Archive for June 2nd, 2009
Day 08 – Newbern, VA to Troutdale, VA
Posted by Kiki | Virginia | Posted on June 2nd, 2009
Tuesday, June 2nd: Newbern, VA to Troutdale, VA
As opposed to the previous 7 days, today we actually got an early start on the day. We woke up at 6am and were rolling out at 8am after breakfast, breaking down camp, and stretching and all. We hit rolling hills pretty much the entire day. Some hills were rather long, like our last one of the day – 4 miles uphill, but luckily it wasn’t HORRIBLE, just long and at the end of the day.
Otherwise, our day went pretty well.. we had a decent pace and told ourselves we wanted to get 40 miles before lunch, and we did that. We were at mile 43 when we stopped at a place called Pizza Stop in Rural Retreat and got an all you can eat buffet for $5.99 (salad and pizza). It was pretty tasty. Off we continued, hoping to put in another 20 or so miles to get to Troutdale to find a place to camp. George went inside this little country store and asked if there was anywhere nearby, not too far off route to camp. The man, Jerry, said that there was a hiker’s hostel right up the road behind the church. He said we could stay there and it was free (just donation-based) and that there were hot showers down at the church. So we hit the showers and then went back down to Jerry’s grocery/restaurant for dinner.
Afterwards, I came back up to the hostel and organized stuff, stretched, and hung out the tent to finish drying off from this morning, washed my shorts/shirt from the past two days and downloaded all the photos to the computer. George and Chris found a basketball and court up here and played for a little while. We have a neighbor in this free hostel/shelter – he’s hiking the Appalachian Trail and seems to be quite the talker, and also has a really strong accent – turns out he grew up in Montana. Anyway, off to sleep – tomorrow we’re aiming for Council, about 70 miles or so from here!
Day 8 – Newbern, VA to Troutdale, VA
Computer Stats:
66.07 miles
469 total miles to date
5:57:19 moving time
11.1 avg speed
41.0 max speed
GPS Stats:
64.8 miles
6:03 moving time
10.7 avg speed
40.1 max speed
Snake count: 2 today
Dog chases: 1 that scared the shit out of me – but didn’t really chase. Just jumped out at me as I passed by.