May 6: Evil Desert Trail

I was meeting new people almost daily, because I'd picked up my pace considerably since Damascus. And rare for me, for my hike over the next few days, taking me to Woods Hole Hostel near Pearisburg, I was on a very tight plan: 14, 14, 18, 23 and arrive at the hostel nice and ready for a shower, laundry and bed.

My goal for the day hiking out of Lynn Camp Creek was Jenkins Shelter, 17.7 miles of nice Virginia ridge walk beyond me. Unsurprisingly I was the last out of camp, behind Willie Walker, Beans and Scat Tracker and Achilles, even though, at 10:15 a.m. I was beating my two previous days' starts.

And then, damn, the heat. It started not long after heading up Lynn Camp Mountain. On the way down the mountain, I was aware that water would be scarce on the next ridge, while a water source was supposed to be in the valley. That water source turned out to be puddles, really, and I [foolishly] skipped it.

So of course I ran out of water. It happens every now and then. Looking on the bright side, I realize it showed me what to expect if I run out of water again.

After about 14 miles hiking without water, dehydrated, spitting tiny white bits of saliva, rolling up and down the nasty ridge around a great valley called God's Thumbprint [where the Vanderbilts considered building Biltmore], I found a running stream crossing the trail. It was cascading perfectly for me to fill my filter reservoir. Hal-le-freaking-lulia. I sat down and mixed Gatorade and milk for a fruit punch shake, twice. It wasn't bad.

All day my mind had swirled upon milkshakes and smoothies of days past. As I walked I went through the steps I used to take to make a fruit smoothie in the Western Campus dining hall in college [edit: at Miami University]: One half banana, some frozen strawberries or blueberries, crushed ice, a scoop of ice cream and a cup of milk.

Then I thought about the orange sodas my grandmother used to make for me whenever I visited, which was often. "That's it," I thought. "Next town, I'm buying a 2 liter of orange soda and a half gallon of vanilla ice cream. We're making sodas."

I got to Jenkins shortly after and splashed myself with water in the creek.