Day 96 - Saturday, June 26, 2021

We made it to the hotel in Pearisburg, Virginia about 11:30 pm then we had to drop off my car at Cross Clendenin Road, VA 641 / Pocahontas Road (641.5 NoBo) where we will come off the trail tomorrow. We are hiking this section of the AT as it was closed due to the high voltage  power line structure collapsing last February in an ice storm. We were here April 9th and the section was still closed. 

Today’s hike will wrap up all the AT from Harpers Ferry/Potomac River/Byron Memorial Footbridge (1026.3 NoBo) south to Springer Mountain (0.0 NoBo) plus the 8.8 mile Approach Trail to 

Amicalola. We have also completed all of New York from

The NY/CT Border, Hoyt Road (1458.7 NoBo) to County Road 565, Glenwood, NJ (1355.8 NoBo) for a total of 1129.2 miles or 54.0 % of the total AT 🎉!

We started hiking at 8:45 am from Stoney Creek Valley, VA 635 (657.0 NoBo) for a total of 15.5 miles. 

And of course our hike began with a climb 🤭, a change in elevation of more than 1400 ft over 3.8 miles. 

We completed the climb and ran into “Sven”. “Sven” began his thru-hike last fall in New Hampshire, flipped south and now has over 1300 miles done. He’s making his way north finishing his thru-hike. We were chatting with “Sven” about pack base weight as his pack looked very small. He is only carrying 18 lbs which included his food - that’s amazing. He gave us a couple tips as he uses a hiking quilt rated for 30° which only weighs 20 oz and he uses an ultralight weight tent that is 1.8 lbs! Turtle Power and I were already talking while hiking how we are going to reduce our base weight as we were both carrying over 30 lb packs. Which is not all that bad by the way but reducing it by 10-12 lbs would be fantastic and would certainly lessen the wear and tear on our bodies. 

Turtle Power doing a little extra rock climbing. 

We ran into these 2 little bucks. It just amazes me how we can get so close to them and they have no worries at all. 

It’s a good thing that I didn’t bring my hang glider with me today 🙄.

Hiking up a grassy bald past Simpson’s Gap. 

We were trying to come up with what bird makes this kind of nest… anyone know?

This is “Jasper” & “Sugar Daddy”. They left Springer on June 2nd. What is that saying about youth being wasting on the young 😂? Godspeed guys 😉.

Meet “Matador”. He left Springer on June 2nd too. I guess we didn’t get the memo that today was “no

shirt day” on the AT 🙄? We’re surprised that we are still running into NoBo thru-hikers this far south. 

And here is the culprit - this is the high voltage power line structure that was replaced causing the temporary closure of this section of the AT. 

View from on top of the power line looking at Narrows, Virginia. 

Turtle Power took his second fall going around a fence ladder stepping over a barb-wire fence. I’ll say one thing… when Turtle Power goes down, he goes down good 😂. Two of my “falls” were just my hands touching as I slipped going uphill 😖.

And here’s the little bugger that took TP out - he stepped over with one foot and then his back foot caught that third strand of wire 🤭. This brought the dinner and drink count to 2 a piece, both in Turtle Power’s favor. There’s plenty of time left for that all to change back to my favor 😉.

More views from on top beyond Rice Field Shelter…  

Our final ascent for this day… many, many more to come.

We finished hiking at 4:45 pm. It was a beautiful day to hike. The high for the day was 84°, thankfully the humidity was not too terrible. 

We got on the road heading north and back home. There is a sense of accomplishment as we finished the southern half of the trail. We drove as far as Staunton, Virginia for the night and Turtle Power found a microbrewery for us to get a bite to eat. 

We met this local entrepreneur Victor. He was very interested in hearing all about our adventure. I was more interested in hearing about his… the reason being Victor is a former Navy Seal. There are many who have no clue what great Americans like him have persevered and done for our Country to make it what it is today. Thank you for your service and giving us our Freedoms 🇺🇸.  

Onto New Hampshire and the White Mountains to Maine and Katahdin. There’s much more “fun” to come.

We will be back on the trail right after the July 4th holiday.

Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾 

😋

“You gotta have passion for life and passion for something that you're going to get up and do,".    

                                Meredith “Sunny” Eberhart