I finished up by slacking 20 miles to Daleville from Four Pines Hostel in Catawba on 6/21, a cool windy day to start, going over McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs, following the ridge all day until the last descent into town. I had a final motel picnic with Wizard and Sal, who were close to finishing up their hikes--they were meeting a friend at the Roanoke airport to do some more hiking for their final week before returning to British Columbia. We celebrated by re-enacting the Three's Company cast photo from the 70's TV show.
A fitting bookend to this hike, along with the photo of me, Silly Human, and Kibs as the Three Stooges, from way back on May 5th at Low Gap, 4th day out from Springer.
The last blog entry was from Erwin, from where I slacked several days up to Roan, staying once again at Greasy Creek Friendly hostel with Connie, still the same fun place.
I stopped at several of the hostels clustered around Hampton TN, near Laurel Creek Falls, and slackpacked much of the way to Damascus over several days. Below is from Station 19E, which featured craft beer and great food downstairs, with a bunkhouse upstairs.
I reached Damascus on 6/5, staying at Crazy Larry's and taking a day off from the rain to dump my 2nd pair of Salomon boots, starting to leak after only 300 miles. I replaced them with lowcut Altra lone peak runners -- what a difference, I was an easy convert to the reduced weight and reconciled to wet feet, since these would actually dry out faster than boots. It then proceeded to rain heavily the next 4 days, but Wizard and Sal and I decided to just keep dancing in the rain with umbrellas. Totally saturated.
Here are Sal and Wizard at Thomas Knob shelter on Mt. Rogers, where the rain flooded the trail and everything else. But we did see one wet pony.
We took shelter finally at Massie Gap by going to the Grayson Highland Campground and Inn, but the only room left was the laundry room with shower, toilet, and two cots. Never been happier to be out of the wet, even if crammed in a tiny space. But heck, three's company.
The rain finally let up when we got to Marion VA on 6/10, a nice, noteworthy town.
The weather was wonderful for two days, less humid and much cooler, almost like fall briefly. On 6/15 I stayed once more at Woods Hole hostel, in the bunkhouse this time; but host Neville was out of town so no meals except a continental breakfast of homemade bread and jam -- still wonderful.
In Pearisburg I persuaded Wizard and Sal to try their very first slack packing, which they thoroughly enjoyed, taking turns carrying just one mostly empty pack between them and cracking out easy 20 mile walks. These and some more big mileage days carried us the rest of the way to Daleville.
So a very fine way to end this 11 week trip. When the heat and humidity hit in early May I mailed my sleeping bag back, thinking I could make do with a liner and wearing more clothes. Did not work well when the rain brought cooler temps, but I managed. Changing from boots to runners was long overdue -- the Salomons were great (no hammer toes or blisters) but proved defective or ineffectual in staying waterproof. Then again, the Altra runners toe caps started peeling back after a week of stumbling in the rain, but they also were under warranty. I epoxied them back together, and they lasted 300 miles, but now I get to replace them for free as well! The Altra soles seem to be wearing normally, and they were easy to adapt to and should work fine in Maine.
Here are the failed Salomon boots
And the Altras.
