Pearisburg to Atkins, VA

This entry is a long time coming. It's incredibly hard to write a concluding journal when you're not finished with the trail.

Buster and I left the trail just short of Atkins, VA on Friday Oct.20th. We left Pearisburg after the Gathering with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. I had gotten good reports from the doctors about my knee pain and had new arch supports in my shoes. Buster had just hiked a 72 mile chunk of the trail on his own in 2 1/2 days- a record for him. So we busted out of the Gathering with Stretch all ready to hike to Georgia by Thanksgiving.

As those next days on the trail went by, my knee pain returned at the same pre-doctor visit levels and my new arch supports which I was so hopeful about lifted my feet higher in my shoes causing blisters. The best part about those days was hiking with Stretch again and meeting Goldbond and Kingfish, who had been behind us for the whole time. For a while there we were a SoBo pack!

We fell behind all these guys one day when we stopped at 10 miles (rain and blisters getting worse). The next day we planned to do 25 miles to the top of Chestnut Knob. It was a challenging day, up and down a lot, plus the staggered 3000 foot climb to the Knob. We found great trail magic from Coppertop on the highwater re-route (thanks, coppertop!).

Near the end of the day as we neared the last climb to the Knob the day took a dramatic swing downward. I needed to stop for a break because I was feeling dizzy. It was getting past the dinner hour and I was running short on energy. Buster left me there with a bar to eat and headed on down to the gap below the Knob to pump water to take up since the Chestnut Knob Shelter has no water. I got up to head down to the gap about 5 minutes later. It turned out that the gap was not as close as either of us thought, being still about 1.5 miles away. Because I had been walking for so long and didn't have the map or any sense of where the gap would be, I began to get really worried that I had passed it or that Buster was waiting for me a long time. I finally got to a dip where a dirt road crossed and there was a small trickle, but Buster wasn't in sight. I began panicing because the sun was setting and if this wasn't the gap, I still had a big hill ahead to get over before I got the gap. In my panic I bolted up the hill. I still don't know how I moved as fast as I did. I couldn't feel the blisters that were raw on the backs of my feet anymore and I wasn't hungry at all. I got nearly a mile up the hill (mountain/knob) stopping every 50 steps to yell for Buster. I felt completely helpless and lost. Buster had the shelter, the water pump and the stove and I had lost him! I still had in my head that the gap could be over this hill. But after I had come a mile straight up and was soon taller than any of the mountains in my view, I conceded to myself that I had in fact gone through the gap already and must be near the top of Chestnut Knob. I bolted down that mountain, running all the way to the bottom in between my yelling. I knew that Buster would turn around and go back to where he left me 2 miles back on the trail. When I made it back to the gap it was dusk and Buster was still not there. I called as loud as I could in every direction. And then way off up the opposite hill from the Knob came a reply and then again, closer. By dark we were reunited. It had been a really scary time for both us. When I had come through the gap the first time, not really knowing it was the gap, Buster had been just down the dirt road pumping water. He didn't know I had come by and went back up the hill looking for me. We camped in the gap in physical and emotional exhaustion.

That was a long story to recount, but it was probably the most frightening experience on the trail for me. In all the other scary parts (crossing Saddleback in cold and rain, crossing the swollen streams in Maine, the snakes, etc) we were together and had each other to help us get through.

The next day of hiking would be our last. The blisters on my feet were the most immediate problem, making it really hard to get anywhere. My knee pain and Buster's foot pain were longterm problems looming over us. We stopped at Knot Maul Shelter at 1 pm and had a long, long talk. It was clear that I couldn't go on with out letting my blisters heal. This would set us back 2 or 3 days bumping up our daily mileage needed to get to Springer by Thanksgiving to 19 or 20 a day.

With the shortening daylight, getting 20 miles done a day means going all day with few breaks, and maintaining a 2.5 mph pace. This was becoming really hard in the second half of the day with my knee pain. Each step felt like it was taking something out of me. Buster's foot pain was sporaticly dibilitating. He had the pain since sometime in PA, but it was getting worse daily.
The thought of leaving was heart-breaking. We had come so far and had overcome so much to call it quits now. The momentum in my mind was really strong, but my body was giving out. Somehow it didn't seem fair to the trail or to us as hikers to complete the rest of the trail in a rushed, painful sprint just to say we had finished it in one season. Taking care of our bodies had to come before our pride. So we left the trail from that shelter and hitched on Rt. 42 way back into Bland where my dad kindly came and picked us up.

Our friends and family have been really supportive of our decision. Thank you to all of you who have kept us going with your encouragement and interest. This 1600+ leg of the trip has been an incredible journey. But the journey will continue next year or maybe the year after when we have healed bodies. We talked about starting NoBo on Springer in the Spring for a change to finish up our last section. But we are SoBo at heart and SoBo we will stay!

So, until a point in the future when we can return to the mountain footpath, beautiful and joyous trails to all!

Buster and Bluebird