START TIME: 5:05 AM 
END TIME: 9:35 PM
Jen had another great day, partly because she put in nearly 50 miles, but mostly because she got to see our little niece, Hazel, for the first time in about 6 weeks. That’s because Jen’s brother, James, and his wife, Lindsay, drove up with Hazel and met us at VA 42 around 1 o’clock.
But Jen got about 8 hours of hiking in before they arrived so I should probably start there. She woke up at 4:45 like she always does. One thing I haven’t mentioned is that she’s waking up at the same time, but she’s hiking before sunrise since we’re further south and the summer equinox was about a month ago. When she began in Maine, the sky was just starting to lighten when she got on the trail, but now she hikes with a headlamp for a solid hour before dawn.
She made it to Garden Mountain by 7:55 or so. That’s on the south ridge of Burke’s Garden, which is this enigmatic little valley in southwest Virginia. The locals call it “God’s Thumbprint” and if you’ve never seen it, it’s worth a visit on a clear day. But this was not a clear day. There was thick fog and cloud-cover for most of the morning.
For breakfast, Jen had a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit and a coffee from the Citgo in Bland (haute cuisine at its finest). While she was eating, I took a picture of her new shoes: lime green Synapses from Salomon. Then she took five or six dietary supplement pills that she’s been taking since Katahdin.
I know what you’re thinking. No, they’re not performance enhancing drugs. We don’t dope, either. She’s just a freak of nature. Plain and simple.
But recently, Jen’s been gagging on the pills because they’re kind of big. I, of course, have tried to say logical things like, “Maybe you should take two at a time instead of an entire handful.” But the same determination that allows her to hike 45-50 miles a day also compels her to shove ridiculous amounts of pills in her mouth all at once.
Anyway, she ended up puking. I gave her a Wet Wipe and after she’d cleaned off her face and legs, she said in a cheerful, sing-songy voice, “It looked like a beautiful waterfall.” Then, ever the pragmatist, she said, “Well, I guess it’s good you took a picture of the shoes before I threw up on them.”
Then about 30 seconds after she’d cleaned up and taken a swig of water, she was back on the trail. What a woman.
She made it to Walker Gap on the southwest corner of Burke’s Garden by 9:55 and she reached VA 42 west of Ceres around 1:40. She flew through that 12.4-mile section in about three hours and forty minutes. That’s because she knew our niece was going to be at the road crossing. When Jen saw us all standing there, she came running down the trail with her hands out yelling, “Hazel! Hazel!” She was on kind of a steep descent so I had to tell her to slow down.
For the next fifteen minutes, she alternated between holding Hazel, drinking chocolate milk, and eating a roast beef wrap. Then she and James headed out for a 2.4-mile stretch to VA 610 then a 9.4 mile-stretch to US 11.
Lindsay, Hazel, and I ran a few errands and went to our respective hotels before heading back to the trail around 5 o’clock. Warren and Teri Doyle drove up from Mountain City, Tennessee, to surprise Jen, so we sat around and visited with them until Jen and James arrived at 5:35 or so. Jen did a 2.7-mile stretch to the Settlers Museum in Atkins by herself and then James hiked the final 8.8 miles with her.
I went back into town with Lindsay to make some calls and send some e-mails, then I went to Taco Bell for our dinner. There were a lot of restaurant choices in Marion, but we ate Taco Bell the last time we were here so I thought Jen might appreciate the nostalgia of it. Besides Marion, I think we’ve only eaten at a Taco Bell one other time. She wolfed down three soft tacos and chugged some chocolate milk on the way back to the hotel, then she took a shower and hit the sack around 10:45.
You may notice that we’re staying in more hotels the further south we get. The obvious reason for that is Jen digs the showers. It’s clear after today, though, that she benefits from “Hazel power” as much as “shower power.”