Blogs from Virginia, United States, North America - page 109

OD - A new month! Been back on the trail for a week now and getting stronger every day. Had a good nights sleep with a few lightning storms in the distance as we went to sleep. Only had some strong winds go through the tree tops where we were and lots of thunder. Morning brought clear skys and sun. We managed to get everything packed in about 30 minutes, but it took almost an hour to cook breakfast, clean up the mess and hit the trail. The temp was near 65 degrees when our packs got cinched down. The Calf Mountain Hut sits at 2,700', we headed to the top then down into Beagle Gap at 2,550'. From there it was over Bear Den Mountain, 2,885' that is covered in commercial radoi antennas. There were ... read more

The Outer Banks and The Eastern Shore PierceMy last day at Fort Fisher and Kure Beach was full of excitement. I finally was able to get into the library in Carolina Beach to use the internet because the day before was invaded by wild school kids. The Shirt Shack in Kure Beach was finally open for business and I made a custom t-shirt order. I spelled out my bike tour mission in big red letters on the back. "Key West to Canada" I ate a delicious crab cake sandwich at the Old Pier House Restaurant and relaxed on the beach while waiting for my shirt to be finished. Later that evening Todd and I went out to the Sea Witch for late food and brew. The next morning we went to the Pier House again for ... read more

url='/Videos/2998.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2998.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'The deer and me What an adventurous day. The simple plan of the day was to wake up, grab food, go to Humpback Rocks to do some hiking, come back, and enjoy the rest of the day. As you can probably guess, that's not what happened. We did get up, and we did get food. We did, also, make it to Humpback Rocks in Shenandoah National Park; however, before we got there, we got stopped and searched by a National Park Ranger/fake policeman. Rob was speeding, and just before we made it to the parking lot below Humpback Rocks, he saw the flashing lights behind him and had to pull over. I really didn't know that National Park patrolmen had the authority to pull people over and write tickets until now. The ranger came ... read more

OD's comments: First day since coming back on the trail we had a nice sunrise and no fog or rain. The trail was nice and we saw a number of northbounders. We also talked to one of the trail maintenance workers. These guys do one heck of a job. All the clean up work after this spring's ice storm will take a very long time. We only did 8.7 miles today and it is the first time in days my heels didn't get worse. I did a small modification to the heel of my boots and it worked. The band-aids stayed put all day. If I can get three days without any more problems, the boots I have now will work fine. Got into the shelter by 3:30PM and took our time doing dinner and prepping ... read more

OD's comments: Rain all night with medium winds. Our record still holds, no real rain while walking. To date we have only had sprinkles during the day while walking. We started at Lewis Mountain Camp around 8AM in very thick fog around 3,300' heading south. We went over Bald Face Mountain, around Dean Mountain, Saddleback Mountain thru Swift Run Gap and off another map sheet. Lastly we climbed Hightop Mountain, 2.2miles up hill over the 3,587' summit. The day ended up with nice sun that allowed us to dry the wet tent. I am doing this a day after the fact and can't remember all the finer points. My heel blisters are still there but not as bad. We did about 12 miles today. CC's comments: I can't remember yesterday other than the last hill took ... read more