Four Pines Hostel to Waynesboro, VA 6/7/18 – 6/20/18

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Marlisa

We hiked into Waynesboro on Wednesday evening after a downpour of rain that drenched us right before we got to the road to hitch. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get a hitch with being so wet. There was a group of 5 of us trying to hitch and amazingly in a few minutes a guy in a pickup picked us up. It was perfect because we could just hop in the back of the pickup instead of crawling into someone’s vehicle being so wet and stinky. We went right to the YMCA for our showers and then went to set up our tent and get food. The town of Waynesboro had a nice grassy spot designated for hikers to set up and camp at. Kroger’s and a few good restaurants were within walking distance. The next morning we planned to head out close to lunch but there was rain in the forecast for all afternoon and we ended up taking an unplanned zero there. My phone got wet in the rainstorm from the evening before and seems to be ruined so we went to Verizon to get a replacement figured out. It ended up being a pretty busy day with getting that figured out and doing a resupply for the next few days. It was a fun town with a lot of nice friendly people. We even had someone offer for us to come into their house and shower and hang out. We were heading out though so we declined but I have been so overwhelmed with many stranger’s kindness and extravagant generosity.

The past few weeks on a few of the really hot days we saw quite a few poisonous snakes, mostly copperheads and rattlesnakes.

One of the rattlesnakes we saw that took awhile to get past…they just don’t wanna move off the trail.

We have had a few really hot summer days that feel pretty intense to hike in even in the shade of the woods, but we have still been getting a lot of rain too.

The Virginia Blues is something that a lot of hikers get in Virginia with it being such a long State to get through and also at that point of hiking it’s starting to be more hard mentally than physically. It hasn’t been too bad for us but we do miss certain things about home that make it hard some days out here. It never gets easier out here…our feet still always hurt and we increase our mileage as our bodies build up to bigger days.

The community is the best part of being out here and being with other hikers…here’s one of some of the hiker conversations we have….

Hiker #1: “Would you rather never shower or add a rock to your pack each day while your out hiking? Which would u pick if you had to pick one?”

Hiker #2: “ummm…how heavy would the rocks be?”

Hiker #1: “Let’s say each rock would be one ounce. ”

Hiker #2: (calculates approximate weight from now to the end) “That would be about 90 ounces…sooo about 5-1/2lbs. That’s not too bad. I think I’d pick the rocks. I couldn’t stand not showering the whole time.

A few other pics from the last few weeks….

Raspberries are in season around here…