Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 91 – Puff and Professor reunited!
25th October 2023
Settlers Museum VA 615 (1655.4) - Trimpi Shelter (1674.1)
Daily miles: 18.7
Total miles: 1675.8
It was an interesting night. Jet was talking in his sleep and then he shouted FUCK really loudly (which was hilarious). There was some snoring and I woke up at 3am possibly because of the sound of trains, but if it wasn’t that waking me up it definitely kept me awake. My legs were also throbbing a lot and my feet were uncomfortable on my sleeping pad.
I was awake from 3 to 4:30 and I attempted to work out the mileage for the next part of the trail but it proved too complicated so I read a bit of a book and then finally put my ear plugs in and went to sleep. Too sound asleep apparently because my alarm (just vibrate) was going off for 4 minutes before I noticed it. Whoops!
Sunrise
I got up and went straight to the bathrooms. Surely I would be able to go to the toilet. I sat there for 20 minutes and nothing would come out but it was there, ready for departure. It’s so uncomfortable. I almost felt like crying because I didn’t know what I was going to do about it. I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked horrendous, my eyes were so puffy and leaky.
Back at the school house everyone was awake and with the red lights of headlamps and the sunrise it looked like the inside was on fire. They all took the piss out of me for sleeping through my alarm and in turn I was able to tell the story about Jet. He said he thinks he woke himself up when he shouted.
The red lights make the school house look like it’s on fire
We put the school house back to how it was when we arrived and I left at 7:40am and I felt pretty terrible, totally lacking in energy and so sluggish. Also I had a stool in the departure lounge and that was making life very uncomfortable.
Inside the school house
The old school house
It was 8.7 miles to the road. I went under some pylons and the buzz was so loud. Does anyone else feel like the electricity is going just jump off them when they are buzzing and crackling?!
Never heard a pylon this loud
Cal and Jet caught up to me and passed me and then Toe and Rabbit Foot caught up to me but I was just able to keep up with them and that forced me to go a bit quicker. Toe stopped to pee and I was able to keep up with Rabbit Foot and I chatted with him all the way to the road. It’s hard to hear people because of the crunching of the leaves. The trail was really rocky in places and quite tough.
Keeping up with Rabbit Foot and Toe
Every day I love the light
I went straight to the bathrooms at the Mt Roger’s recreation area and I FINALLY went to the toilet. I think it was the third biggest poop of my life. There was a certain amount of exhilaration to releasing it and I felt instantly better after about 3 days of constipation.
Cal and Jet had already hitched to town (Marion), and the others rolled in and got the free shuttle that came round. Toe stayed with me as we had arranged to meet my friend Professor who I hiked with in 2018. He arrived after about 10 minutes and he had drinks, which I chugged straight away, and pumpkin bread which was way more delicious than I expected.
We were hanging back for Safety Inspector and Sidequest and they arrived at the road just as we were leaving so we shouted at them “hey, do you need a ride” and we took them to town too.
Happy to see Professor again after 5 years
Everyone was in Walmart as we needed to resupply for the next couple of days so we headed straight there. I really didn’t need much because I had food left over and we’d had burgers and Mexican food in the last couple of days. So I got some more fruit snacks and some more chocolate bars and I’m also going to pack out the rest of that pumpkin bread.
Some people also picked up Halloween costumes and I did have a look in the costume aisle but there was nothing I wanted to buy. Rabbit Foot tried to get into a kids Super Mario costume which was pretty funny.
Super Rabbit Foot
Outside the store it was so hot I had to stand behind a pillar to get out of the sun. It was high 20’s (celsius) and actually the trail had been super warm this morning too. After checking the weather it was slightly concerning as next week there are lows of -6ºC / 21ºF!!
We decided to go to the Mexican place up the road to get real food and charge electronics a bit. It was super cheap and hopefully those beans will go through me and keep me regular so I don’t get myself in another bad situation. I just had a couple of tacos because I wasn’t super hungry.
Mexican food (with the correct amount of cheese)
We eventually left and Professor drove us to the outfitter downtown. The woman in there was nice but it was a bit of a weird vibe because she was openly like, great I can make money off all of you hikers, and encouraging us to by lots of stuff. I thought about buying a new headlamp. A brighter, rechargeable one, but I figured I’ve come this far I can make do with the one I’ve got.
Toe brought a new stove, sleeping pad and new shoes. I also thought about new shoes but they didn’t have any in wide which was a shame because the Lone Peaks were 40% off.
After the outfitter we went to sit in a coffee shop where the others got coffee and I tried to update Instagram. I was feeling antsy about getting back to trail so we left just after 3pm. We had to go back to Subway so we could give back Safety Inspector and Sidequest’s hiking poles, then it was back to the visitors centre. We had to pack our resupply and we dilly dallied long enough that Safety and Sidequest, Jet and Rabbit Foot arrived back at the visitors centre on the bus.
Pack explosion
We ended up hiking out at 4pm with 10 miles to do. I had filled my water bottle up but I tipped it out and replaced it with one of Professor’s spare Powerades.
My old mate Prefessor
We hiked together for a while. My legs were unusually sore and I think it is from the running yesterday. Lemonhope was in the lead and we were all chatting, asking Professor lots of questions, and it was hard to hear with all the crunching of the leaves. The trail was nice though and not too steep so I was able to keep up with Lemonhope’s pace. I was pleasantly surprised to see that after 5 miles we had maintained a 3 mph pace. We might not get to the shelter in the dark, I thought.
Hiker train
My view of the hiker train
We had left the others behind a bit although I could hear them so they weren’t far back. I chatted on and off with Lemonhope. He told me about a breathing technique he does uphill which is 2 breaths in and 1 out so I tried that on the next hill and it worked initially and then I felt like I was going to have a panic attack because I felt like I wasn’t breathing properly, then I calmed down and the breathing technique seemed to work. I was far less out of breath than I usually am, unless Lemonhope had just slowed down.
Cheeky views
Lemonhope setting a 3mph pace
Big wooden bridge
River
We come out to a nice meadow where we could see the almost full moon and the sunset. We could walk across the field without the need for a headlamp because the moon was so bright.
Full moon to the east
Sunset to the west
The moon is lighting the way
Back in the woods it wasn’t far to the shelter and we made it there at 7:20pm which was exactly a 3mph pace. Lemonhope was timing it and pacing it and I was continually looking at the app to see how far was left.
Until we get into the forest
I saw a couple of headlamps there and thought, oh no there are other people out here, but it was Rabbit Foot who we know was ahead of us, and Howard who we though was behind us but turns out he got a hitch out of town earlier.
The others arrived only a couple of minutes after we got there. I went to get water which was nice and close and it was trickling from a pipe flowing at about 1 litre a minute.
I couldn’t be bothered to make anything to eat so I had a couple of slices of that pumpkin bread and called it a day. My priority now, as usual, was lying down.
