INTO DALEVILLE

AT Day 046: Tuesday May 23,  2023

Mile 721 + 9.5 miles /15.3 km

Total Distance Hiked: 730.5 miles / 1175 km

Camp – Hay Rock – Monolith – Hay Rock –  Tinker Creek – Route 220 – Super 8 by Wyndham, Daleville

A:1200 ft /366 m  D: 2000 ft /610 m

Here is a post from Hammer on our nero (near zero miles hiked) to Daleville. We are a third of the way to Maine. 

We awoke to the noise of the animal that sounds like a car alarm. Same as through most of the previous night. I think it’s  a bird but Corky thinks it’s could be a frog. The nice thing was it did give us an overnight break. The noise stopped around 9.30 pm and did not starting again till 5 am. And for this we were grateful.

We had 9.5 miles to go into the town of Daleville, Virginia for a much need shower, laundry, rest and food resupply. The intention was to be on trail around 7am, but with the car alarm animal doing its thing, we were good to go by 6.30am.

What a beautiful morning it was, the air temperature was superb and the sky beginning to lighten. About a mile up the trail a hiker had stopped and was peering into the bushes just off trail. He put his hand up to us to pause our movement. He thought there was a bear. We could not see it and left him to wait and see if the bear reappeared. We were going to town and had little time for bears.

The trail at times gave great views of the valley below to the north and enormously large rocks places haphazardly. Some of the large rocks seemed to have an unusual colouring, what we thought was a brown growth, it took a little while to work out it was brown paint to cover up graffiti. In one spot there was graffiti on top of the brown paint. That is why you cannot give some people nice rocks!

As we got closer to town there were great views over a water reservoir to the south. The noise of the road became louder and we knew we were getting close. We popped out on a rather busy 4 lane highway and had to scamper across the road. Not a well developed skill after 7 weeks on trail.

We are staying in the  Super 8 motel, just down the road.  The lady on the front desk had us all sorted and in our room by 11am. So nice to be able to check in early The laundry was completed by noon and we had a long shower to make us feel civilized again. 

It was then to the outdoor store to see if we could replace the tips on our trekking poles and replace or tighten the loose elastic in the tent poles. The owner of the store was extremely helpful but the outcome was that the tent poles are best fixed by Big Agnes and the trekking poles maybe one of 6 or more different diameter things. So we will try again further up the trail.

Our resupply was more successful and we bought what felt like a huge amount of food to get us through the next section. A bit of repackaging of the food and it was time for dinner at the nearby Mexican restaurant which served up so much food we each came away with a doggie bag of left overs. Despite the large amount of food we eat when in town I’ve already  lost 11kg or 22 pounds  and Corky has lost 5kg or 11 pounds. Hiker hunger has certainly set in but you can only eat so much in one sitting.

It has been a reasonably tough four and a half days of hiking and the short break in town has been most welcomed. Although with so many town chores, sometimes it doesn’t feel like a break at all. There is rarely time to just be still with nothing to do.