Day 59 – Suiter Road to tent site at mile 599.3

“There’s no place that I’d rather be than right here

With my red necks, white socks, and blue ribbon beer

The barmaid is mad ’cause some guy made a pass

The jukebox is playin’ there stands the glass

And the cigarette smoke kind of hangs in the air

Rednecks, white socks, and blue ribbon beer” – Johnny Russell

Rained on us last night, so I’m carrying a wet tent. Got out at 8:20 this morning. The weather is good but humid.

Headed for lunch and resupply at a local store about 7.5 miles into our day. Nice view on the last .5-mile road walk down to the store.

Stopped at Brushy Mountain Outpost at 11:35 at mile 7 for today. Got hotdogs and fries for lunch at a few small resupply items to get me to Pearisburg. The place is decent if a little rednecky and intimidating. 

Dried out our tents while eating lunch. Great view. 

Back on trail at 1:00. Long but good break. We crossed I-77.

Stopped for water at a shelter. .2 miles to shelter and .2 miles to water. Ugh. But it’s the last water for 9.6 miles. Getting dry out here.

We struggled in the afternoon. Both of us are tired, my back hurts, and my feet are killing me. We decided to call it at 14.2 miles instead of 21.  Found an okay campsite on top of a ridge. Made camp at 6:00. 

Dried clothes out on the clothesline, made dinner, and planned out the next 2 days into Pearisburg. The new plan is to hike 15 miles tomorrow and tent by a creek. There are lots of hills tomorrow. The next day we go 8 miles to a road and shuttle into Pearisburg at 2:00. That way we can max out our time in town. We then shuttle back to the trail and we will figure out that plan later.

It’s now 8:00. I took a muscle relaxer and hope to be asleep by 9:00. I am going to check on the shuttles for the day after tomorrow. There is a cool view from my tent on the ridge at 8:05.

Technical Notes:

• Pop-Tarts 370
• Trail mix 270
• Chili dogs 620
• Fries 365
• Root beer 230
• Snickers 250
• Trail mix 300
• Beef sticks 90
• Dehydrated chicken 170
• Ramen 580
• Water liters 5
• Miles 15
• Time 7
• Elevation gain 3400
• Calories consumed 3400
• Calories burned 5000