About 7:15 last night a weary hiker opened the door to the hostel I was staying at. He had just completed the difficult climb I had completed two days prior. Turns out he was from Tennessee, probably early 50s, and he had arrived on Monday to complete a five day section hike, and yesterday was his second day on the trail. Before going to bed last night he made the decision to complete today’s hike and then drive back home as he said his body was too beat up to complete five days. I really did feel sorry for this poor guy as I could tell he had really hoped to complete his five days. And, I was surprised he had such a tough time as he has hiked other sections of the AT previously. 

Today (finally) turned out to be sunny and beautiful. As we were driving to my drop off point, I could see the bright blue sky, the rolling hills and a blanket of fog in the low lying valleys. 

I was a bit nervous about my hike today as I had to cover a distance of 16 miles, which I have not done up to this point. I had given my shuttle driver a pickup time of 4:30 pm when I had believed the hike was only 15 miles. However, before starting my hike I recalculated the distance and found it to be 16 miles. So, I tried to maintain a faster pace throughout the day and I was surprised with the end result. What would normally have taken me close to eight hours only took six hours and forty-five minutes. That was a pretty good pace for sixty-five year old legs carrying a thirty-five pound backpack. I will say, however, that conditions were much improved over prior days. Every now and then the trail will throw out a bone and I feel like I was the recipient today.  The weather was near perfect with blue skies and sunshine (finally). The trail had dried out, the leaves were crunchy and not slippery and their were significantly fewer rocks to have to navigate over today. There was even a short section where the trail emptied out onto a dirt road which then intersected a highway which allowed be to cross over I- 77. So, all of these factors really helped to shorten my hiking time today. Noteable about today’s hike was my completion of 100 trail miles on this trip and passing the 600 cumulative mile mark (northbound) on the AT. Those are some hard earned miles. 

Along the hike I passed four southbound hikers and, once again, saw no northbound hikers. I talked about 10 minutes to a Father/Daughter team who were completing a thru-hike. They were from Washington, DC and have been on the trail for six months, having first completed the Harper’s Ferry to Mt. Katahdin section and then flip-flopping from Harper’s Ferry to Springer Mountain.

My driver, Pam, a retired nurse, picked me up at 3:30 pm (I was able to text her about a half-hour ahead of my early arrival). Another very kind and helpful driver, she drove me to the Big Walker Motel, in the very small town of Bland. The motel must have been built in the 60s with most of the furniture from the same era.  But, it is a nice, clean room with a great shower, a bed and pillow. Much better than anything my tent has to offer and I am grateful to call this place home for tonight. Tomorrow has fewer miles on the agenda which my legs will appreciate after the last three hard days.