AT Day 43: Virginia Countryside

Daily Miles: 21.2, Total Miles: 577.0

Today was a really nice mix of ridge walking through green forests, pretty pastoral settings with big barns and farmhouses, and one river crossing where the bridge had been blown out. Lick Creek was only ankle deep but very cold.

I ran into Long John, Fossils and Tetras going southbound today. They had stayed at a hostel last night that shuttled them ahead this morning. They were slackpacking back to the same hostel.

I saw five whitetail deer and two brown bunnies today. A record number of birds heard today including red-wing blackbird, red-bellied woodpecker, goldfinch, field sparrow, tufted titmouse, robin, crow, gray catbird, song sparrow, scarlet tanager, red-eyed vireo, mourning warbler, black and white warbler and an ovenbird.

Oh, and another thing – I finished Stephen King’s Fairy Tales, an epic, marathon 26-hour audio book. What an imagination!