modify_evolution
Vista
MF (short for manly friend. Or motherfucker...) and I spent the night in the bunkhouse, and then took off in the morning. On Monday the 10th we hiked the 10 miles into Pearisburg and got a hotel room. It's like hiking in a fucking greenhouse, and I'm really not exaggerating at all. It was 80-100% humidity, and 70-85 degrees the whole time. It was awful. haha. At first I felt bad because I had to stop to drink/catch my breath a lot, and felt like I was slowing MF down too much, until he told me I was doing better than he'd done during his first week. My first day I did 10 miles. It was mostly ridge-walking, but a pretty steep descent into town. My legs were completely literally shaking; you could see the muscles twitching. When we reached town my body definitely shut down and gave me the hard "no," and we hitched to the hotel. But MF's first day he did 7 miles, and he blacked out and threw up several times during the first two weeks. I didn't black out or throw up once. So, yay me.
There's definitely one of those weird festival/carnival type atmospheres when you're interacting with through-hikers. Some of them, like most of the ones that MF has ended up hiking in a loose pack with, are a little older (mid 20s to mid 30s) and are in a situation where they can go on leave from their jobs, or are being supported by their spouses to do the hike between jobs. One guy I'm thinking of is in his 30s, and works part time for an outfitter that considers this job experience, and gave him a 6 month leave of absence to do the hike. They'll drink sometimes in towns, but overall they're there for the hike itself. Then there's a group of generally younger hikers who are on summer break from school, or who just graduated, and are there for the partying that happens in between walking. In the 5 days that I was there, one guy overdosed on fentanyl patches and died in a hotel room in Pearisburg, and another girl ended a 6 day acid trip during which she hadn't slept at all with a major freak out in the same hotel, and was sent home. They're generally not through-hikers, although some are. It's a really weird mixture of people.
Tuesday the 11th I requested a day to regroup. The next stretch of hike was straight uphill, it was hot, my legs were still weird, and while I recognize that backpacking is hard, I didn't want to put myself through a forced death march, or something. So we stayed at the hotel for Tuesday, and slept all goddamn day. I was exhausted from the trip out, and MF's body went into immediate recovery mode from the month and a half of abuse he'd given it and knocked him out. We got up to get food at one point. And that was it.
Vista
MF (short for manly friend. Or motherfucker...) and I spent the night in the bunkhouse, and then took off in the morning. On Monday the 10th we hiked the 10 miles into Pearisburg and got a hotel room. It's like hiking in a fucking greenhouse, and I'm really not exaggerating at all. It was 80-100% humidity, and 70-85 degrees the whole time. It was awful. haha. At first I felt bad because I had to stop to drink/catch my breath a lot, and felt like I was slowing MF down too much, until he told me I was doing better than he'd done during his first week. My first day I did 10 miles. It was mostly ridge-walking, but a pretty steep descent into town. My legs were completely literally shaking; you could see the muscles twitching. When we reached town my body definitely shut down and gave me the hard "no," and we hitched to the hotel. But MF's first day he did 7 miles, and he blacked out and threw up several times during the first two weeks. I didn't black out or throw up once. So, yay me.
There's definitely one of those weird festival/carnival type atmospheres when you're interacting with through-hikers. Some of them, like most of the ones that MF has ended up hiking in a loose pack with, are a little older (mid 20s to mid 30s) and are in a situation where they can go on leave from their jobs, or are being supported by their spouses to do the hike between jobs. One guy I'm thinking of is in his 30s, and works part time for an outfitter that considers this job experience, and gave him a 6 month leave of absence to do the hike. They'll drink sometimes in towns, but overall they're there for the hike itself. Then there's a group of generally younger hikers who are on summer break from school, or who just graduated, and are there for the partying that happens in between walking. In the 5 days that I was there, one guy overdosed on fentanyl patches and died in a hotel room in Pearisburg, and another girl ended a 6 day acid trip during which she hadn't slept at all with a major freak out in the same hotel, and was sent home. They're generally not through-hikers, although some are. It's a really weird mixture of people.
Tuesday the 11th I requested a day to regroup. The next stretch of hike was straight uphill, it was hot, my legs were still weird, and while I recognize that backpacking is hard, I didn't want to put myself through a forced death march, or something. So we stayed at the hotel for Tuesday, and slept all goddamn day. I was exhausted from the trip out, and MF's body went into immediate recovery mode from the month and a half of abuse he'd given it and knocked him out. We got up to get food at one point. And that was it.