Day 57: Daleville, VA to Wilson Creek Shelter

May 10, 2013

Today’s mileage: 11.2
Total mileage: 734.7

As usual, we checked out of our room at the last possible moment this morning. We had some delays with our laundry yesterday at the hotel, so we didn’t resupply until this morning. Delays mainly involving a broken washer that ate my quarters and then Miles having to unjam a nickel from the other machine since the hotel apparently wasn’t going to do anything to help us or refund us our money. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in my life, it’s that if you want something to be done right, then you better do it yourself.

Our friend, Minnesota Pete, let us keep our packs in his room while we resupplied. Miles went to the post office first to pick up some new books that my parents had sent from home. His new reading material apart from Cold Mountain includes The Four Noble Truths by the Dalai Lama and Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver. I headed over to Goodwill in the meantime to browse their book section. I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if they had Angels and Demons here. As I perused the shelves, what should be there but that very book! A brand new copy nonetheless. While I’m still about 150 pages from finishing The Da Vinci Code, I couldn’t pass up a $1 book. Alas, I have added more weight to my pack. But as I have discovered, a good book or two is well worth the weight.

After resupplying at Kroger and eating lunch at Bojangles, a place that we had never heard of before, we picked up our packs and headed back to the trail. It was hot and humid today, about 80 degrees when we left around 2. We were instantly sweaty as we hiked through fields between Daleville and Troutville, our packs full of food and books. Miles found a tick on his leg as we hiked through this area. He was able to flick it off before it attached itself, but it’s a reminder to us that we need to start being more diligent about checking ourselves for ticks daily.

We had an ascent up to Fullhardt Knob and then some smaller ups and downs to the shelter spot where we’re tenting tonight. We knew there was a chance of rain tonight, so with clouds rolling in, we decided to get water from a creek about a half mile before the shelter instead of trekking down the long steep hill to the shelter’s water source. As I stood up after filling the Platypus container, the sky was suddenly very dark. It was as if night was falling upon us. We knew the rain would start at any moment, so we rushed to our destination for the night. Raindrops began to fall, motivating us to hike faster. We made it just in time. As soon as we set up our tent and lunged inside, it began to pour.

We opted not to cook dinner tonight because of the rain and because our lunch had filled us up. We ate some snacks, did some reading, and laughed about some moments from our day. We are warm and dry and deep into our books as the rain falls upon our tent.