Choose Your Own Adventure

I post this from the lobby of a HOJO in Daleville, VA... as rain falls lightly outside. After leaving the library at Pearisburg many delightful hiking and camping activities have ensued. Rain, sun, and whiskey!

A flip of a coin resulted in a walk to the dreaded Walmart Super Store and as we crested the hilltop of the parking lot, my little eye spots a Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Center (or booze store!) the first sign of booze other than beer since on the trail. I was mostly thrilled about this because of Lexi's birthday party, but that comes later. After securing purchases at the V-ABC store and Walnuts super center, pizza and a bed... then up and onto walking...

The trail walking sucked at first. It was hot, my pack was really heavy... it's always heavy leaving towns, full of food, water, and this time booze... but we got to shelter and started to enjoy the Scotch that weighed the pack down. When I woke the next AM, everyone was gone early... which was strange, but also welcome sight, walking alone is a nice change up and it makes the trail feel more remote. When I caught up with the gang (Tents, Bones, Bound, and Pheonix) they were fully engulfed in a AT seminar with a group of teachers who hiked into a shelter to meet thru-hikers and ask questions. Also met up with Andy (from Baltimore and L-Train), who I hadn't seen since Fontana Dam, good folk, and they enjoy doing odd and unusual hiking activities such as bushwacking and night hiking.

Our plan quickly becomes a mad dash for an All You Can Eat resturaunt called the Home Place... a must stop for all hikers with large appetites... only snag is... it's 60 miles away and it's got crazy backwoods VA hours of operation, and in two days it won't be serving the tasty meal choices in copious amounts for 5 more days... so with food on the mind.. we start the long 48 hour journey.

Night Hiking can be a great way to travel via foot in the woods. Scenery and vistas being different and undiscernable in the absense of the fireball in the sky, many hikers do not want to embark on this type of adventure... but to us, cool air and mystery only enhance the experience... so we walk on, amidst the dark blanket of night... with Dark Side of the Moon playing from the Speakers in my Pack (yup i have a stereo system)... we discuss alot of "safety" because it's important to be safe, especially when you can't see where you're going... at around 2am we stop the march and lay our sleeeping bags out and catch some quick ZZ's.

At about 5am, the pitter patter starts... slowly becoming a concern for a tired hiker sleeping under the stars. The sound of Andy fumbling through his pack sound the alarm in my head that it's time to make some decisions. Andy pulls his tent over his bag like a bivy sack... I set up my tent with two poles (because I can do that from a sitting position in my sleeping bag) and slide into the makeshift shelter with Lexi also happy to escape the oncoming wetness... Feeling tired mostly and half sure about the decision I made, I fall back asleep. When I wake a few hours later, I am sleeping in a river of water that has formed on my ground cloth, tent, and under the sleeping pad. Lexi is curled up in a ball at the foot of the tent slowly inching herself away from the swelling river in our shelter... first thought... "Poptarts would be tasty" so after comply with desire, the brain systems fed and warm, I finish setting up the tent, climb back inside and go back to sleep. L-train and Andy have both left, L-Train had opted for no shelter, and slept in the rain until she was shivering from cold... Andy pulled his tent off his sleeping bag, packed up and headed down the hill for the wooden shelter. I was woken up by Slowgoin as he walked by the tent at 10am, and then I begin the walk down the hill... cold, wet, and enjoying every second!

The rain didn't stop all day... in fact it rained harder than I've seen yet. Lexi and I both soaked to the bone, dripping from head to toe, laughing, smiling, running in the rain... hey it's warm and there's nothing else to do but live, and that's why we're smiling... we're alive and feel great! At camp that night, with rain downpooring, the kind of down poor that soaks your skin in less than a minute, where rain comes from below and fills all crevices with puddles... my tent was soaked (you could have filtered water from the puddle in the corner), my sleeping pad, drenched, clothing... wet and smelly, sleeping bag... wet and smelly... yup everything that I had in that pack was wet, from being in the rain, or just from getting it out in the rain and moving it to the tent... what a night of sleep! Lexi escaped to the mice infested shelter basement, and we didn't see eachother again until the sun was back in the morning... and with it of course... rain!

We I'm running out of time here on this computer... so I'll summarize that story... we didn't get to the All You Can Eat in time, I did dry out, and on Tuesday, Cinco de Mayo we celebrated Lexi's 7th Birthday with Trail Margaritas (Tequila and Gatorade) and made it to our current local, Daleville.

We depart in a few hours for the trail again... rain in the forecast for the next 5 days. Each day is full of decisions, we get to choose our own adventure... whether we choose to be lazy and not set up our tent and pay for it for 2 nights or choose to walk all night into the wee hours of the morning... it's our adventure for the choosing... free will and no worries... I recomend daydreaming and lolly gagging... clear your mind and go with the flow...

Next place for packages is:
Hold for NB AT-Thru Hiker "SpaceShip"
Rock Fish Outfitter
1461 E Main St
Waynesboro, VA 22980

SS