Monday, June 20th

Suiter Road, VA 615, Laurel Creek (584.9 mi) to Bear Garden Hiker Hostel (558.5 mi)

Hiking Miles: 26.4 Southbound

Total Ascent: 6,353.7 ft (6,135.8 ft)

Total Descent: 6,271.3 ft (6,106.6 ft)

Total Grade: 477.1 ft/mi

Steps: 58,371

We did it! Our 4-person tramily completed the 26.4 mile marathon challenge in 10.5 hours and thoroughly enjoyed our large and scrumptious carrot cake that Bert baked this afternoon!

We were shuttled by Bob at 6:30 AM to the beginning of the southbound trail to begin our hike back to the hostel. During the drive, Bob (a retired teacher) was explaining to us some interesting history about the town of Ceres where we were staying. This would be the first time that Stevie and I had hiked southbound except for the time we backtracked to look for my first Fit Bit that I had lost in Virginia during our first section. Just before heading on trail, we all gathered around and Bob said a prayer for all of us, then told us he would see us soon. Bert and Bob are such great folks, and they had been running their hostel for hikers for the past 5 years.

It felt great to have a small day pack, and at times I enjoyed running along the trail without carrying a load on my back. The surrounding woods and waterways were so peaceful and beautiful. Double Trouble hiked with his full backpack which included his drone. During our hike, he released the drone and he remotely videoed us on the trail. He subsequently air dropped the video to me.

Fifteen miles into our hike, we came upon a the Chestnut Knob Shelter which was an old fire warden’s cabin that was converted into a trail shelter. It was sitting atop a mountain at 4400 feet elevation. We stopped for a break and enjoyed the quaintness of the shelter’s features.

The final three miles of our marathon hike were swift and methodical for me. I hiked between Stevie and DT (Smiles was a good distance behind us) and I just focused in on Stevie’s feet to help keep a rapid pace. Before I knew it, we had reached the roadside leading back to the hostel. We waited about an hour for Smiles to return (Bert asked if she should be concerned) because we wanted to celebrate our accomplishment together. We thoroughly enjoyed our carrot cake reward with milk, essentially eating the whole thing.

I unfortunately missed video chatting with Teresa after a few missed calls in conjunction with having bad signal/connection, but I sat inside on the hostel couch this evening catching up on my journaling.

Two of the hikers that we had met at the shelter a few days back (Sunny and Tank) showed up to the hostel this evening and decided to tent rather than staying inside. So the only hikers staying inside again were just our tramily.