Virginia, Black and Blue

The skies have been black and we've been a little blue. Virginia's been a little hard to go through. We've been making our way little by little. It's good to be hiking with our friends nightingale, Cinderella, and Amazon! The terrains been fairly easy I think the hard part is that Virginia is redundant. There are hardly any views and just seems a little boring. The mental aspects of the trail are really starting to take there toll. Sometime it feels we have more to look forward to when we get back than the rest of the trail. Sara and I aren't quitters though and even if something sucks we always find a way to push through.
There have been some great parts to Virginia too. We met a very interesting fellow Trubrit! He's trying to build an outdoor center and a hiker haven on a property that he owns. He's a real entertainer with stories and music. We had the pleasure of partying at his place for a few nights! We had a great break in Pearisburg as well where we had AC, a pool, friends, beer, and family feud! The next exciting thing after that was a place called the captains! An older man with a nice lawn just let hikers pitch tents on his yard. You got to zip line across the lake to get there too!
The day after was quite a tale. We had planned a 17 mile day and of course we got up late and hiked through the heat and up and over a mountain. Around 5 we arrive at a shelter 11 miles in. My feet were aching real bad and I wanted to consider stopping there. I took ibuprofen to help with the pain. After the group recouped a bit we decided to move on. Moving on meant going up a 3 mile mountain. As we began our ascension it began to rain. It began to pour. We were drenched in a matter of seconds! We went for a mile and then the hunger hit. Our bellies began to roar as loud as the thunder in the clouds! We cursed the skies and our aching bellies but made sure to keep moving ourselves forward. We climbed and climbed as it continued to rain and pour. Then as we come across the top of a ridge we see a man and our friends. We hear the words "trail magic"! We wipe the fog from our glasses and look closer. The clouds even seem to clear and a ray of light shines through. Soda! Nutter Butter! Cookies! The next thing I heard was the crisp sound of and aluminum soda can opening. There I was drinking it down like I had been parched for days! I must've had two nutter butters and a soda before a man reached out his hand to me."Hi, I'm super Dave" I shook his hand introducing myself and letting him know how spectacular a circumstance it was that he was there. He spoke to us as we enjoyed his treats. He was a triple crowner and had been suppling this trail magic box during hiker season for a few years now. We had just caught him when he was doing a resupply. If we had passed 5 mins sooner there would've been nothing In that box! I remember thinking and exclaiming to everyone there " this is true trail magic, no poster sayin be here at this date and we will feed you. This was real trail magic where it's dumping rain on your ass you're hiking up this god damn mountain and you're hungry as ever, here's a soda and food have a seat"! I must've thanked super Dave 5 more times before we decided to continue to a campsite just a mile up the hill that super Dave had told us about. Sure enough by the time we got there and setup everything we had done it all just before the rain came back.
Even with that trail magic, today was a low morale day. I suggested we go into town for some morale boosting. We made plans to do 4 miles to a hostel. Along the way a man passed us by and told us " hey stick around this road for some trail magic, my sons bringing colas" that's all we needed to hear and by the time we reached the road it was there waiting for us. We sat around just making some small talk when the gentleman invited all of us to stay at his house for the night in Blacksburg! Now we're sitting in his living room watching movies drinking cokes and eating chips! We have had a very fortunate past two day. It's the days places and people like this that make the trail so special and so worth every second!
With Love,
Pyress and Comrade