Day 57: Norovirus and Dinosaurs

May 3: When I went down for breakfast, the place was once again packed with thru-hikers. The hotel must have had 50 thru-hikers staying there and I kind of wondered where they all came from because I hadn't realized there were so many of them so close to me on the trail!

But one hiker I met told me a story of woe--he'd gotten sick. Diarrhea and vomiting kind of sick. I'd heard of norovirus outbreaks hitting the trail in recent years and his symptoms matched that 100%. Proudfoot, the poor guy, was among the first hikers to suffer this fate this season. He was feeling better today, but the day before was a pretty awful one for him.

I backed slowly away. He might have been on the upswing, but I didn't know how contagious he was and had no reason to take any chances.

After breakfast, I planned to do laundry. First, I needed some detergent. I walked over to the gas station convenience store next door, but they were out. Then I walked to the gas station convenience store on the other side of the hotel, but they too were out. The fellow manning the front desk said that they had some the day before but that there was a run on it. A run on laundry detergent?

I finally crossed the busy Highway 220 to yet another gas station convenience store which did have laundry detergent, but only in a giant bottle that was about 100 times more than I actually needed. I took a pass and thought about my next step. Where else could I get laundry detergent?

Hitting up all of the nearby convenience stores wasn't a total waste of my time. I did pick up a small bottle of hand sanitizer that could be hung from the exterior of my pack. If people were getting norovirus on the trail, I wanted to start using it a lot more!

Back at the hotel, I riffled through the hiker boxes near the front desk but came up empty. Then I walked over to the laundry facilities just to make sure I knew where they were and... look at that! Previous hikers had left behind extra laundry detergent free for the taking right there with the laundry! Why didn't I think to check that first?

I rushed back to my room to pick up all of my dirty clothes and back to the laundry machines. When I arrived, I met Elliot who was in the process of moving his clothes from the washer to the dryer. He told me another horrifying story of getting violently sick the day before and although he was feeling better today, was taking an unplanned zero day to make sure it was out of his system. He also said there were a couple of other hikers at a shelter who were throwing up and likely infected with the norovirus. Good grief, all of this happened since yesterday?!

The alley to the laundry facilities was rather narrow and we needed to pass each other, but I did so without accidentally bumping into Elliot. He was kind enough to give me all of the room he could not wanting to infect me with anything. I threw my clothes in the washer, followed by detergent and when I got back to my room, immediately used the hand sanitizer. I didn't know what all Elliot had touched in the laundry room, but I couldn't be too careful!

I returned later to move my clothes from the washer to dryer, then from the dryer to the room, each time using the hand sanitizer between visits to the laundry room.

After laundry was done, I dressed up nicely. I had a date! Well, okay, not a real date, but a couple of days earlier I'd gotten a message from Dinosaur who I had first met while thru-hiking the PCT. She lived in the nearby town of Roanoke and when she found out I was thru-hiking the AT and nearby, she said she wanted to meet up and take me out for lunch. Which I had no problem with! There was a restaurant in a nearby town that she wanted to try but had expressed concern that maybe it was "too nice" for a thru-hiker. She didn't know I had a secret weapon, however: a tie.

So I put on my collared shirt (now freshly laundered!), tucked it into my pants and put on my tie and waited for her to arrive. She arrived and I was surprised to see her looking more like a thru-hiker than I did! Definitely very informal! She seemed just as surprised at my own formality. =)

Then she told me that the restaurant she had been considering was closed on Sunday (it was Sunday) and we couldn't go even if we wanted to. Thus, presumably, the reason for her much more utilitarian outfit. (And maybe she didn't want to outshine me too much!)

But no worries, I told her. I took off the tie and pulled out my shirt that had been neatly tucked into my pants. "I'm ready for anything," I told her. =)

We decided to go across the street to Rancho Viejo, a Mexican restaurant that I'd been eying since the day I arrived. It had a patio that looked so pleasant to sit out on and I wanted to sit out on the patio. We chatted for a couple of hours catching up (I hadn't seen her in five years, after all!). She told me about some of the inside workings of the ATC (where she worked), and I filled her in on some of the happenings on the trail. (She was very interested in the norovirus outbreak that was apparently in progress.)

Eventually she had to get back to her own life and left me at the hotel where I could continue my working ways.

Later in the afternoon, I walked over to Krogers to resupply my food for the upcoming several days. I was a little surprised to see that I had walked almost 10K steps without even trying. Running around that morning looking for detergent certainly added up to a few steps, and back and forth to the laundry room a few times helped as well. Walking to and from Krogers and all over the store added more steps. When I arrived back at the hotel, I was still a few hundred steps short of my daily goal, so I walked back to one of the convenience stores and picked up snacks to eat for dinner. By the time I returned to my room, I had my 10K steps.

So I stayed in my room for the rest of the night. Just working.... I had to crank out as many of these blog posts as I could before I hit the trail the next morning!

This was the only photo I took all day. That's Dinosaur on the left, just in case it wasn't obvious, and me on the right. =) Out on the patio of the Mexican restaurant--it was a great day for patio dining!

