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Cypripedium acaule, Pink Lady Slipper Orchid
Climbing out of Pearisburg my dad spotted a flower. Turned out to be a flowering lady slipper orchid! SWEET! We’ve seen lots of foliage but haven’t seen anything in bloom yet. On the way out on Wednesday we found a whole bunch of them! Pretty nice to see! I wondered how many other people walked right on by and didn’t notice? Sometimes you get involved in the one foot in front of the other and forget to look around—rather, if you look around you end up tripping on a rock or stump.
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A Sweet Farewell
The last few days have been difficult and hard on everyone. Today it seemed as if finally some of the strain may have lifted a bit as the funeral for Ashleigh was today. She had many, many people in attendance, so many for her 104 days here on Earth. When I think back at the last time I saw her back in March and then at all the photos I’ve seen of her since then, it is still very hard to imagine that she is gone. Looking at her eyes in the photos, and in the videos with her moving about—-it’s tough. We saw her yesterday in her pink gingham…
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Angel Ashleigh
After writing that Ashleigh was doing so good, I am heartbroken to write that she has passed away. I don’t know if it was fate, luck or divine intervention, but we were hiking yesterday morning on a ridge and Chris has left his phone on by accident after calling his mom that morning and the phone rang. The phone doesn’t just ring out there for us. People know we are hiking. I knew something was up. It was my mom calling with the news. Once we realized we had a road in 7 miles and didn’t have to back track we kept on going while trying to make arrangements to…
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Beautiful Woodshole Hostel
While on our walks through the woods Chris and I will talk about what we want after the hike. We definitely want a place in the ‘country’, quiet somewhere in Texas. Where…who knows? However, after getting to the Woodshole Hostel here outside of Pearisburg, VA I have decided I want a place modeled after this. Smells of lavender and herbs, Pandora radio on the computer in the kitchen, wood floors…oh this place is awesome. Probably the best hostel ever. Yet…at least! We are actually staying in the cabin because my dad is meeting us here in a few hours and not in the hostel, but from what I hear of…
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Section Hikers
Hawk, Jay, Cheap Shot and Crazy Talk, section/day hikers from the VA/DC area. Nice people! Thanks so much for entertaining us and I’m glad you enjoy your new trail name Cheap Shot! It’s always nice to see people who aren’t thru-hikers to get a different perspective on things.
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Magic Bus
I half expected to see Alexander Supertramp hanging out. This was in a cow pasture just north on the AT from the Trimpi shelter.
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Ponies
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Wordless Wednesday
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500 Miles….
Well, I managed to find a computer and didn’t expect it. There’s an Exxon gas station where we are at with two computers! Sweet! It’s a rainy, kinda cold afternoon and we made it 4.5 miles from the last shelter into ‘town’—aka: a highway, two gas stations, a restaurant and a motel. Surprisingly the gas stations have a good resupply; I think they are used to hikers! We aren’t the only ones staying in ‘town’ for the day, several others are ‘neroing’ it as well. Since leaving Damascus we thought we were going to battling nasty thunderstorms and they ended up holding off until late Saturday night and then some…
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Laurel Creek Falls
This was an awesome walk right out of Kincora. I wished the whole day was like this. Pulling up a campsite and having Chris fish while I read would have been perfect.