#12 Atkins to Bland

5/15: We woke up and it was cold. We ate a quick breakfast of protein bars and started walking so we could warm up and get to town. Soon enough we were peeling back layers and we saw an old schoolhouse where signs said that was trail magic inside. There were bins of fresh fruit, pop, chips, and supplies like ziplock bags and shampoo. We grabbed snacks and some ziplocks, and started hiking again. We trekked through some tall grass and we were surrounded by cows! There were calves too, and they were super cute.

We got to the road around 10:30 and grabbed breakfast at a restaurant called The Barn. Then we resupplied at a gas station, which was lacking in variety of nutrients, and went to a Mexican restaurant afterwards. We ordered food to go and had it wrapped in foil so we could eat it for dinner. Then we hit the trail again, which was tough because our stomachs were very full. Just before we made it to our campsite 3 miles out, we passed the 1/4 marker for the trail! A group of hiker friends were there cheering people on as they graduated from “trail freshman” to “trail sophomores”. At our campsite we ate our leftover Mexican and sat around a fire and talked before the sunset and the owls came out telling us to go to bed.

5/16: We woke up around 6:30 but Hawk convinced herself it was 3:30am so she went back to sleep for 15 minutes. Anyway, eventually we woke up. We started hiking at around 8 and we were sore. It didn’t help that we had 2 steep inclines we needed to scale, and partway through our hike, we realized that we didn’t calculate the days to our next resupply correctly, so we needed to grab an extra dinner and some more protein bars at a nearby hostel. We hiked to the road the hostel was on and walked .3 on a country road to a house where we paid for Knorr Rice Sides and more bars. We also got ourselves some ice cream bars. We were about to head out when we saw a bard owl on a tree in the yard. It was staring at a black rat snake, who was lying still on the tree.

V.S.

It was an intense standoff but unfortunately we left before anything cool happened. We started hiking again after our detour and went through a pasture where we dodged cow poop up a hill. Then there were more hills. We did see a black rat snake (not venomous) on the ground! Survivor threw a stick near it so it would get off of the trail, and it oozed it’s way off the path. We had a big snack fest before we hit our campsite. It was a 12.9 (including the detour) day in total. Then Hawk had a ramen bomb and Survivor had ramen, and we went to bed early because it was a long day.

5/17: We woke up early to the sound of thunder and quickly grabbed our food bags so they wouldn’t get wet. Then we hung out in our tent and Survivor played “throw rolled up socks at Hawk” as it rained on and off. We only had about 8 miles to hike, so we weren’t concerned about getting out of camp early. We requested a weather report from our gps and once it finally came through, it said that it was a 10% chance of rain for the rest of the day. Then we packed up and as soon as we did- it started raining. We hiked through some showers until 11 when it cleared up. Unfortunately that was when we had a giant incline and we were really hot and sweaty from the humidity- and then we wished it was raining. We got up and over though after a few water breaks. We filled up on water at a spring that flowed into a pond and hiked the last 2 miles with full water in our packs. We saw some really pretty balds, and it turned out that our shelter was on one too! It used to be an old wardens house, so it had 4 walls and a door! We built a fire in the ring outside and boiled our water over it for dinner. We talked with other hikers who were around, including a guy from Indiana who did a thru hike 10 years ago and is now doing a small section. He works in agriculture so he harvested some edible mushrooms and let us try a little bit. Soon after, we gazed out at the view one last time before bed, and went to sleep.

5/18: It was an early morning because it was supposed to get warm during the day, so we hit the trail at 7:30. It was a music and podcast kind of day, so we listened to downloaded music and podcasts on our phones while we hiked. It made the time go by fast, and soon enough we were eating lunch at the shelter that was about 11 miles from where we started. We ate as much as we could because we knew we were going to resupply the next day. This shelter is known for having a privy with no walls, which wouldn’t be that much of a problem, except that it’s elevated a few feet off the ground. It looked like a throne of bad design in the pictures we saw, but the volunteers put in walls and a roof, so it was a lot more private now. Anyway, we filtered more water and hiked the last 4 miles to a road where there was a nice campsite. We washed our feet and legs in the river while we filtered water for the night, and then boiled some water over the fire for dinner. It was our second longest day so far at 15 miles, but we were feeling good! We went to bed early because we were so excited to get into town and eat Subway and Dairy Queen. We’ll keep you posted on how many blizzards we can eat in 18 hours while we’re in town. We only have 7 miles to Bland (an actual name of a city) so we’ll resupply there and stay the night.

Now we’re in Bland and we’ve showered! We’re starting to push the miles so we’re excited to keep going farther through Virginia.

Happy trails :)