Highway 850 to Boiling Springs - Southbound

Day 9

Wednesday, April 6
Highway 850 to Boiling Springs, Southbound
16.6 miles

We got on the trail at 8:40, slackpacking. Shuttled by Mike Gelinas. Mike told us the news that yesterday afternoon a suicide victim had been found along the trail somewhere on Peters Mountain – just where we were headed. 

Very pleasant easy hike --flat and even trails through farmland and wooded area. 

 At the Conodoguinet Creek Bridge, the trail goes under the bridge through a tunnel.  When we came out on the other side we saw a confusing U turn sign on a tree.  The trail turned to go across the bridge, then over a boardwalk along the creek. 

 

We met Soul Keeper headed north as we were going south along the boardwalk. 

 

At 3:30 p.m. we entered Boiling Springs.  Then we drove to the Comfort Inn in Harrisburg for the night. 

 

Pearisburg to Groundhog Trail

Pearisburg to Groundhog Trail

Day Nine – Tuesday, April 1, 2014

12.9 miles

9:00 a.m. to 6:10 p.m.

At 7:30 we were waiting on Don Raines to pick us up for a shuttle down to Pearisburg to hike north to our vehicle left at 4 Pines.  He showed up at 8:00, apologizing for being late and later gave us a $10 discount on the ride because of it. 

The temperature this morning was a mild and beautiful 66 degrees.  What a change!  We reached Lane Street in Pearisburg at 9:00 and began hiking north. 

Overlooking West Virginia from Rice Field Shelter

It was an uneventful day, very nice compared to the recent days of hiking in the cold and snow.  We took a break at Rice Field Shelter, another one where the privy had no wall.  Strange!  I don’t mind doing that so much when no one else is around, but what if there were other people at the shelter with you?  I wouldn’t like that at all.

The view in front of the shelter and along the path for awhile was awesome—looking  down into West Virginia.  We were on top of Peters Mountain on the Virginia-West Virginia state line.  It was, at times, hard to follow the trail—it did not look well traveled like the trail usually does so we had to search for the white blazes as we walked through the woods. 

We stopped for a break and water supply at Sims Gap Meadow before continuing on to stealth camp at Groundhog Trail. We enjoyed the day.