin lives.
From there get a lift to Harpers Ferry which is 400 miles up the trail and continue hiking from there to the end. This way we would end up finishing the trail 3 weeks earlier and thus avoid the harsh weather that will be awaiting us in the North. Once we finish the trail we'd come back and hike the bit we skipped. This is officially known as a 'flip flop'.
We agreed that it was for the best but we couldn't help but feel a touch dissapointed. The final mountain Katahdin offers a stunning view and is also the biggest uphill climb of the trail. It's a 4000 foot ascent which takes 3 to 4 hours and once finished the feeling of elation would no doubt be tremendous, especially if you'd hiked the entire 2177 miles of the trail to get there. This was something we would not experience due to the fact that we hadn't walked at the required rate.
When we walk, we generally walk from morning until night, doing 18 - 20 miles at the very least. So why are we behind schedule you may ask? The reason for being behind schedule has been staying in towns for too long. Too many days off recovering from the exhaustion of hiking has taken its toll in terms of the pressure for us to finish the hike before winter sets in.
That night we slept in the toilets with spiders and the lovely aroma of faeces and a sceptic tank underneath. The next morning we gladly soaked up the lovely and most welcome sunshine and fresh air which, after the previous days storm and the ordeal of the poor nights sleep in the toilets, was simply amazing.
As our moods were being lifted Tom piped up and said that maybe we should try and give it one last go at the "thru-hike". We'd had our hearts set on finishing the trail up on Mt. Katahdin and it seemed too early to be giving up on that dream.
Not only that but the next 1000 miles are comparitively flat compared to the beginning and end of the trail so we really had no excuses to up the pace and give ourselves a good chance of finishing by the end of October. It will be cold by then, but not dangerously cold.
After much discussion as to the pros and cons of carrying on from where we were, we decided that finishing the hike on top of Katahdin is something we couldn't miss out on. However, we gave ourselves a sort of ultimatum.
We'd give it our best shot at finishing before November or maybe just into November and if still there were too many setbacks and it looked like we'd finish well into November, when the weather would be extremely harsh then we'd do the 'flip-flop'.
So only a couple of days after we gave ourselves the ultimatum, Paul badly sprained his ankle, meaning we'd have to take more days off to make sure he was alright as it was impossible for him to walk on it without intense pain. Fortunately we were only a mile from a main road, so we split his pack between us and gave him some poles to act as crutches and got him to the road.
From there we hitched hiked into Blacksburg, where the Virginia Tech University is, and also where 'Bear's cousin lives. He's kindly put us up for a few nights and it looks like Paul's going to meet us up the trail in 10 days time, when hopefully his ankle will be good enough for him to walk on. We've decided to spend a few days in Blacksburg as it's quite simply one of the most beautiful towns we've seen so far.
'Bear' and Paul riding in style.
Miles to Finish: 1500.7 miles
We left Pearisburg late in the evening and camped out a couple of miles up the trail. Tom stayed and left the following afternoon and also got bitten by a spider on the back of his calf. It was excrutiatingly painful so he thus feared it could be the notorious Brown Recluse, the 2nd most deadly spider in America. The bite area swelled up the next day as they are known to do when it is a brown recluse bite, so leaving Tom more convinced that it was the brown recluse that got him. After a couple of days the wound subsided much to his relief. We reccommend that you type in 'brown recluse bite' into google.
Charlie bumped into another rattlesnake and attempted to handle it. He managed to get quite near to it and even stroked it a couple of times but it kept coiling up as Charlie's inexperienced hand movements were slightly too jerky due to the nerves kicking in. He decided not to push his luck and let the rattler be. He is adamant that with enough experience of being around them you will learn not to fear them and also learn how to handle them with ease.
Much to Toms surprise he caught up with the others during a storm. They were sheltering from the storm in a couple of disabled toilets next to a road, at the entrance to a park. They informed Tom that they were planning on getting a lift to the nearest town where 'bear's cousin lives.
From there get a lift to Harpers Ferry which is 400 miles up the trail and continue hiking from there to the end. This way we would end up finishing the trail 3 weeks earlier and thus avoid the harsh weather that will be awaiting us in the North. Once we finish the trail we'd come back and hike the bit we skipped. This is officially known as a 'flip flop'.
We agreed that it was for the best but we couldn't help but feel a touch dissapointed. The final mountain Katahdin offers a stunning view and is also the biggest uphill climb of the trail. It's a 4000 foot ascent which takes 3 to 4 hours and once finished the feeling of elation would no doubt be tremendous, especially if you'd hiked the entire 2177 miles of the trail to get there. This was something we would not experience due to the fact that we hadn't walked at the required rate.
When we walk, we generally walk from morning until night, doing 18 - 20 miles at the very least. So why are we behind schedule you may ask? The reason for being behind schedule has been staying in towns for too long. Too many days off recovering from the exhaustion of hiking has taken its toll in terms of the pressure for us to finish the hike before winter sets in.
That night we slept in the toilets with spiders and the lovely aroma of faeces and a sceptic tank underneath. The next morning we gladly soaked up the lovely and most welcome sunshine and fresh air which, after the previous days storm and the ordeal of the poor nights sleep in the toilets, was simply amazing.
As our moods were being lifted Tom piped up and said that maybe we should try and give it one last go at the "thru-hike". We'd had our hearts set on finishing the trail up on Mt. Katahdin and it seemed too early to be giving up on that dream.
Not only that but the next 1000 miles are comparitively flat compared to the beginning and end of the trail so we really had no excuses to up the pace and give ourselves a good chance of finishing by the end of October. It will be cold by then, but not dangerously cold.
After much discussion as to the pros and cons of carrying on from where we were, we decided that finishing the hike on top of Katahdin is something we couldn't miss out on. However, we gave ourselves a sort of ultimatum.
We'd give it our best shot at finishing before November or maybe just into November and if still there were too many setbacks and it looked like we'd finish well into November, when the weather would be extremely harsh then we'd do the 'flip-flop'.
So only a couple of days after we gave ourselves the ultimatum, Paul badly sprained his ankle, meaning we'd have to take more days off to make sure he was alright as it was impossible for him to walk on it without intense pain. Fortunately we were only a mile from a main road, so we split his pack between us and gave him some poles to act as crutches and got him to the road.
From there we hitched hiked into Blacksburg, where the Virginia Tech University is, and also where 'Bear's cousin lives. He's kindly put us up for a few nights and it looks like Paul's going to meet us up the trail in 10 days time, when hopefully his ankle will be good enough for him to walk on. We've decided to spend a few days in Blacksburg as it's quite simply one of the most beautiful towns we've seen so far.
Four lads packed into the back of car for 40 minutes was a tight squeeze to say the least.
'Bear' and Paul riding in style.
The reservoir dudes from Blacksburg.
Foosball...
Andrew & Jakes' Crib:
