![]() Luckily, we ended up getting a ride from a friendly shuttle driver to the brewery where our friends were waiting for us, beers in hand.Īfter the last few climbs, the hiker hunger was taking over and we were able to fill up on food and beer. Pepper and I both thought, “Do we look like the type of people who know where the country club is?” I gave my most convincing guess that it was in the direction of the brewery, which was enough to get them to roll their window up and speed off towards it… without us. They rolled down the window and asked us if we knew where XYZ Country Club was. They went by five times before the old man drove through a big mud puddle in the median to get to us, clearly as a last ditch effort to get back en route. We had stood there on the corner with our thumbs out, watching the ominous rain clouds grow nearer and a very expensive Lexus sedan with an older couple get lost. Pepper and I were the last of our friends to reach the parking lot which was the designated hopping off point to get to the brewery, either by shuttle or by hitchhike. A group of us decided to do a few long days’ hikes to make it to the Devil’s Backbone Brewery, which is only a few miles off trail. Regardless, after climbing to the top of the Priest and the infamous Three Ridges after it, a beer (or five) is well earned. I’m not sure if there’s any relation between the naming of the brewery and its geographical location next to a mountain called The Priest. “Holy shit… we’re only one third of the way on this long ass trail.” “Yay!! We made it one third of the way to Katahdin!” “Holy shit! We hiked one third, or 731 miles, of the Appalachian Trail!!” Here’s how they all verbalized between Pepper and I over the next 15 minutes after passing the sign: What an accomplishment, relief, and mind-blowing milestone. Probably unsurprising to those who know us personally, our hotel room was full of hikers, beer, food and laughter. Being the social butterflies we and many of our fellow hikers are, Daleville turned into the first day of college – seeing friends and meeting new ones, usually with a couple of ‘soda pops’ and some variety of fast food or stack of pizzas. We try to spearhead all of our chores as soon as possible so we can get off our feet for one full day. Our usual routine for zero days is to get to the hotel (usually roadside motel) the night before, lay our stuff out on the bed, shower and clean up while waiting for our laundry to finish, and then take care of our resupply. We reserved two nights at the Super 8, and due to the close proximity to the trail, many of our fellow hikers had the same idea. Shortly after completing the Virginia triple crown, we were excited for a much deserved zero day in Daleville, VA. The time off did my good I think.Since Virginia has over 500 miles of AT running through it, here are some bits from the second half of the journey. I ended up taking two weeks off from the bike, and now that I am starting to peddle around again I do feel stronger and fresher than even before the race. The key to a more successful race next year will be a better hydration strategy and a year's worth of pushing my pain cave threshold. Disappointed? Yes, I would have liked to have finished it but I think I found my limits of suffering in terms of what I was willing to put myself through voluntarily. Like a Hollywood movie desert wanderer my mumbles of "must go on" eventually stopped motivating me and I took the easy way out (a rented school bus and the promise of a cold beer.)Ĭould I have gone on and completed the race? Maybe - but judging by the finish times of those around me, it would have taken more than 9 hours. Eventually it was the exposure that got me with about 1/3rd of the race to go. the cramps meant walking, the walking meant slower going, and the slower going meant more time in the direct sun. ![]() ![]() I simply wasn't able to keep the cramps at bay no matter how much water I forced down. ![]() What made the HBR different was the heat and humidity. Only a few short weeks ago I mad a run at the Devil's Backbone Mountain Cross - a race of similar length and amount of climbing, and although my finish time was a bit on the long side I had no issues completing the race. Ultimately I set my sites on completing the Hilly Billy Roubaix as my 30th birthday challenge, and ultimately I failed. Sort of a goal to get in shape and feel less aged, sort of a big dumb memorable event to mark the occasion, sort of a thing I might otherwise do anyway but where the timing coincided sufficiently to feel symbolic. With the milestone birthday approaching I decided I wanted to attempt some physical feat in the closing days of my 20's. ![]()
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