ElizabethClose

June 8 7a-7p - passed the 25% mark today. Got to groseclose Sunoco and took a break to charge my phone. Found out THS class of 79 wanted to follow me so I spent some time to post facebook stuff. Iran into a guy with hot pink hair, cant remember what he said his name was - I just called him "pinkie" LOL. Couple long hills and some pasture walks. At one point the cows were all laying in the shade in front of the stile I had to cross. I just talked to them as I walked up and the few closes got up and stepped away. I wonder how daunting a situation like that must be for city folk who have never been around cows. Late afternoon I crossed a little stream with couple of pools so I stripped down nekked and bandanna-washed, put on my shorts and Tshirt, washed all my hiking stuff out as best I could and hiked up to the next ridge where there was a little breeze. Hung my hammock and tied out a clothesline hopoing for dry clothes by morning. 552.4 - 17 miles

June 9 - 7a-6p - Clothes were pretty dry in morning=yay. Started off and passed Bionic Man(Jim), section hiker asked if I could hitch a ride to Pearisburg he said YES!! Long cllimbs today. Not too hard or steep, just long. End of day I was almost to Chestnut Ridge Shelter -stone cabin with with windows and door! About half mile before shelter was water - saw Currytoe, WrongWay, MonteCristo, Lost. We all stayed at shelter, one of the guys helped me set up my rainfly as a BIVY tent so I stayed outside and saw super sunset, stars were SO CLEAR. 567.9 - 15.5 miles

June 10 - 7a-12p. Caught a ride with Jim. his sister fed us lunch and he drove me to Walmart in Pearisburg. I got a dress and shoes for church and made a collage of my pics to send home. Called Mrs. Arritt and made arrangements for a ride to church. Set off toward downtown where hotels were, but got picked up by Mrs.K - her daughter is trying to be the youngest solo through hiker (14) - she gave me a ride to the episcopal church where they were throwing a community picnic and let hikers stay in the basement for free - wooHOO. grabbed a plate of food and visited a bit with ppls, bandanna washed in the church ladies room, ran to laundromat and got my stuff clean and mostly dry before running out of quarters. 574.1 6.2 miles (plus yellow blaze miles)
June 11 - Rita and Mike Arritt ride to church - Stanley ride to Woods Hole hostel for package pickup. Nice stir fry dinner. Frog and Twinkletoes at hostel. mile 624.2 - 0 miles hiked
June 12 - Pentecost - Stanley got me at 8am for church. Morning services. Jesse Earns gave me son's info for when I'm near Hamburg PA - theyll ride me to church there - yay! Effie and husband, Sue H. and Mike/Rita went to lunch after. Stanley had plans so he gave directions to Effie and lit out.. Nice lunch in Pearisburg. then dropped me off at 639.1 - I camped just before rainstorm hit. 0 miles hiked.

June 13 - Guthook App mde terrain look easy and flat, but it was rocky and pretty hard. Im glad Sue sent me those new insoles in my food box! Got to shelter at end of day and there was a "pants-on-fire" chatterbox so I hiked on and set up camp just past "Captains Place" 65.6 - 16.6 miles

June 14 - Day 60 - Feels like time is just whizzing by! Lots of climbing again today. It was supposed to rain overnight and I was getting low on water so I pushed to the Laurel branch Shelter. Frog and Twinkletoes were there with another guy I didn't catch his name.. Crocodile came in after me. I went out back a bit to bandanna wash and change into nigt clothes and droped my glasses in the leaves - couldnlt find them. Went to shelter, got my spare pair and went back to find them. Couldnt locate the broken piece so Im just wearing he spare pair and hoping I don't have any more spectacles mishaps. Heard hoot owl as I was drifting off to sleep - so cool. 672.5 - 17 miles

June 15 - 6:30-9p Lots more rocks today - walking across scree is no fun. Passed a 300 year old Oak tree..pretty awesome! Decided to sit IN the creek and eat my dinner adn cool off. Didn't consider how heavy my boots would get - poop!. I heard it start to thunder so I decided to change into sneakers, put on my rain gear and hike on. Crazy thunderstorm hit as I climbed the hill to Audi Murphy memorial. Wind was a little scary on switchbacks and runoff water was pouring over my sneakers up to my ankles for about an hour. Made it to the top and phone touch screen was too wet to work so I had to unpack and get a dry bandanna out of my drysack, get it wiped off and found out the memorial was another .7 miles ahead...sheesh - walked along a kindof grassy roadway and saw a box turtle - funny I never thought about turtles in the woods before. WWII memorial was inspiring, walked another 2 miles ot campsite - arrived after dark, heard coyotes yipping but sounded far. Got my poop shovel stuck in a maple tree so my bear bag was hung a little oddly. Bugs dive-bombing my headlamp so I had to lay it on the ground to set up. 691.8 - 19.3 miles

June 16 - Lots of Rock climbing today. Dragon Tooth being hte pinnacle. Hiking poles were worthless -several places I tossed them downhill a bit so I could have two hands free for handholds. Just past Lost Spectacles Gap two girls sat at road crossing by 4 pines hostel and gave out gatorade and apples for trail magic - awesome! Saw a couple more box turtles. Saw Pan and Friskies slack-packing back to 4 pines. Made it to Route 311 and saw strider getting out of a car - apparently there was a good restaurant closeby and he had gotten a ride back from dinner. He said there was a shelter a mile in and that there were storms coming at 9 -I hiked as fast as I could manage - got a little wt, but managed to make it to Johns Spring shelter before the thundestorm hit. 708.7 - 17 miles

June 17 - 5a-6p - decided to get up at 4, woke up Strider - packed up and nigth hiked a bit to try to get to Kelly Knob by sunrise. Strider told me the red light doesnt attract bugs so I didn't get dive-bombed so much. Missed sunrise, but Kelly Knob was pretty awesome. Hiked on to try to get to Troutville by sunset. Passed up water th next shelter - dumb because 7 mile stretch until next creek - ran dry before Tinker Cliffs and had ot beg water from fellow hiker. Luckily Lauren was full so she gave me about apint. Got me through. Tinker Cliffs were also fabulous views. Lots of Big Rocks - but not as much climbing today. Met Deet by Lamber Shelter where I stopped to get water and cook dinner before rainstorm. Had to eat half so I could carry the jetbol pot on my chest strap without spilling. Luckily the rain just spit on us - though I could hear thunder afar off. Got to daleville by 6pm and HoJo was right there so I took a room. 728.5 - 19.8 miles (wow, just cannot seem to get to 20!!)

June 18 - Took a zero day - stayed at HOJO gain. Got taxi to post office and back so I didn't even walk that far LOL - 0 miles!!

OK - thats it for now - I've got to get going!!! It's 9am already and I hope to make it to Waynesboro by next Monday or Tuesday