Woodshole Hostel to Pearisburg

Woods Hole Hostel to Pearisburg

Day Seven – Sunday, March 30, 2014
10.4 miles
9:40 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The Barn Bunkhouse at Woodshole Hostel

We quickly got dressed and packed up and made our way up to the big house. All the folks were up and preparing for breakfast.  There was much talk about the weather.  The young lady employee of the hostel who was in the tent had been driven inside the house during the night because of the vicious wind blowing her tent around.  The trio of hikers, who had planned to leave out today to go to Pearisburg to hike back to the hostel, had called their shuttle driver to cancel their trip. We, however, decided to go ahead with our plans of hiking north. 

The front of the Barn Bunkhouse at Woodshole Hostel

After a scrumptious breakfast and many cups of hot coffee, we settled our bill ($15 each of our bed, $13 each for dinner, $8 each for breakfast) and prepared to launch out. Out on the porch I set my backpack on a table in order to lace up my boots.  When I turned back around, my pack cover was gone.  The wind had blown it off my pack. We searched for it all over the surrounding yard, but it was nowhere to be seen.  Gone from sight that quickly in the vicious wind.  Could we really hike in this? 

The main cabin at Woodshole Hostel

It snowed on us all the way to Pearisburg.  Most of the day’s trail wound along the ridgeline of the mountain.  We were right on the top with the wind and snow blowing across the mountain into our faces.  Noses running, eyes watering, fingers and toes freezing.  My purple bandana hanging on my backpack strap was frozen solid; it was no good to wipe my runny nose on.  My thumb was cracked and bleeding.  Were we crazy to be out here like this?  Probably.   But as long as we kept moving we were okay.  Thankfully hiking in the snow burned enough calories to keep our body warm. 

We finally reached the peak of Angels Rest on Pearis Mountain and began the long descent down into Pearisburg.  The lower we went, instead of snow on the ground we began to see ice on the ground and icicles hanging from the sides of the mountain.  It became quite slippery.  When we finally reached the bottom of the mountain, the ground was no longer icy but slushy.  We had walked out of the worst conditions.  We began to see other hikers coming from the Pearisburg side, out for a leisurely day hike up to Angel’s Rest. 

First view of Pearisburg from Angels Rest

We had been told by other hikers that the trail came right down into Pearisburg at the Burger King.  We reached Va. 634 and saw no Burger King.  The trail crossed the road and kept going downward on the other side.   Maybe we needed to keep going to get into town.  We crossed the road and kept going. In another half mile we came to another smaller residential street.  Still no Burger King, but we at least saw some houses. A quick look at our Companion told us this must be Lane Street and we had to go east one mile to get to the Post Office.  We turned right and hoped it would take us to town and to food.

 We had heard about the All-You-Can-Eat Chinese Restaurant and that was what we were looking for. The Lucky Star was not hard to find, located on the main drag.  We went inside and were greeted warmly and treated like long lost friends.  Apparently, they are accustomed to hikers.

Icicles hanging on Angels Rest

We called Bubba while we were eating and told him we had made it.  He arrived in the parking lot soon to pick us up.  When our phone finally got full reception, we had a text message come through from Bubba for last night warning us of the bad weather coming our way.  Like I said, Bubba is a very nice, helpful, caring person.

After collecting our vehicle at the Big Walker Motel, we drove into Blytheville to the Best Western for a comfortable night and a day off tomorrow.  We deserve it after the bitter couple of days we have had on the trail.