He was riding a sweet motorcycle. His friend with the WWF wrestling pandas shirt was awesome too. Very encouraging. Columbus?

I officially crossed into Virginia yesterday and it was an amazing feeling. It’s a good thing too, because I’ll be here for awhile. Something like a third of the trail is in this state. If you want a more exact number than that, you’ll have to look it up yourself. :)

My camera/phone was dead but I was lucky to meet Spike along the trail who captured the moment for me.

I met Red Stick in Erwin at Johnny’s hostel. We later ran across each other on the trail where he interviewed me. He is a fellow Venezuelan from Caracas who thru hiked in 2010. He and his story are amazing. The day we filmed this is the day I really fell in love with the trail.

Keep in mind that these ETAs are based on hiking 10 mile days. If I pick up speed, I may arrive a few days sooner.

As usual, let me know if I should expect a package from you somewhere.

Nora Curiel
C/O Relax Inn
7253 Lee Hwy
Rural Retreat, VA 24368

ETA: May 31, 2012

Nora Curiel
C/O General Delivery
Bland, VA 24315

ETA: June 3, 2012

Nora Curiel
C/O Woods Hole Hostel
3696 Sugar Run Road
Pearisburg, VA 24134

ETA: June 8th, 2012

Thurs. 5/10/12: Zero at Roan Mnt. Trying to get a ride to the Shul in Bristol

Fri. 5/11/12: Zero in Roan Mnt., Johnson City, and Bristol, TN. Services and Oneg at

Sat. 5/12/12: ~7 mi Roan Mnt. US 19 E to campsite by river

Sun. 5/13/12: 17.6 mi campsite to Dennis Cove (Black Bear Resort is amazing)

Mon. 5/14/12: 4.4 mi Dennis Cove to near Pond Flats. (stopped for social three hours at Kinkora.)

Tues. 5/15/12: 4.6 mi near Pond Flats to US 321 intersection in Hampton, TN. Mail and resupply, met Aspen Glow. Stayed at picnic spot.

Wed. 5/16/12: 12.4 mi Hampton to first spring past Vandeventer shelter.

Thurs. 5/17/12: 7.6 mi Spring campsite to TN 91.

Fri. 5/18/12: Zero, Got ride (yellow blazed) into Damascus, VA for Trail Days.

Sat. 5/19/12: Zero, Trail Days in Damascus, VA.

Sun. 5/20/12: Zero, Trail Days in Damascus, VA.

Mon. 5/21/12: 5 mi TN 91 to campsite. (Saw cows up close!)

Tue. 5/22/12: ~10.3 mi campsite past Double Springs Shelter to campsite before blue blaze to the backbone rock trail. Remet Bunny, met 50Ben, Sam, and someone to his right. Saw Tie-dye, Big Rock, Bahala. Saw Stone Chair and Irwin heading South to Erwin. Had met them Monday morning in tent city campsite after trail days.

Also the only picture I took there. :P oops. They have a main building w/a porch, living room, bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry downstairs; and then there are beds upstairs. There are two more separate buildings, another bunkhouse that sleeps about 6 and a tree house that has a full or queen size bed in it.

It was raining, so I took the picture through a plastic bag. I forgot to take pictures of the resort, but see if you can find it online. It is beautiful. They had both cabins and a bunkhouse.

I hit the 400 mile mark on Sunday. That day I also hiked 18 miles or so, my biggest day yet. It took me 12 hours counting breaks. I hiked with Whiffle Chicken and Kleenex for part of the way, which I think helped w/speed. And Abby and Vango’s hostel had trail magic. The burger and fruit punch I had there kept me energized for a long time. Oh, and it rained the last 8-10 miles or so. Hiking in light rain is really not bad. It doesn’t slow you down much, but it can get hot enough to be uncomfortable.

Yesterday was pretty ok. I only went 4-5 miles cuz I got caught up going to breakfast and then went to Kinkora to see if they would slack pack me, but they couldn’t; they were too busy. (Kinkora is something of a legendary AT hostel. It is run by a guy named Bob Peoples who has led many trail maintenance groups and helped build the Mountaineer Shelter on the AT. The hostel is kind of small and oldish and Agree camp-like, only with carpet, plumbing, and electricity.) I should have gone back to Black Bear Resort, the awesome place I stayed the night before. They could have given me a ride to slack pack southbound, but instead I wanted to check out Kinkora and wound up finding 5 of some of my favorite people I’ve met so far who I thought were at least 3 days ahead by now. Highlife and Red Fury who are from near Battle Creek, Salamander, and Slayer and Puddle Jumper. So I stayed there for a couple of hours. Puddle Jumper had what I call the Erwin Ick. There is a norovirus spreading like wildfire up the trail. I haven’t gotten it yet, or if I did, it was so mild I didn’t notice. I guess they had to close the schools in Erwin because of it at some point? I posted about it on white blaze, and a health worker from Pennsylvania said a lot of people were calling off work at her hospital because of it. So it’s not just dirty through hikers.
Then, I finally got back on the trail at 3. (Oh! Baltimore Jack was helping at Kinkora. I knew I would see him again, cuz he said he was only helping at Neel’s gap, but I thought it would be when he was hiking in New England.)

It rained on and off all day. And about three times it rained pretty hard. We got the southern edge of a thunderstorm last night. I got a home made rain skirt out of the hiker box in Kinkora yesterday and decided to try it out since I was pretty sure the sun is coming out today. (I was wrong) It is a sarong or wrap skirt style, which let me climb just fine, but water crept in between the layers and got my upper legs a little wet. Cooler than rain pants though. Also, my socks got wet, which is really the biggest negative. If I was hiking in non-waterproof trail runners and my feet were going to be wet anyways, that would be acceptable, but I’m hiking in some pretty waterproof leather boots. They might weigh a ton, and be a bit too stiff for the balls of my feet, but they have kept my feet generally pretty dry. And even when they get wet, they’re not soaked. With the rain skirt, they got soaked. Once I got in my hammock, which I cooked under once the thunderstorm had mostly passed and it wasn’t raining sideways anymore, my feet were cold even though I had dry socks on because of how wet my feet got hiking. But to be fair, I’m near the top of Pond Mountain (I think) coming out of Dennis Cove and it is breezy. I think hammocks would be warmer if they made the bottoms out of a wind proof material. I thought of drying off my rain skirt (yay pack towel!) and wrapping it around my feet. (It worked.) Because even on top of the closed cell foam, the breeze kicked my sleeping bag’s butt at first. It steals a lot of heat. I did have a good hot dinner and my first non-dinner hot beverage on the trail: spiced apple cider. That only worked cuz I finally cooked dinner in a ziplock tonight. Because I usually cook in the pot and eat right out of it, having a hot drink too is kind of out of the question because I don’t carry a mug.

I must be the only through hiker considering this: if I can cut enough weight from my pack for summer, I might ask Kate to mail me my bear canister. I have my food hanging off of my hammock right now and I don’t feel good about it at all. The people at Black Bear Resort said sometimes they’ve seen a bear cross the edge of their property, and also that there was a bear around the Watauga lake shelter. I’m 4 miles away from both of those places and bears can walk that in a jiffy. Let’s hope they hate hiking in the rain as much as people usually do. I’m going to resupply today, but a) it’s the principle of the thing and b) I’d like to avoid a close encounter. -Note, I wrote most of this last night and my food was fine this morning.

Tafn,
Nora

The guy sitting on the couch closest to the foreground and the guy standing in front of the loft stairs are NOT twins. These are Big Rock and Servant Brawny.

The loft area in the hostel.