Day 66 -May 12 2017 – 20.5 miles – Narrows VA to mile marker 655.9
We got a ride back to the trail head from Allen. He told us about the nearby New River. He told us it’s one of the five oldest rivers in the world and its the only one in the US that flows north.
Once we got back to the trail we were soon on a bridge crossing the New river. The section of the river that we were looking at was not the most bucolic. The largest cigarette filer manufacturing plant was situated right there.
After passing the cigarette filter plant we went past a local landfill. There was a raccoon hanging out near some bushes. At first Flashfire was happy to see the animal until she saw the way it was acting. “I think this one is not so good”, she said. She was right. The poor thing looked like it had rabies. We hiked on.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. As uneventful as a 20 mile hike could be I guess. The drizzle that had started in the morning had changed to rain and the temperature had dropped.
The trail was a lot more rocky than we were anticipating in some parts and was very slippery. After my ankle started hurting from an “almost fall”, I had to give the rocks a good talking to. For me it was generally a miserable day. I had to tell myself several time that, “Tomorrow will be better.”
The only thing I was looking forward to was staying at “The Captains”. The Captains was the home of a local who offered thru hikers the use of his property and sometimes gave out trail magic. To get to The Captains, hikers had to zip line across a river. That was something I really was looking forward to.
When we got there we saw a sign that said that the zip line was closed due to high water. I was disappointed but I could tell that who ever tried to cross the river on a partially submerged zip line was taking their life in their hands.
Zeus and Flashfire decided to turn around and hike a mile south to get to a bridge and then walk on the road to the house. I was in no mood to do that. I was cold, wet, and hungry. I was ready to stop for the day and Stoat agreed to find a place nearby to camp.
We came across Scarecrows tent and he popped his head out to say hi. We decided that this was as good as anywhere to camp and setup our hammocks.
As we were eating Slim Shady arrived. He too was hoping to go to The Captains and now was looking for a spot to camp. He told us that the raccoon we saw came after him and he had to fend it off with his trekking poles. Luckily it didn’t get close enough to contact him.
The four of us called it an early night. After the cold and rainy day no one was much in the mood for conversation.
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2017 Thru hike 