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5/2 -- Took day off in Atkins, VA.

5/3 -- bisham@aol.com & Chris showed up around 2pm. They will be hiking the last 44 miles with me.  We ate at the Village Restaurant (very good country cooking!) and

At left, my hiking buddies for the last 44 miles, Bill & Chris.
By Mike Calabrese

did 6 moderate miles to Crawfish Valley, where we camped.  We met another group of very nice section hikers there.  Tomorrow the goal is 8+ miles.  We're supposed to get rain Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

5/4 -- We did a very rough 11 miles today and camped at the base of Lynn Camp Mountain.  I talked Bill & Chris into doing only 7-8 miles tomorrow because it's going to rain and we'll be going up for 5 miles.  The count so far is 545 miles hiked, (that's officially 25% of the AT) 28 miles to go.

5/5 -- We only did 6 miles today.  The reason was that we had rain most of the day and we had to climb 2,500 feet.  We stayed on top of Walnut Knob in an old Fire

At right, an old mill near Ceres, VA.
By Mike Calabrese

Warden's cabin that was recently renovated.  Tomorrow, 10 miles and Jenkins Shelter is the goal.

5/6 -- We did the 10 miles and the weather was good.  Great views!  I'm sad as this is the last shelter that I will be staying in for this trip.  12 more miles and it's over. :(

5/7 -- I forgot that we've seen 3 deer, a mouse and 3 garder snakes in the last couple of days.  We did about 11 miles and camped on an old logging road.  The weather was good during the day but about an hour after we put up the tents we got dumped on.  It's raining hard outside the tent as I am writing this.  Tomorrow, the final day.  We expect to do about a mile north and then 2 miles east to Bland to meet Nancy.

5/8 -- We did the final mile and got to US 52.  There, we met "Thor"'s

At left, Walnut Knob Shelter, VA.
By Mike Calabrese

parents and "Mom" and got a ride into Bland by 8:30 am.  We had to wait about 6 hours as Nancy wasn't due to meet us until 3 pm.  We then shuttled Bill and Chris back to Atkins and again ate at the Village Restaurant (again, it was very good!), and headed home.  I intend to go back out in June and do a 50 mile section of the AT in northern Virginia. Total miles hiked so far: 573.  My thoughts on the hike are in the epilogue section.

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