daleville, va to cove mountain shelter

it was another long day. i ended up going to bed without writing, so this was written the day after.

i slept well in the hotel bed. i was offered a bed because of my sleeping pad. maestro was happy to sleep on the floor as there was a game on he wanted to watch, and he thought it would bother us less.

my shoe glue up didn’t go so well. i put my food bag on top of them because the directions said to apply pressure overnight. i ended up glueing one shoe to the cardboard i used to protect the carpet, and some of the glue oozed into the shoe itself and now the inside top was glued to the bottom. i managed to separate them, but there is a rough patch of glue that is definitely very painful to walk on. let’s hope that like when i got these shoes my feet win the battle.

i packed up and headed down to the light breakfast the hotel offered, grabbing one of everything and an additional yogurt. we chatted over breakfast about getting to harper’s ferry on the 17th.

back at the room, i packed up the last of my food, remembering that i had stashed some stuff in the fridge. i downed the tamale i saved from the night before, packed the hummus on the outside of my pack for lunch, and then was confronted with the 6 pack of beer i had bought and then drunk none of. i packed 5 and drank the last.

i was on trail by 08:00, and with cell service strong, i chatted with magz for a long time, and found a friend travelling across the trail.

some of the day was spent on the ridge criss crossing the blue ridge parkway, where the views are spectacular.

i chatted with magz a bit more as the service was good. eventually i got to bobbins shelter, where we planned to stop for the day. it was 16:30. i was still feeling energetic despite my heavy pack, so i sent a message to the group that i was going to do 6 more miles to cove mountain shelter.

i hiked on. the one thing about cove mountain shelter is that it’s a dry camp. the last water was a few miles before it, but i also read some comments on guthook that there were some small streams a little past a campsite. i tried for them, but when i got there there was nothing. whomever left thst comment was just getting trail runoff for water.

i texted the group again to alert them. thankfully maestro was getting water and would bring an extra liter for me.

i arrived at camp thirsty. i ate some snacks and drank a beer for some liquid. (my preferred beer is very low ABV, so it doesn’t tend to dehydrate.) eventually maestro showed up, shortly followed by bugs and lyric. bugs brought me another 2 litres!

it was late, so we ate dinner in the dark before getting to bed.

some additional images from today: