We have walked from Maine to Georgia!!(in theory). If a sensible person were to drive from Mt. Katahdin to Springer Mountain, they would put 1420 miles on their trip odometer. As you can see, we have done much more than that-- but we are still only halfway through Virginia.There are 550 miles of trail in Virginia-- a quarter of the whole AT. And, as you guessed, it doesn't exactly run in a straight line across the state. We are currently walking the Blue Ridge (of Parkway and John Denver fame), which runs along at about 3000 feet interrupted by a "gap" every 15 miles or so. As we climb down and back up these 3000 vertical foot gaps, I think about the millions of dollars of dental work that would be needed to repair them. The leaves have all fallen, which affords us spectacular views. There is a hard frost almost every night and the only greens left are the pines and rhododendrons.
We pass through former revolutionary-era ironworks, ruins of sharecropper communities, and various haunts of Virginia's ghosts. Bill Bryson wrote: "If there is one thing the AT teaches, it is low-level ecstasy." He was spot on, because I really miss chairs. You are probably sitting in a chair as you read this and thinking nothing of it. Well, that chair is a great thing. When you are used to sitting on moldy logs, lumpy rocks, or just the ground, a chair is divine. At this point, a wooden bench or picnic table is cause for rejoicing. Yesterday Forrest, who commendably picks up every non-bio hazardous piece of trash he comes across in the woods and packs it out, found a partial pack of gum. It was so exciting to chew gum while we walked that I was almost skipping.
If you can do math (not my strong suit), you have probably figured that we are not going to make it to Springer Mountain by Christmas. We have made our new goal the Tennessee state line. Forrest says we must walk 24 miles per day to get there. So no more time for chairs and gum. We have to get back to that slow-rolling trip odometer.
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