Biggest day ever!!!

June 24,

Start:  867. Breezey ridge
End:    902.2 South River Picnic Area.
Total:  35.2 miles!!!

I feel bad for the hikers who choose to sleep only under a tarp, and not include bug netting into their system.  Virginia seems to be a hot spot for daddy long leg spiders, and many other as well.  These giant bugs are usually crawling all over my tent, even as I'm setting it up.  I would hate not having the mesh as protection.  It did add a few ounces to my tent though, so....  no still need it.

I'm off just before eight this morning.  Hiking down the long green tunnel that is the Appalachian Trail.  The name long green tunnel comes from the fact that since Georgia, I have nearly exclusively been strolling through lush hardwood forests.  Very rarely are there views outside of the dense canopy of trees.  On balds in Tennessee and North Carolina there were some, but not long enough.  Usually, a view is only a few steps long and formed by a cliff or other break in the trees. 

The miles go by fast, and I have ten down by eleven.  I even get a rare twelve by twelve.  I wonder if I can get a thirty today.  The terrain is similar to what it has been the last week, a long ridge with many road crossings at the passes, or gaps as there known here.  I was following the Blue Ridge Parkway, but that ended at the entrance to Shenandoah National Park, now it is called Skyline drive.

I would imagine these two famous roads would have more traffic on them especially Skyline drive in the national park.  It is summer and busy tourist season.  The road is dead every time I cross it though. 

I saw another bear today, this one www only twenty feet away when I yelled at it and it ran off.  It didn't have a clue that I ease there, and looked very startled.  I also saw another rattlesnake today, my second of the trail.  As is often the case though, it didn't rattle at me, at all.  I also saw a long black snake with a diamond shaped head.  A local hilljack told me two weeks ago that all snakes with a diamond shaped head are poisonus, I believe he knew what he was talking about, and I left it alone.

By four I have 22 miles down, so I know a thirty mile day is within my grasp.  I find it hard to believe when that mile passes at seven and I still have energy.   A cinnamon raisin bagels and strawberry cream cheese gets me going for the last stretch.  I make it to water, in a picnic area and see a new group of hikers.  These guys are doing about three hundred miles, finishing in Maryland. 

After setting up camp under the stars, on a picnic table on a cool and breezey hill I head back to equipment hi to these guys, and only hear one name, its Grey.  Back at my picnic table, actually a long row of four, I eat Ramen noodles with instant mashed potatoes, then pull off my shoes.  Waiting under one sock with his head borrowed in me is a tiny tick.  I take the advice a lady on trail gave me the other day, and hit it with Deet.  After half an hour, like she said, it still didn't come out, so I burned it with hot metal.  That didn't work, so after much trying, I yanked it out with my fingers, head and all.