Woke up around 8 am and was on the trail by 9 am. Just 2 miles in and we were at Dismal Falls. It sounds like a place out of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” but we had a good time there. Everyone took turns jumping in from the rocks, even me. The water was freezing cold, and I really hate cold water but the jump was totally worth it.
It was 2 pm before we finally left the falls and set out to hike the rest of teh 26 miles to Pearisburg. We took the blue blazed “Rigger Trail” up the mountain instead of the AT. It climbs the same elevation in 3.5 miles instead of 8 and to be honest I don’t feel bad about.
Stopped for dinner around 5 pm right outside of the Woods Hole hostel. We’d heard from some other hikers that this hostel wouldn’t sell them food and chased them out after and hour because they weren’t staying the night. Since there weren’t good vibes we ate on the trail and set out around 6 pm for the remaining 11 miles.
I haven’t hiked this far in the dark before, it was a new experience. We were trying to go too fast for how little we could see and everyone kept tripping over any little thing on the trail. I think night hiking would be a lot of fun if we were able to slow down and enjoy it.
About 4 miles from town we ran into some friends of Rick Flair on the trial and decided to pitch camp there. It’ll be an easy day into Pearisburg tomorrow but it’s supposed to rain the next couple of days so we’ll probably end up taking a couple of zeros.
Day 57 Mileage: 21.6 mi [USFS 282 -> Kimberling Creek ]
Total Mileage: 640.1 mi