Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 58, Friday, 5/13 – There was a good amount of rain overnight. I stayed dry again in my tarp & hammock setup. Its so nice being confident that I’ll stay dry during weather events. I packed up and was out of camp by 8:30am.

I started my day off strong. I hiked 5 miles pretty quick, and that included a 1,500ft climb. Then I pulled my phone out and kept hiking. Because I was distracted, I ended up rolling my ankle again. I guess I’m still in a funk. I really wasn’t focusing on the hike.

There was a decent rain coming down late morning. I called 4 Pines Hostel looking for a place for the night. A super friendly person answered the phone, and was very welcoming. I was more excited for the social interaction than having a dry place to sleep.

The sun started coming out around noon, and it immediately got hot and humid. As I passed by smaller trees, I would give them a little shake to get a trail shower and stay cool as I hiked.

Wow was the hiking beautiful today. It switched from rain to sun at least a half dozen times. The forest was alive with the sunshine after a fresh rain. The rhododendrons were in bloom too, which added a lot of color to the forest. The trail itself was also fun to hike. The trail was essentially made up of large boulders that I had to pick my way through. My mood really improved during the second half of the day.

Later in the afternoon, I got to Dragon’s Tooth. It’s a well known destination in Virginia, and it’s a Friday afternoon, so I was surprised that there weren’t any day hikers around. I soon found out why. I expected the trail to look like the rest of Virginia. It was way different. For about 0.7 miles, the trail was more of a rock scramble than a trail. I took it slow because I was tired from the past few days of hiking, I had a heavy pack on, and everything was wet and slippery. It was, without question, the most technically difficult hiking I have done on the AT. I made it through a-ok!

I was literally on my 4th to last step of the day, and I fell. I didn’t get hurt, but I broke my hiking pole. Louane was at the road and saw my fall. We chatted and ended up walking over to the hostel together. I hiked 16 miles total and ended the day at mile 704. The hostel shuttled a bunch of us to the gas station for gas station pizza. The hostel also did a communal load of laundry for the hikers. The place had mixed reviews, but it’s been great for me!