Friday, June 24th

Rice Field Shelter (644.2 miles) to Laurel Creek Shelter (675.2 mi)

Hiking Miles: 31

Total Ascent: 6,308.1 ft

Total Descent: 6,864.8 ft

Total Grade: 425.4 ft/mi

Steps: 68,585

It was a very quiet 4:28 am start in the dark, walking along the ridge that overlooks West Virginia. All I could see were the lights of the towns that likely were on all night. Each one shined brightly as I ascended the ridge before entering the woods, while a cool and cloudy mist swept from right to left. I knew that it was going to be dry (no water sources for 12 miles), so I needed to conserve on liquids – only when I absolutely needed it for strength, and for breakfast.

After stopping for breakfast (my now usual 2 oatmeal packs, chocolate Instant Breakfast, coffee packet and water), I realized that I was not wearing my buff. This was one article of clothing that I had worn every single day since the start of the journey. I frantically searched my backpack in hopes that maybe I had left it in with my clothes, but also thought that it may have fallen to the ground when I switched shirts in the dark this morning. Usually, I wear it around my neck at night and somehow it slipped off. I called and left Stevie a voice message (as well as a text) for him to give a quick look in front of the shelter, hoping he hadn’t left yet. It turned out members of our tramily all saw it on the ground, and Stevie held it for me in the back pouch of his backpack.

Jut before noontime, I met two cool hikers on trail – Passion Fruit and Bobsled. Passion Fruit was originally part of a family of hikers who all had types of fruit for names. When I first saw her she was taking a picture of moss growing on a tree, and she thought it was so interesting. She explained that she stopped a lot during her hike to take nature pics. She now was hiking with Bobsled, who explained that he was fast moving on the downhills, hence his trail name. At 17.5 miles into the day, and the tramily not too far behind, I stopped to have some lunch. 

After regrouping with Stevie and DT (Smiles again had lagged well behind), we stopped at a shelter where we met a young woman named “Hot Minute”. She had contracted the neurovirus earlier in her hike and was down and out for three weeks. I don’t believe she was even fully recovered, but certainly on the mend.

One of the mountains towards the end of the hike was extremely grueling, especially on the downhill; it took me quite awhile to get down with my pack. Overall, we hiked an exhausting 31 miles to the Laurel Creek Shelter arriving around 7:30 pm (making it a 15 hour day for me). There were several hikers there already (I recognized Guinness who was asking if we had seen Hot Minute along the trail) staying for the evening. Most were having dinner at the table and talking, so we joined them. 

Being exhausted, we settled in for the night. I could have squeezed into the 6-person shelter, but I decided to tent instead so others had comfortable space. Stevie stayed in the shelter along with Double Trouble, Guinness, Cherry and two others, and they were sharing stories.

We had planned another 29 mile hike for tomorrow to potentially set up a sunrise viewing atop of McAfee Knob for the following morning. Smiles once again didn’t show up to the site until 11:30 pm. He wound up cowboy tenting, crashing at the site entrance.

The highlight of the day was pushing myself through one of the toughest ascent/descent combination climbs that I experienced so far on trail. What helped was every time I heard a woodpecker, particularly when the terrain was challenging, it would give me the motivation and strength to climb those never ending hills. The woodpecker calls were “Nonnie” (my mom) reminding me to “keep pushing forward – you are almost there!”