Entering Central Virginia

I stayed at Woods Hole two nights, having hiked on May 9 the 10 miles between the hostel and the town of Pearisburg and getting a ride from Neville in the afternoon.

I was officially in Central Virginia, roughly 625 miles from Springer and less than 400 miles from Harper's Ferry, my endpoint. Getting close to the end!

It took me forever to exit the town. The trail would cross a road, enter a patch of woods and then reemerge onto the same road a short distance away. Repeat a few times, then hike up to a ridge and you're on your way.

Aaaannnd I saw two bears. !

The terrain was perfect bear country: Ridge top, with sparse trees allowing for wide open viewing, comfortaby tall grass. I spotted a medium-sized bear in the near distance and made noise instinctively. As soon as I realized I was there it jaunted off to the side. What I should have done was crept closer for a picture, if I'd known how skittish this one would be.

Not 10 minutes later I saw a younger bear chilling in the grass. This time I did stay quiet, but to no avail: It stuck its head up, spotted me, and repeated the move the first bear had done.

But it was a huge success for me. In one day I'd doubled my bear count from two, in New Jersey, to four.

At Rice Field Shelter, the first out of Pearisburg, I found a nice, deep shelter with a fire ring, all to myself. The shelter faced a meadow beyond a fence where one could spy incoming hikers.

Another new couple, West Virginia rafting guides named Lola and Sunrise, showed up, as did Moose and Tetherball and Freeman. It was one of the rare nights everybody in the shelter was up until about 11 p.m. or so, Tetherball checking his feet, Moose on the phone, Freeman stirring food in his pot, bundled up; Sunrise and Lola in the corner writing in their journals.

The next morning everyone except Moose and Tetherball stayed in the shelter. The weather turned really bad: Wind blowing the leaves sideways, rain hitting the tin roof. The fog obscured the meadow and sometimes even the fence and stile in front of the shelter.

I sat on my mattress and made coffee and oatmeal, very, very slowly because Pearisburg didn't sell fuel canisters and my backup was a Sterno can. I read an entire issue of SPIN magazine and fell back asleep.

When I woke up the storm was breaking, leaving only the wind. A ton of new people were showing up hoping to stay in the shelter, so the four of us from the previous night made an afternoon dash north. It was after dark when I got to Bailey Gap Shelter, where I found Lola and Sunrise and Willie Walker already cozy in their bags.

My Sterno took like 40 minutes to get the water and my noodles even warm. I ate it even though it had nevery boiled. The shells were sticky and gummy, mixed with salmon chunks and whatever sauce packet I'd dumped in there. It was my worst trail meal to date. Very frustrating! But I slept well.