John and Mike Take a Hike ~ with Natalie!: Day 59 (Tuesday, June 10th)

Today's Miles: 16.80
Trip Miles: 698.30

A couple of +20 mile days knocks the swagger out of your step. Add temps over 90 and high humidity and you're talking a long day.

I left Niday at 6:30 and had a few miles of pretty good terrain before the long climb up Brush Mt. This part of Virginia has the steepest (have I said this before) grades we've seen and somehow they come in pairs. One for the morning and one in the afternoon when you're tired.

Brush Mt. is the site of a memorial to Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII and a hero of my youth. I stopped there for a while, took some pictures of the memorial and then moved on. On the way down to the gap at Trout Creek I met two day-hikers who gave me a biscuit, egg and cheese sandwich and who told me there were some beers sitting in the creek getting cold if I wanted them. I asked them how far away the creek was and they said they had hiked the mile and a half in a little more than an hour. Well, I made it to the creek in twenty minutes. Thanks guys.

Mark (Old Goat) and Connie (Granny)

Little Foot's mom and dad were setting up for more magic. Mark (Old Goat) said no alcohol today after yesterday's experience with the freeloaders. Connie (Granny) was cooking two types of pasta while Old Goat roasted some corn on the cob. What great folks. I ate some pasta and garlic bread, drank some pink lemonade and charged my phone in their car.

I waited there for Mike and Natalie who had left camp about a half hour after me. They came in along with Gandolf and Goat (Steve from Merrimac, N.H.) and Sparky, a Londoner taking a shot at a thru.
We were talking to Goat who said he might leave the trail for his sister's house in D.C. He said he wasn't having as much fun as he thought he might. He had gotten back on the trail after working for a while at Wood's Hole Hostel and got caught in the middle of that loud hiker bubble. I told him to hang in there and look for some new people to hike with. We all headed out and up another Virginia vertical that lead, after about a dozen false summits, to the spectacular Dragon's Tooth. Absolutely stunning views and some rock climbing to go along with them. Goat got up there and said that maybe he was a little premature about leaving the trail; it was that cool.

Fred the Eastern Newt

We had miles yet to hike so we headed out. The trail down was worse than the climb up. Boulders and steps longer than even Mike's legs could span. Natalie's hobbit legs were no match for this section and we took a long time getting down from there to VA 624. There was a small store .3 miles from the trail so we went by for some water and snacks. Water has been hard to come by and the next 26 miles has no camping except in designated areas and at the shelters, where the water situation is iffy.

I'm feeling like junk from the heat and the miles so we are stealth camping just past the road. You gotta do what you gotta do. In to bed with no supper, blah.

Night all.

P.S. Mike heard from Duck Tape. He's off the trail with a hernia. Get well soon. A and Y are in Daleville taking a zero. Got to catch them for Y's birthday, 6/20.