4/26/2023 Wednesday
I’d call it a lazy day, but it’s not lazy to stop and rest for as long as you need (always assuming there’s nothing scary chasing you). It is in fact quite prudent to do so. So I had a prudent day, extremely prudent. Downright circumspect!
(more…)4/25/2023 Tuesday
Ben cooked regular-colored eggs and ham for all of us for breakfast and we headed out for another signature slackpacking folly. This one is a tough because there’s no feasible exit point between the McAfee Knob trailhead and the spot where the trail enters Daleville, some 20 miles later. It’s 20 or nothing!
(more…)
4/24/2023 Monday
Wedge, Ben, and I all agree that the rented farmhouse—our home and base of operations for the next six days—has good vibes about it. But none of us more so than Zoey, our old English sheepdog.
(more…)4/23/2023 Sunday
We weren’t at the bottom of the creek valley, but we were close enough for a cool, cool morning. Today we will leave the 600s, a threshold Wedge has been eager to achieve.
(more…)4/22/2023 Saturday
The rain came just as I laid down to sleep in my tent at Pickle Branch Shelter area this morning, after hiking through the night to avoid said rain. It’s clammy and moist down here. I am so glad not to be hiking in this.
(more…)4/21/2023 Friday
The guy with the long silver hair, the luscious silver hair, is called Witcher. It’s a good trail name. He is no Geralt, that’s for sure, but those locks! As I gazed upon them with awe, I heard my mother’s voice again: “if you want soft hair, wash it with Palmolive and then rinse with vinegar.”
(more…)4/20/2023 Thursday
This section of the is AT tougher than advertised. The conditions right now are also a challenge. We’ve got 80 degree highs and no shade. It’s much like walking through a burn scar, only there’s too much brush to use an umbrella effectively. It was a mostly miserable day.
(more…)
4/19/2023 Wednesday
The climb out of Pearisburg from the VA-100 trailhead passes industrial areas, and a landfill that has rendered a creek unusable—there’s a big sign warning you not to drink it. We passed rusted old cars now stranded in impossible places thanks to regrowth.
(more…)
4/18/2023 Tuesday
When you sleep in the Relax Shack at Angel’s Rest Hiker Haven, the burdens of the world fall away. Maybe Benny and I should sell our place and move into a finished shed like the Relax Shack. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but a relax shack could be!
(more…)4/17/2023 Monday
The “safari” tent was a bit cold, but Wedge and I agreed it was worth it. We took in the mountain views from our little covered deck. The breakfast bell rang at eight, but by then I had already eaten and mostly packed up. Wedge went down to the main house (our tent was up the hill), excited at the prospect of another excellent vegetarian meal. But first, the “gratitude circle.”
(more…)4/16/2023 Sunday
I knew there was weather coming. When the AT broke my body in 2021, the healed injury left me with an “old” foot that can sense bad weather, or so I tell myself. The light throbbing I felt this morning and a bit in the afternoon had me worried that we were in for a downpour.
(more…)4/15/2023 Saturday
Today I heard a respectable southern woman (the owner of the hostel) speak the following phrase with no irony or awkwardness at all: “here’s your dinner, Hot Legs.”
(more…)4/14/2023 Friday
We woke to see rains outside our motel window. We delayed leaving until shortly before nine, when it tapered off. The shuttler had barely charged us anything last night and said that we could just call him whenever we wanted to depart this morning because he only lives 15 minutes away.
(more…)4/13/2023 Thursday
One last breakfast at the Quarter Way Inn! Fried eggs with “everything bagel” seasoning. Amazing sausage (patties this time), pancakes, yogurt with homemade granola, cornbread, and fruit salad. We headed back up to VA-623 in Tina’s SUV with Hazelnut riding along. We resumed heading north.
I started in minimal layers. We finished that rocky ridge (Garden Mountain I think?) and landed at Jenkins Shelter for lunch where we were joined by an exhausted, thirsty Zandry, who’d made an error—the kind that can happen to any hiker—and had to hike six miles on a difficult ridge with no water. That’s a rough way to start the day.
We hydrated aggressively. Wedge said he felt wonderful today. I remain, as ever, deeply thrilled for him. We reached a large creek with a bridge and lots of flat rock to sit on. We filtered water because it was an eight mile dry stretch and a hot, sunny day with no foliage yet. I wanted to stay by the creek for an hour and soak my feet, but we have a bit of a deadline—a shuttle booked for “around six-ish.”
We will run out of hostels soon—they are really only common in the south. Wedge thinks we should make the most of them while we’re here, because there’re big gaps coming up, and I suppose that’s persuasive enough. The transportation-related deadlines and rapid-fire town in-and-outs are hard on me, but I do agree.
We hiked 16 miles today, then caught a shuttle to the Big Walker Motel (with a detour for a meal at a diner).
We created an itinerary for tomorrow that gives us maximum flexibility on a rainy day. We can go 10, 13, or 18 and all three paths end at the same hostel (18 would have us walking directly to the hostel; the other two distances would require getting picked up).
