STEAMY IN DALEVILLE

Hello all - if you've been watching the weather lately, you may have noticed the record heat wave hitting this area of Virginia. Its 100 degree high today, perfect for my first full zero day since Damascus. Yesterday was 97 degrees (94 on my pack thermometer up on the ridge) and ridiculously humid. I got up at 6am to start out and avoid the heat as I climbed McAfee Knob, advertised as the best view in Virginia. A bit steamy, but definitely nice. Funny how bad weather days make for great miles - my previous record was during an all-day rain, and I'm proud to say I bested it in the heat of yesterday, doing 20.8 miles over very uneven terrain to make it to town. I've never been so sweaty and gross in all my life. The days of heat have led my clothes and pack to smell - somewhere between gym socks and dead animal. I had to shower with a garden hose before a group of us hit up the Homeplace Restaurant in Catawba, VA on Thursday night, which might be the best all-you-can-eat on the trail. I had the skeletal remains of at least 1.6 fried chickens on my plate at the end. Nothing like the site of a dozen hikers laying on the grass lawn of the restaurant holding their disgustingly full bellies while local families are taking pictures with their recent grads. Its been a trying week with the weather, and realizing the haze, heat, and humidity of mid-Atlantic summer has just begun and probably won't abate until sometime after the Hudson River. There was a giant thunderstorm late afternoon on Tuesday, the same storm that brought a tornado to Roanoake, only 16 miles away. I was luckily setting my tent up at camp when it hit, but a friend named Dirty Jerse was on the exposed ridgewalk a few miles before and looked a little shaken when he got into camp. Some folks have decided they've done enough - 3 or 4 solid hikers dropped out this past week, and the rest of us are trying not to grumble too loudly. The scenery has been enjoyable, but the trail itself has turned very rocky in sections, and there's been many climbs up and over ridges as we make our way from the West Virginia line northeast to the Blue Ridge. Most of the climbs are on old sections of trails, which tend to go straight up the steep slopes instead of switchbacking gently across the slopes. Added to the weather and tough climbs are the bugs that are out in full force now. Mostly flies and gnats and those little sweat-bees that hover around and collecting on my sweaty arms. The flies can be a real pain, and are way too much to handle around the privies. I've taken to going in the woods mostly, where you have about 30 seconds before the flies find out what you're doing and tell their friends. We also spent two days walking through forest that was absolutely overrun with gypsy moth caterpillars. They drop out of the sky like in some Mission Impossible scene, on little spider webs that you walk through constantly, landing on your pack and hitching rides. You can hear the rain of leaf pieces and caterpillar poops as you walk through, and forget about enjoying lunch when you are down in valleys where they are thickest. But not all is bad. McAffee Knob and the other views are quite nice and its cool looking at the long ridges now that we're in the Ridge-and-Valley province that extends up into PA. There's been several nice creeks to swim in, and I spent the night dry camping twice on top of prominent knobs that had excellent sunset and sunrise views. Even did a little rock climbing up a steep rock pinnacle called Dragons Tooth at night to catch the stars (new moons are great star times!). I think the toughest thing about this section is its length, coupled with the lack of landmarks to measure progress by. That, and its been 9 weeks, and I'm missing home - particularly Elizabeth. Hopefully, she and I will be getting together soon, either in an upcoming town stop or for a short hike in the Shenendoahs. I think it will do wonders for morale and everyone here is dying to meet her. But in the meantime, I can do nothing but laugh as I walked out of the hotel room this morning into a wall of heat and humidity and cheered because today I'm zeroing and hanging by the pool here at the Howard Johnsons Motel and not hiking at all!