Day 44 The Beginning and Ending

We have made it back to Pearisburg and finished the portion of the trail that we hiked in 2020. 


Today was another day of mixed snow and sunshine. We woke up at 6:30 and were hiking by 7:45. The relatively flat 20 miles to Pearisburg passed very quickly. The snow flurries brought a little bit of accumulation but when the sun would come out the snow would melt quickly. 



We ascended over 1,500 feet first thing in the morning and walked ridges for about 15 miles of the day. At times clouds would quickly roll in and obscure the surrounding valley before quickly departing.





The last three miles dropped steeply down into town. We made it to the road by 3:45, having covered 20 miles in less than 8 hours including breaks for lunch. Getting to the road was truly surreal. The last time we hiked the same stretch of trail, we felt miserable since we knew it was the unsuccessful end for our hike. This time, I knew there was much more to come. Instead of feeling like the end, the road into Pearisburg felt like the beginning. Everything from here on will be completely new. Now we begin the long walk home.



From the road we shuttled to a hotel in Dublin VA, a town much closer to the highway so the girls don’t have to drive quite as far. Once we got here we checked into our hotel, showered, and went to the Mexican restaurant next door. As always, we ate a ton of food and hung out for a while. 


Ashley, Brooke, and Kristina will be here in 20 minutes. It feels very fitting that we will see them here, at the beginning of the new trail. 


Tomorrow we will take a zero. We don’t really need the rest but are very happy to take the time to be with our significant others. 


The hike between Pearisburg and our next resupply in Daleville looks like a beautiful 95 mile section of trail. The weather should hold out until Tuesday or Wednesday for us. We will see. 


For now I’m going to rest and eat a lot of food. 


Goodnight,

Walker 







If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

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