Pearisburg, VA

Howdy, I am now in Peatrisburg, VA 622 miles from Springer. I was able to download some pictures at a Walmart the last time I resupplied, but for some reason or another, I am not able to upload them here. So we will have to wait for those pictures until I get to NYC. My pace has slowed down significantly recently. I found out that I got into Marylhurst University for grad school, I will be getting my MAT, and that gives me an additional month of hiking time. This means I do not need to be pushing 20+ mile days. That is why I am about 3 days behind my estimated arrival date here in Pearisburg. However I will be pushing the next couple of days to get to Catawba by Sunday. In Catawba is the Hompleace restaurant. I have heard from multiple past thru hikers that this is the best AYCE (all you can eat) on the trail. Unfortunately it is only open Thursday through Sunday. Today is Tuesday and I am 72 miles away. Once I get there I will probably slow down again. Next time I get to a computer I will let yall know about it.
Before getting to Damascus, Shadow Cast and I had been talking about pancakes. Thru hikers spend a large amount of time talking about food. We usually have all of our meals planned before we get into a town. So once we arrived in town and settled in we went looking for pancakes. We were told of three places, Dairy King, Damascus Eats and In the Country. The Dairy King looked sketchy and in a random choice we went to In the Country. It turns out they do not have free refills on Ice Tea and they burn most of the pancakes. We were not impressed or fully satisfied. We later learned that Dairy King has really good (we did our next two breakfast there with great pancakes), and that Damascus Eats also would have been fine.
In Damascus, Shadow and I were hanging out with Peacock and Daddy-O. They were taking an extra day in Damascus, so we went extra slow the first three days so they could catch up with us. We have been hanging out together since then. However they are not going to push to Catawba with us, so we will try and meet up again later.
The guide book I am using lists highlights for each section. I have stopped reading what those are, because they have always been fogged in for me. Blood Mountain in Georgia, fogged in, Clingmans' dome in the Smokies, fogged in, Max Patch in NC, fogged in. This past section lived up to the rule. The highlight was Grayson Higlands, and that was fogged in and cold, but it looked like it had the potential to be nice. Up there is a herd of feral ponies that they use to keep the balds bald. These ponies have no fear of people. At one shelter they came right up to the shelter. The next day as I took a quick break I got bumped and nudged by one who then laid down on the ground in front of me. Does anyone know if that is part of the mating ritual of feral ponies?
In this past section we also come across the first of three shelters that you can have pizza delivered to. That afternoon we went into town to resupply and hit up the AYCE chinese buffet. It went through me as quickly as you can imagine. Then we got more food and attempted to hitch out of town. This was not very easy. We ended up in a van with four locals who might have had one full set of teeth between them. If we had not been having so much trouble getting a ride we would have just let them go on. We then got driven on the backroads through town and we start to get a little worried, but it all worked out OK. Then we ordered pizza.
One thing I have also realized on the trail is that timing is everything. It makes the difference in good hitches into town and trial magic. Daddy-O has a nack for being just ahead of trail magic. One day a group of four of us, Shadow, Peacock, Daddy-O and myself left together from lunch. We hike together for a while, then I start getting stomach cramps, so Shadow and I slowed down. I took a quick stop, felt better and started hiking again. Just as we get to the next gap and road we hear a truck pull in. As we get to the road the driver asks us if we would like a cold beverage while he fires up the grill for hamburgers. One donut, one half a cantaloupe, one gatorade, one orange juice, one sunkist, one bacon hamburger, one hot dog, some grapes and an hour and a half later we pull out. Peacock and Daddy-O were waiting at the next shelter for two hours wondering what had happened. If they had only been 20 minutes slower.
At that shelter there is a sign from a local church offering an ALCE breakfast on Monday mornings at the road 5 miles North of the shelter. It is Saturday and we start thinking about whether to hike back or not. We need to resupply at the next town, so on the way we are thinking about how to get to the breakfast. We decide to spend the night in town, so we split a hotel room 5 ways, and we start calling churches. There are about 13 thru hikers staying at the same hotel, and after 30 minutes of calling and leaving messages we get in touch with the church and arrange a pickup at the hotel. It was entirely worthwhile. I had scrambled eggs, pancakes, potatoe pancakes, black bean patties, egg caserole, biscuits and gravy, banana bread, mac and cheese, and the most amazing blackberry cobbler I have ever had. It was one of the most amzing desserts I have ever eaten. Then we even got a ride back to the trail which saved us a bad hitch.
Tomorrow I am back on the trail heading to Catawba, I do not know when my next computer stop will be. I am trying to head back to Damascus for Trail Days May 16-18. That is a big celbration of the Appalachian trail with a lot of current and past thru hikers, and gear companies and local merchants. I may stay for Hardcore afterwards which is three days of trail work organized by the trail club just South of Damascus. So I may be back in Damascus before I get to Waynesboro. We will see. I have also just mailed home some of my cold weather gear. This makes my pack almost 5 pounds lighter, but it is a little bit of a gamble. The last two nights were very cold, and two days ago it was snowing as I packed up my tent. But I still have my warm sleeping bag and I have only used my warmest jacket as a pillow and for the first 30 minutes I am awake in the morning. If it is still cold I will stay in my sleeping bag longer.