#15 Daleville to Lexington

6/1: We woke up early to eat breakfast at the hotel. We were both excited to see Nutella packets! It was the breakfast of champions of Nutella and waffles before our 6:30 shuttle picked us up for our 20 mile slackpack back into Daleville. The drive up was on the blue ridge parkway, so we had some great views. The hike was relatively easy terrain. We sadly passed a guy setting up trail magic who was not ready yet, so no extra food for us. After 15 miles we stopped for some lunch at a shelter. On the way up to the shelter we saw a fallen tree with big orange mushrooms growing out of it. We thought it may be Chicken of the Woods, which is an edible mushroom. Hawk has been reading up on mushrooms, and the mushroom we saw had gills on the bottom which means it wasn’t Chicken of the Woods so we didn’t collect any.

At the shelter we saw a cool lizard with yellow stripes on its body and a blue tail. The last few miles we were near highways and busy roads which made for a noisy walk, but some parts of it were recently mowed so we didn’t have to worry about ticks. We ended our hike in Daleville and went on the search for ice cream. The first gas station did not have any so we had to cross the road and check the next one. We were about to give up hope so we asked the attendant and she pointed it out for us! We each enjoyed a pint of cookies and cream ice cream! We went back to a Mexican restaurant we went to the night before for dinner. The special tonight was 1/2 off margaritas! We shared a few drinks with dinner and then went to sleep after a long day.

6/2: Ahhhh waking up in a bed is such a pleasure to behold. We slept in before grabbing breakfast in the lobby and catching a shuttle back to Mills Gap where we hiked back from yesterday. The shuttle driver gave us homemade muffins, which were delicious, and we were on our way. We hiked about 8 miles with only one or two quick stops before we got to Jennings Creek, which is a parking area by a small river. We ate lunch (tuna wraps, of course) on a big rock. Down by the river we saw lots of tadpoles and there were locals fishing. We filled up on water and started hiking again. Unfortunately the trail went straight up for 1.7 miles. Usually this wouldn’t be that much of a problem, but it was midday heat and there wasn’t a breeze. We were dripping with sweat as we slogged up the hill. Is it fall yet? (no). Finally, we made it to the top and took a good break. Then we headed down to the shelter where we decided we were going to stay because it was a cool double decker with a large deck, and there was a big climb right past the shelter that we wanted to tackle in the morning when it’s cool out. We set up our stuff in the shelter, filtered water, made dinner, which were tasty rice dishes, and then went to bed, grateful for the awesome shelter and excited to get some miles in tomorrow.

6/3: The trail woke us up quick with a brutal uphill at the start of the day. We agreed that we were glad that we waited for the morning when it was cooler to tackle it. It just went up and up and up for about 3 miles. Sometimes it flattened out, and we got our hopes up that we had finished the climb, but we were misinformed. We did eventually make it to the top though, and we ate a protein bar to celebrate, or just because we were hungry and needed protein. Anyway, we hiked about 2 more miles to a shelter and ate lunch. This privy was probably the best privy we’ve used on trail so far. It had ventilation so it didn’t stink, and the wood structure was also new. 10/10 for that privy! Anyway, after lunch we started hiking again. We walked a few miles to a small spring where we filled up on water and chatted with other hikers before heading off again. There was a frog in the water source, so that was pretty funny.

It was a mild day out so far- the high was supposed to be around 72, so we weren’t sweating as much as normal, which was nice. We did have an uphill to end our day on, but we got through it, and ended up at a campsite for a 17 mile day altogether. It had been a long day, so we set up our tent, filtered water, and cooked food before heading straight to bed. We were about 7 miles out from the road to get us into Glasgow (VA), and so we had a bunch of fellow hikers camping there as well to push into town. Another big day in the books!

6/5: We took a Nero yesterday in Glasgow for a quick resupply and rest day. There was an AT shelter in town! So we stayed there, ate unlimited spaghetti at the Italian restaurant, and hung out with other hikers. Today though we took a shuttle back to the trail and started hiking at around 8. We had a lot of uphills to begin with, and when we thought they were over, they just kept going up. On the plus side, it was cloudy, so it wasn’t too hot out. It rained for a few minutes around 10, which felt nice as we were trekking up the mountains. We got to a nice viewpoint and hung out with Otter and Sunshine while they ate lunch.

We didn’t eat lunch until we got to Punchbowl Shelter, which was another mile or so up ahead from the view. It was a cool shelter and there was a pond close by. As we were packing up, we saw three deer picking through the woods just past the clearing. They weren’t even afraid of us! After we started hiking again, it rained hard for about a half an hour. We haven’t hiked in the rain since we got to Virginia, so it felt nice, and we knew the plants needed it. We stopped at a campsite about 7 miles from town for a 15 mile day in total and made a fire to try and dry out our socks (key word is “try”). Then we went to bed early so we could wake up in time to catch the shuttle 7 miles away.

Now we’re in Lexington! This is one of the biggest cities we’ve been to so far and we went to a local restaurant that makes giant sandwiches! While we were hiking the 7 miles into town, we saw a baby orange salamander, so that made us really excited. In about 4 days, we’ll hit Waynesboro and then the start of the Shenandoahs. Keep on keeping on!

Happy trails :)