Day 4 : Sunday, June 8

(Dwight) This is a day of good and bad. The hiking was difficult because there is no identiable foot path. Trudging thru dense leaves, over branches and down trees, while trying to scan the forest ahead for trail blazes is exausting.
We hiked about 16 miles today.

Some of the hiking was pleasant, thru mowed fire breaks. We hiked the ridge of Upper Meadow Mt. for many miles. When the thick canopy allowed, the view of the thick green adjacent rugged ridges was stunning.

At 5pm we crossed Anthony Creek, hot and stinky, I mean truely skanky, we stripped naked and swam. I'm comfortable with the fact that very few people hike this trail. Probably none, during the summer. (not worried about exposing myself to an unsuspecting hiker.) I think this trail is heavily used by hunters in the fall, as evidenced by the abundant, used shot gun shells under foot.

Back to the bright spots of the day: We saw our first black bear, a healthy looking young adult, foraging in the heat of the day, in a firebreak road, 50 yds in front of us.

We flushed 2 wild turkeys as we crossed a grassy meadow into Monongahalia National Forest and found a wonderful campsite on a mt. crest north of Bear Branch creek. It was open to wind, to keep the flying insects manageable, and lots of pine duff and moss, for soft bedding.

Day 3 : Saturday, June 7

(Dwight) The little fire we built last night was fun. The smoke helped to keep the bugs away. Also it is a 'natural' deoderizer. Our clothing smells like sweat, not rank, body oder.

We hiked the ridge of Peters Mt. all morning. The oaks created a thick canopy but didn't provide opportunities for a view. About 9:30 am, we reached the Raptor obseratory on Peters Mt--a windowed cabin purched high above the tree tops. It had glass windows for viewing in all directions. It was very well built, with benches and a wrap around porch. Charts of sightings were pasted on the walk. We took a long break and absorbed the panorama. Only saw one turkey vulture, not migration season.

We meet 4 folks walking to the observatory as we continued on. They were birders coming from the parking lot at the base of the Mt. They had the smell of clean clothes and soap. They are the only people we have encountered on this trail since we left tha AT.

It was hot hiking til Laural Branch, the start of a 25 mile missing section of the trail. Did I say we were hot and tired? So, we stuck out our thumbs to try and negotiate the 25 miles of blacktop road in our future. Got a ride from the first car, a nice local woman named Valerie. Left us at a gas station/restrant at Paint Branch about 7 miles down the road. A nice little place in the beautiful rolling farming valley, in the shadow of Peters Mt. We drank pop, ate ice cream and watched a parade of locals,tourists and motorcyclist stop for gas and a cool drink.

Our next hitch took us to Sweet Spring, a community of a few houses and a local landmark. A huge brick building (plus several smaller buildings) in the Jefferson style, designed by Tommy J. himself. It was a place for the well to do to go in the early 1800's and rejuvinate in the hot springs there. It had later been used as an old folks home. It was abanboned by the state in the 1980's. It looked like the campus of grand resort, in serious dislrepair. We had heard the they rented rooms from bikers in Paint branch, so we wandered are the crumbing campus looking for anybody (on a Friday night).

We found Warren, the developer for the resoration peoject, washing his car. We asked for a room. His associate Amanda, lead us to a restored farm house on the property. We found a shower, and a clean bed in a neat old place, where we did some exploring latter in the evening.

Day 2 : Friday, June 6,2008

(Dwight) I've got too much food, my pack weights too much. We can't find enough water. It's not supposed to be this hot at 3,000 ft in June. If I could figure out an easy way to abort this trip, I'd bail out. Oh yeah, our email device is failing, so the blog messages are going to be shorter than usual.

Day 1 : Thursday, June 5, 2008

(Dwight) If the entry to the Allegheny Trail was a peak of the trail to come, then.... Great sign to ID the start of the trail. Lots of noticable blazes, no dicerable trail. That is, very little evidence anybody else has walked thru these woods. Cool, but difficult and slow. You are focused on finding the next blaze, praying it has not faded in oblivion! slow walking. Getting lost is only a question of when, not if.

Day 1: Thursday, June 5

(Susan) OOOHHH NOOO! Our Pocketmail device is already malfunctioning so we hope we can do this journaling. Keep your fingers crossed.
This morning we finally figured our what was "raining" down from the trees above us: tent worm excrement.
yep, they were up there munching then pooping away. Luckily we had put out tarp up just before going to bed due to the sound of distant thunder. It never rained proper, but those tent worms kept at it nearly all night long.

We hit the trail just before 7, and arrived at the junction with the groundhog trail just after 8.
Since the ALT guide pages have the trail ending at the parking area at the terminous of this trail, we headed 1.9 mile down hill to its terminous at Sugar Camp Farm.
Although well marked, the trail had little indication of use. When the trail arrived at the outskirts of the farm, we walked through chest high grasses and D had an unfortunate encounter with stinging nettles. At the small trailhead parking area, a new sign indicated the Allegheny Trail was 5.9 miles away--leading us to conclude that this trail is not officially part of the ALT--but just the closest access point. So that was some unnecessary mileage!

We headed

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Day 0: June 4,2008

(Dwight) We started hiking out of Pearisburg Va. around 3:20pm. The woman in charge, wasnt interested in what we were doing until it sank-in, we were going to leave the car for 7 weeks.

The hike up Peter mt from the New River was a familiar slap in the face from our friend, tha AT. Up, up, up, rocks and roots. It was humid, till around 5:30pm. We were both beat and needed a break. We ate dinner. The first few days of hike are always awkware. You fumble wih all those tasks you did second nature on past hikes, you can never find anything in your pack. You trip down the trail. Near the ridge line we encounter our first mountain laural. Unfortunately it looks like they are past peek. The May apples have finished blooming and it looks like we have missed the spring bloom in Virginia.

We crossed paths with 6 AT thru hikers. They think they are at the back of the pack.

We walked about 8 miles today and are approx 7 miles from the Allegheny trail. As we walked the AT Susan and I reminissed and talked about how much of this trail we have forgotten. I think this is and indication that we will enjoy walking the ALT in both direction, getting a chance to see things we missed on the first pass.

Another Tondreau Headed to WVU

(Susan) Well, it's official: my niece Ellie, oldest child of my brother Chip and sister-in-law Linda Cordavana has officially graduated from Paul VI Catholic HS in northern VA -- and will be headed off to WVU in the fall. My brother, a long-time closeted WVU fan (suppressed due to his being a VA Tech grad) now has a legitimate reason to order WVU paraphernalia and sing the WV fight song ad nausium - which he did several times yesterday at my niece's graduation party. Of course my sister Lisa and I helped round out the chorus. So, congrats Ellie, and GO MOUNTAINEERS! In addition to attending Ellie's graduation, my sister Lisa and I took a spin on the C&O Rail Trail where I had a grim reminder of why it's a bad idea for me to ride a boy's bicycle. We also got to catch my niece Alexis' ice hockey game -- and will stick around tomorrow for to watch her softball playoffs. Then it's off to Pearisburg, VA where we'll get this party started. Thanks to all the folks who sent us emails of encouragement in response to my email about getting on trail again. Comments ranged from "wouldn't it be easier to drive" (good tip, Fred) to "Sometimes when I dream at night, I dream that I'm you and living the good life." Yeh, we think it's the good life too-although rain is forcasted for our first 2 days on the trail so maybe we'll be re-evaluating that soon.