May 14: Pearisburg Hostel   Miles Today : 28.6 Total Miles : 74.8

For the rest of the day, until I entered the town of Pearisburg, I saw no one else. I hiked up and down the trail over mountains. I followed creeks. I took over an hour nap at Wipiti Shelter and I stumbled the last few miles down off the ridge into town. All told, I hiked for almost 12 hours and the only sign of people that I saw were footprints. It was an unusual experience on the AT, but a very enjoyable one.

I am really getting back into hiking mode now, and it is starting to show in many aspects. Once of the more obscure things that I have noticed is that my desire to pee from the top of a mountain is coming back. In 99, I found that whenever I reached the summit of a mountain, or a good overlook, I had the desire to pee, usually just a little bit. Well, I got to a good viewpoint today and, what do you know, I needed to mark my territory.

The hostel in town is a good two miles from the trail, and hitching was not working. Pearisburg is not the most hiker friendly town that I have seen, and several locals flipped me off and shouted obscenities at me as I walked along. Not exactly the moral boost that I was looking for after a long day on my feet.

Here at the hostel, there are at least 20 thru's floating around, the place is pretty packed right now. Some of the names that I can remember are TeeTree, Brooklyn, Springer, Sneech, Basil, Vitamin, Spider, Doodle Bug and YoLo.

The view here, by the way, is just fantastic. The hostel is situated on top of a hill with a large lawn that provides open views at the Blue Ridge of Virginia. This place is really amazing in that it really doesn't feel like you are off the trail, even though you are in town with all of the conveniences. Tomorrow will surely be an easy day of hiking as my body will be quite sore I am sure.

-Chomp

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