Day 56: Bumming around Daleville

May 2: Early in the morning, I headed to the continental breakfast and was stunned at the sheer number of hikers who were already eating. There must have been 20 hikers in that room, far outnumbering the non-hikers. Was everyone in this hotel a hiker?! And these were just the hikers who were currently eating breakfast. Some had undoubtedly already eaten and left, and others were probably still waking up and hadn't yet arrived. It was nice catching up with several of the people, though, such as Little Red and Chuckles. I recognized about half of the hikers, although when introduced to some of the unknown ones, I recognized many of their names either from the shelter registers or from talk I had heard about them.

I walked the better part of a mile just to pick up a postcard that Amanda had sent to the post office! But it was just as well... I picked up a priority mail flat rate envelope while I was there. =)

I ate breakfast, then headed back to my room to get some work done. So much work to do, so little time to do it. I was surprised when I saw Blueberry's bed was empty of gear. He had gone to breakfast, but apparently he didn't intend to come back to the room before he hit the trail again. I'd have made a point of saying goodbye to him when I left breakfast if I realized he hadn't planned on returning to the room, but I was sure I'd catch up with him again later.

Naturally, when I first arrived in Daleville, I called Amanda to let her know about my arrival and she told me that she mailed a postcard to me general delivery knowing that I forwarded my laptop to Daleville as my next big stop on the trail.

What I had failed to tell her was that I mailed my laptop directly to the hotel so I didn't have to make the nearly 1-mile walk to the post office, and that's where she sent the postcard. "You mean I have to walk a mile off trail just to pick up a postcard?!"

As it turns out, though, it wasn't really that big of deal. Amanda said it was just a postcard and no big deal if I didn't get, but I really did have to go to the post office anyhow to pick up a box to mail my laptop later to its next destination. It was nice not having to do that the day before when it was pouring rain. The postcard could wait a day, though.

And even though I intended to take a zero day, I still have this itch to walk at least 10,000 steps each day. It's a habit I formed when I started using a pedometer for Walking 4 Fun and I've walked a minimum of 10,000 steps every single day for nearly three years now. Well, except one time when I flew to Europe, lost a lot of hours in the day, and wound up about 500 steps short. ARGH! But still, I wanted to keep my streak going, so I needed some places to walk even on my off days. May as well hit the post office!

I pretty much walked a giant circle around Daleville, and I declare this the most interesting-looking building I found! =)

So I hit the post office, picked up the postcard and a couple of medium flat-rate boxes and walked back to my hotel room to deposit them. Then I walked the other direction down Hwy 220, crossing under I-81 near a somewhat terrifying intersection to walk with no sidewalks or shoulder, to Hardees for lunch. Daleville, let me tell you, was not designed for people traveling on foot!

After lunch, I studied my map and figured I'd take a more scenic route back to my hotel by walking up Highway 11 to where the AT intersected it, then hike south on the AT back to Highway 220 next to which my hotel was located. Although I considered today a zero day, I'd actually be hiking 1.5 miles of AT that I hadn't yet done. But I was walking in the wrong direction for my photos to be in the correct sequential order on Walking 4 Fun and I planned to walk out of my hotel and just start hiking north, so I'd be covering this section of trail anyhow. As such, I considered today a zero day, even though some people might have called it a "nero" (a near-zero).

Anyhow.... when I arrived where the AT intersected Highway 11, I met a young hiker with a huge pack being dropped off by a woman who I guessed was his mom, and it was. The hiker was named Spencer and I had assumed he was going out for a few days or a week or something, but as it turned out, he was planning to thru-hike the entire trail. He lived in nearby Roanoke and rather than start at Springer Mountain, he decided to start at Daleville hiking north then, after reaching Katahdin, flip down and finish the section south of Daleville. I happened to catch him as he was about to take his very first steps of his thru-hike.

His mom was bubbling with pride asking me all sorts of questions about the trail and advice I would have for her son. I didn't really have much to offer. Just take things one day at a time. I also mentioned that his pack looked rather heavy for a thru-hiker, but not to worry too much about that. He'll figure out how to lighten his load along the way and there were plenty of hikers around to give him suggestions if he wanted them.

His mom wanted a photo of us together, which seemed a little weird to me since I had just met the guy. It's not like we were good friends or had hiked together or anything, but I guess her son meeting his first thru-hiker was a moment she wanted to capture for posterity and I didn't mind. Snap away!

Eventually we parted ways. I told them I was taking a day off today and maybe tomorrow (I still hadn't decided yet), but I was generally hiking 20 mile days at this point and would likely catch up in a couple of days.

Then I started hiking south on the AT while Spencer started his hike northbound.

The rest of the hike back to my room was uneventful. I got my 10K steps for the day done, and I locked myself in my room to get more work done. For dinner, I had the leftover pizza in the mini-fridge. By late afternoon, I knew I'd take one more zero day in Daleville. I still had too much work that needed to get done.

A wonderful little mural!

But just in case you somehow missed the giant animals and mural, they kindly put up this sign to let you know. =)

Day 55: And into Daleville...