I’m looking forward to some quieter days in the forest. Probably soon.
Later this month Ben will visit with Zoey in tow. Ben and I have decided to make this trip “sheepdog summer camp” for our gal pal Zoey. We are gonna take her hiking and she’s gonna have the time of her life with her favorite people. Just two gays, doting on an old English sheepdog. What could be more American than that? Rural Virginia is gonna love us!
4/12/2023 Wednesday
Are you really gonna make us leave this place? That’s the question my body asked me. Later I asked Wedge the same question over baked eggs, spicy pimento and cheese grits, some kind of flaky tart with sour cream and jam, and I can’t remember what else. I did the math on our average. Look, I said, with the miles we’ve done in the last three days, we have enough to cover four days with a 12-mile average and also add three miles toward bringing our overall average up to 12. And that’s if we take the whole day off. Hint hint.
(more…)4/11/2023 Tuesday
Let us call today a mistake of “hopeful math,” a failure to calculate time and mileage to see the obvious until the die had been cast.
(more…)“When I’m lost with myself I see lions,
lying golden on beaches of white.
I see men with their boats in the weather.
Carry me as I drift in the night”
-San Fermin (“Methuselah”)
4/10/2023 Monday Day 55
Forget yesterday. Forget our chilling encounter. Everything changed in Eveningland Meadow. Again.
(more…)4/9/2023 Sunday
Wedge and I are not in a good situation as I’m writing this. We’re staying in the old schoolhouse and something’s wrong.
(more…)4/8/2023 Saturday
I slept like a little lamb in my cozy bunk! It was actually too warm! Everyone around here has been rendered a little cold-wary, a little rain-shy, by this latest batch of cold wet weather.
(more…)4/7/2023 Friday
We struck our tents precisely as the rains began. I would have loved to hike a day in the 40s if it had been dry. But it wasn’t dry.
(more…)I’m Doug Cloud, an inveterate thru-hiker, believer in The One Trail, writer, rhetorician, researcher. This blog catalogs my journeys, particularly my 2023 1500-mile hike on the Appalachian and Colorado Trails. Other journeys may be added. Or not. I go by several mottoes as a thru-hiker:
1. Work the problem.
2. Throw money at the problem.
3. Go for an FKT (funnest known time).
4. ABC (always be thru-hiking).
Some quick navigation links:
Day 1 of my 2023 AT journey
Last day on the AT
Explanation of switch to Colorado Trail
Day 1 of 2023 Colorado Trail journey
4/26/2023 Wednesday
I’d call it a lazy day, but it’s not lazy to stop and rest for as long as you need (always assuming there’s nothing scary chasing you). It is in fact quite prudent to do so. So I had a prudent day, extremely prudent. Downright circumspect!
(more…)4/25/2023 Tuesday
Ben cooked regular-colored eggs and ham for all of us for breakfast and we headed out for another signature slackpacking folly. This one is a tough because there’s no feasible exit point between the McAfee Knob trailhead and the spot where the trail enters Daleville, some 20 miles later. It’s 20 or nothing!
(more…)4/24/2023 Monday
Wedge, Ben, and I all agree that the rented farmhouse—our home and base of operations for the next six days—has good vibes about it. But none of us more so than Zoey, our old English sheepdog.
(more…)4/23/2023 Sunday
We weren’t at the bottom of the creek valley, but we were close enough for a cool, cool morning. Today we will leave the 600s, a threshold Wedge has been eager to achieve.
(more…)4/22/2023 Saturday
The rain came just as I laid down to sleep in my tent at Pickle Branch Shelter area this morning, after hiking through the night to avoid said rain. It’s clammy and moist down here. I am so glad not to be hiking in this.
(more…)4/21/2023 Friday
The guy with the long silver hair, the luscious silver hair, is called Witcher. It’s a good trail name. He is no Geralt, that’s for sure, but those locks! As I gazed upon them with awe, I heard my mother’s voice again: “if you want soft hair, wash it with Palmolive and then rinse with vinegar.”
(more…)4/20/2023 Thursday
This section of the is AT tougher than advertised. The conditions right now are also a challenge. We’ve got 80 degree highs and no shade. It’s much like walking through a burn scar, only there’s too much brush to use an umbrella effectively. It was a mostly miserable day.
(more…)4/19/2023 Wednesday
The climb out of Pearisburg from the VA-100 trailhead passes industrial areas, and a landfill that has rendered a creek unusable—there’s a big sign warning you not to drink it. We passed rusted old cars now stranded in impossible places thanks to regrowth.
(more…)4/18/2023 Tuesday
When you sleep in the Relax Shack at Angel’s Rest Hiker Haven, the burdens of the world fall away. Maybe Benny and I should sell our place and move into a finished shed like the Relax Shack. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but a relax shack could be!
(more…)4/17/2023 Monday
The “safari” tent was a bit cold, but Wedge and I agreed it was worth it. We took in the mountain views from our little covered deck. The breakfast bell rang at eight, but by then I had already eaten and mostly packed up. Wedge went down to the main house (our tent was up the hill), excited at the prospect of another excellent vegetarian meal. But first, the “gratitude circle.”
