Day 51 Beside the Blue Ridge Parkway

We had a day of awesome weather and fantastic views where we hiked 25 miles with relative ease. 


Spencer and I walked a half mile to Wendy’s for breakfast since the continental breakfast at the hotel was pretty much nonexistent. I hate fast food breakfast and this morning was another reminder of that.


We met up with Tyler and got on trail just after 8. We passed a few other thru hikes including a guy who is making YouTube videos of his hike named “I Suck at Hiking”.


For the first few miles the trail stayed pretty low, passed some blooming flowers, and hit the 1/3 marker. We will be half way done before we know it. Thinking about the ending of the trail is already feeling bittersweet. 




The rest of the day the trail followed the Blue Ridge Parkway, an iconic mountain road with incredible views of central Virginia. 





I need to take a second to talk about the weather. We saw rain yesterday for the first time in a while. However, we have not actually been soaked by rain since Clingman’s Dome in the Smokies, over 550 miles ago. This is absolutely ridiculous. And it looks to be just getting better. The 10 day forecast doesn’t call for a single day of rain. It is fully possible we will make it all the way out of Virginia without getting any rain. We couldn’t ask for better weather. 


Virginia has been absolutely stunning. I love the meadows, ridges, wildflowers, and overlooks. The start of spring and hiking in areas I’ve never seen before are so exciting. 





After hiking 22 miles we stopped for dinner and filled up water. Our next water supply won’t be until 3 miles into the day tomorrow. From dinner we hiked up to a shelter on a ridge and found it empty. It’s a little windy so it will be nice to stay in the shelter tonight. We hiked a total of 25 miles today. 



Tomorrow we will hike 20 miles with a lot of uphill. Our shelter is looking out at the ascent we will take tomorrow up Apple Orchard Mountain. We should see the sunrise just over the ridge in the morning.


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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