May 1: It rained heavily overnight and weather forecasts predicted it to continue throughout the day today but fortunately for everyone on the trail, the rain had largely stopped by morning. Some fat fog got everything damp and tree snot would fall from the trees whenever a gust of wind struck, but the rain had stopped. For now, at least!

I had a short 9.4-mile hike into the busy town of Daleville where I intended to take a zero day and maybe two of them depending on how much work I got gone. I checked into the Howard Johnson located conveniently mere steps from the trail. Just as I arrived, spits of rain started to hit me--I arrived not a moment too soon!

Knowing I had planned to stay at this hotel, I had my laptop shipped ahead directly to the hotel so I wouldn't have to suffer the nearly 1-mile walk to the post office with its limited hours. The laptop would already be waiting for me at my arrival-- at any time of day or night I happened to arrive on any day of the week. I was no longer at the mercy of the USPS office hours!!

The number of hikers I saw at the hotel were astounding. I saw several in the lobby when I arrived, and more roaming around outside. During the short walk to my room, I passed several other rooms that clearly hosted additional hikers as well--I could see their gear through the windows and their shoes resting just outside of the doors.

Just in the time it took me to check in, the rain started coming down in torrents. I would have normally pulled out my umbrella for such a heavy downpour, but it was a short jog through the rain to the building with my room and I was going to strip out of my clothes and take a shower anyhow. Between my trekking pole and the mail drops I carried awkwardly, the umbrella didn't seem so important.

First thing I did was use the toilet because hey! Running water! Then I striped off my nasty clothes, leaving them in a disgusting heap on the floor, turned on the shower and stepped in.

I didn't have clean clothes to put on afterwards, but I put on my camp clothes which were considerably better than the hiking clothes. Less dirt, less smell and I could perhaps pass myself off as somewhat presentable in public.

Then I got online and started catching up with emails and other messages which occupied me for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner, I looked out the window and saw that the rain had stopped--briefly, at least, and I dashed across the street to Pizza Hut. If it had been raining hard, I had been thinking about ordering food delivered. (I could imagine, "Yeah, do you deliver pizza across the street? You don't even need a car!" The restaurant was, quite literally, across the street from the hotel.)

By the time I finished dinner, however, the rain had started up again. Fortunately, I had planned on this contingency and brought my umbrella. The most difficult part of the return journey, however, was crossing Highway 220 during rush hour. I must have stood on the side of the road for five minutes before there was a break in traffic large enough that I felt safe to dash halfway across the street to the center divider, then a couple of more minutes before I could safely dash the rest of the way across the street.

The leftover pizza I put in the mini-fridge for later, and the rest of the night was spent on my laptop catching up on work.

Somewhere near sunset, someone knocked loudly on my door. Who could that be? I wasn't expecting anyone. Before opening the door, I looked through the peephole to see who had arrived. I was wearing my long underwear (it was cleaner than my other clothes which I hadn't gotten around to washing...yet) but not much else. And what did I see? A giant, wet Blueberry!

I opened the door. "Blueberry!" I thought he was still a day or so behind me, but he had done a huge mile day to make it into Daleville that evening. What a miserable day for walking. I asked if he had a place to crash yet, offering up the second bed in my room if he wanted it. He took it and we chatted for a bit, but he was starving for food and soon headed out again to resupply his food for the trail and get some McDonalds for dinner. I went back to work.

He knocked again a couple of hours later with a harrowing story of getting lost on his way to the McDonalds, or maybe it was coming back from there, and roads with no shoulders or sidewalks to walk on. It sounded pretty crazy to me. =)

I didn't get much work done after that. We chatted until we got tired and eventually went to sleep. I don't remember everything that we talked about, but one thing I do remember was doing an Internet search about how to build a raft. Blueberry wanted to "aqua blaze" the Shenandoahs. There was a route that one could raft a river around the Shenandoah Mountains rather than hike through them. It wasn't very common during my 2003 thru-hike, but it sounds like a lot more people take that option now-a-days. It kind of appealed to me as well. I've already thru-hiked the AT once. Anything to make it more interesting and different from my first hike was a welcome addition, but for Walking 4 Fun, I figured I really needed to stick to the official trail. I'd rather be aqua-blazing, but I wouldn't.

Anyhow, Blueberry did want to aqua blaze and he could aqua blaze, but he thought it would be fun to build his own raft for the journey. Which intrigued me to no end. That would be so cool! So I did some Internet searches on my computer to find plans about how to build a raft, how large it would need to be and so forth. I'd love to be a fly on the wall while he was building a raft, and I'd laugh if it actually sank (a very real possibility, I thought!), but it gave us a lot to discuss until then. =)

Then off to sleep we went, dreaming about building our own rafts. Although I didn't intend to aqua blaze the trail, the idea of building my own raft really appealed to me. Maybe when I was back in Seattle. I could take it to Alki and launch it into Puget Sound, rowing it to downtown or something. It might be fun! =)

The AT really likes to take people to the very edge of these cliffs! =)

And... civilization! Highway 220 to be exact.

The Howard Johnson was all of about a 1-minute walk from the last photo where I got off the trail. =)