I woke in the dark but it was light enough to walk without a headlamp by the time I set out at 6:50. As the trail approached I-77 it passed some huge high voltage lines and joined a gravel road. Under the wires was a campground with three tents, one of which Frankenstein was in the process of taking down. It looked like a long triangle barely big enough to hold a mummy sleeping bag. No room for anything inside the tent other than your mattress, sleeping bag and you. It made me grateful for my two person tent that has room for my pack, shoes, and the dozen other things I can see scattered beside my mattress as I write this.
Water was going to be a challenge. I had 1.2 liters left after breakfast and it looked like 8 miles to the next reliable source. But just after I crossed the interstate, the trail crossed a stream that looked okay, so I topped up to three liters.
Mid-morning I passed Jim, a man in his seventies from Tennessee who was doing an eight day section hike to Roanoke
The morning was cloudy, so I could take my hat off often, which was a relief from the heat. Around lunchtime I turned off towards a shelter that had good water (this was the 8 mile distance I knew I had to go). I could smell a campfire burning as I approached, and an older (than me) man was sitting in the shelter reading a very heavily marked up Bible.
At first I took him for homeless because he looked disheveled, his gear was dirty, and there was a clear plastic bag hanging near him that seemed to be full of bottle caps. But he told me, as I settled down to my lunch, that he had been working on a thru hike for five years. He was going SOBO, I think to somewhere before the Smokies. He asked me if I had a Bible, then if I was a Christian. I said yes to the Bible then said I was an atheist. Luckily he did not pursue the matter.
Soon Mountain Goat and Kim arrived, both looking for water, and we headed down to the source. I dmleft first. About a half hour later it started to rain. This had been the forecast. I put on my raincoat and had my umbrella out as well. I was in shorts so while my shorts, socks and shoes were soaked I really didn’t mind. The rain let up after about an hour.
I got to another highway where Trent’s Grocery, a mile down the road, was rumored to have full resupply and cooked food. They had much of what I would have needed but nothing I could eat for breakfast other than pop tarts, froot loops, and raisin bran, and only processed cheese, so I ordered a grolled cheese sandwich and bought a local soda that was a bit like a cherry coke. Sweet but considering the calories I’m burning it tasted great.
As I was walking back to the trail I ran into Mountain Goat, who had the same idea I had had. I asked aboug his camping plans, he said he would yake a site just north of the road. I looked for a site near the road but couldn’t find one. Some of the.m comments innthe Gar Out app in this area mention a large bear that has become habituated to human food, and recommending following strict bearproof food storage.
The trail followed the Dismal Creek for a while, and there were supposed to be lots of tentsites dimown by Dismal Falls. I headed down there and met a SOBO hiker who told me that bear had torn open a supposedly bearproof bag (an Ursack) and two other campers’ food all in the same night.
With this information on hand I wanted to make sure I could find a good tree to hang my food in. There were lots of great tentsites at Dismal Falls but I couldn’t find a single tree suitable for a fiod hang. So on I went.
It took me another hour of walking, checking out trees and flat spots for tents, before I finally got my bear rope in a tree I felt confident in, that had a flatish spot for a tent not too far away. Dinner was cooking by 7, the tent was up and made up by 7:30, and I was in the tent by 8. Unfortunately bot only were the clothes I was wearing wet, but it seems water leaked through the plastic bag inside my pack that I use to keep my gear dry, so the foot of my sleeping bag and some of my spare clothes are damp, but I’m sure I can get it all dried out at the hostel tomorrow.
Since it took a while of heading north to find a site wuth a good bear tree, I didn’t see Goat again, do sadly camping on my own today, but it does shorten the hike to the hostel tomorrow. Since I think there’s more rain in the forecast tomorrow that’s not a bad thing.
Mile 591.3 to mile 613.1 = 21.8 miles
