Friday April 12, 19.3mi/31.1km

Route 100/Pearisburg (637.0) to Pine Swamp shelter (656.3) (VA)

I slept in late at the hostel, and it was a rainy, drizzly morning. I did some errands in town, then grabbed lunch at Papa’s Pizza. The meatball sub was huge!

Back at the hostel, I packed up and got a ride to trail, and I was hiking at 1pm. It had stopped raining, and the forest was so much greener now.

The trail crosses the New River, and some railroad tracks, on a bridge. Just as I was crossing the bridge, a train came! Good timing.

A few miles later, as I was climbing uphill to a ridge, I spotted a turtle slowly crossing the trail.

Many more plants are starting to bloom now. I’m not sure what these purple flowers are.

The trail crossed another dirt road, and it had some disturbing signs. They looked like old signs, so I hope the project was canceled. We really don’t need any more petroleum pipelines, especially ones that cut thru wilderness.

The trail continued to climb up to the ridge, and soon I was up inside the clouds. Still dry, but no visibility.

A few hours later, the clouds parted, and the sun came out!

So of course it was time for a snack break. This was the perfect sitting rock.

It was getting later in the day, so I hurried down the hill. There was a trail junction, for a trail that went thru West Virginia, cool!

I arrived at the shelter at 8pm, and it started raining 2 minutes later. Perfect timing again!