(more…)4/16/2023 Sunday
I knew there was weather coming. When the AT broke my body in 2021, the healed injury left me with an “old” foot that can sense bad weather, or so I tell myself. The light throbbing I felt this morning and a bit in the afternoon had me worried that we were in for a downpour.
(more…)4/15/2023 Saturday
Today I heard a respectable southern woman (the owner of the hostel) speak the following phrase with no irony or awkwardness at all: “here’s your dinner, Hot Legs.”
(more…)4/14/2023 Friday
We woke to see rains outside our motel window. We delayed leaving until shortly before nine, when it tapered off. The shuttler had barely charged us anything last night and said that we could just call him whenever we wanted to depart this morning because he only lives 15 minutes away.
(more…)4/13/2023 Thursday
One last breakfast at the Quarter Way Inn! Fried eggs with “everything bagel” seasoning. Amazing sausage (patties this time), pancakes, yogurt with homemade granola, cornbread, and fruit salad. We headed back up to VA-623 in Tina’s SUV with Hazelnut riding along. We resumed heading north.
I started in minimal layers. We finished that rocky ridge (Garden Mountain I think?) and landed at Jenkins Shelter for lunch where we were joined by an exhausted, thirsty Zandry, who’d made an error—the kind that can happen to any hiker—and had to hike six miles on a difficult ridge with no water. That’s a rough way to start the day.
We hydrated aggressively. Wedge said he felt wonderful today. I remain, as ever, deeply thrilled for him. We reached a large creek with a bridge and lots of flat rock to sit on. We filtered water because it was an eight mile dry stretch and a hot, sunny day with no foliage yet. I wanted to stay by the creek for an hour and soak my feet, but we have a bit of a deadline—a shuttle booked for “around six-ish.”
We will run out of hostels soon—they are really only common in the south. Wedge thinks we should make the most of them while we’re here, because there’re big gaps coming up, and I suppose that’s persuasive enough. The transportation-related deadlines and rapid-fire town in-and-outs are hard on me, but I do agree.
We hiked 16 miles today, then caught a shuttle to the Big Walker Motel (with a detour for a meal at a diner).
We created an itinerary for tomorrow that gives us maximum flexibility on a rainy day. We can go 10, 13, or 18 and all three paths end at the same hostel (18 would have us walking directly to the hostel; the other two distances would require getting picked up).
I’m looking forward to some quieter days in the forest. Probably soon.
Later this month Ben will visit with Zoey in tow. Ben and I have decided to make this trip “sheepdog summer camp” for our gal pal Zoey. We are gonna take her hiking and she’s gonna have the time of her life with her favorite people. Just two gays, doting on an old English sheepdog. What could be more American than that? Rural Virginia is gonna love us!
4/12/2023 Wednesday
Are you really gonna make us leave this place? That’s the question my body asked me. Later I asked Wedge the same question over baked eggs, spicy pimento and cheese grits, some kind of flaky tart with sour cream and jam, and I can’t remember what else. I did the math on our average. Look, I said, with the miles we’ve done in the last three days, we have enough to cover four days with a 12-mile average and also add three miles toward bringing our overall average up to 12. And that’s if we take the whole day off. Hint hint.
(more…)4/11/2023 Tuesday
Let us call today a mistake of “hopeful math,” a failure to calculate time and mileage to see the obvious until the die had been cast.
(more…)“When I’m lost with myself I see lions,
lying golden on beaches of white.
I see men with their boats in the weather.
Carry me as I drift in the night”
-San Fermin (“Methuselah”)
4/10/2023 Monday Day 55
Forget yesterday. Forget our chilling encounter. Everything changed in Eveningland Meadow. Again.
(more…)4/9/2023 Sunday
Wedge and I are not in a good situation as I’m writing this. We’re staying in the old schoolhouse and something’s wrong.
(more…)4/8/2023 Saturday
I slept like a little lamb in my cozy bunk! It was actually too warm! Everyone around here has been rendered a little cold-wary, a little rain-shy, by this latest batch of cold wet weather.
(more…)4/7/2023 Friday
We struck our tents precisely as the rains began. I would have loved to hike a day in the 40s if it had been dry. But it wasn’t dry.
(more…)I’m Doug Cloud, an inveterate thru-hiker, believer in The One Trail, writer, rhetorician, researcher. This blog catalogs my journeys, particularly my 2023 1500-mile hike on the Appalachian and Colorado Trails. Other journeys may be added. Or not. I go by several mottoes as a thru-hiker:
1. Work the problem.
2. Throw money at the problem.
3. Go for an FKT (funnest known time).
4. ABC (always be thru-hiking).
Some quick navigation links:
Day 1 of my 2023 AT journey
Last day on the AT
Explanation of switch to Colorado Trail
Day 1 of 2023 Colorado Trail journey
Project Eveningland 