Day 55 – The Guillotine

Cue another windy night on a mountaintop. It’s hard to say for sure as I didn’t have enough reception to improve the weather, but it seemed to get warmer during the night as it was quite cold when I went to bed and when I woke up this morning I was very hot.

The guillotine

The hike began today by walking the last hundred meters across Apple Orchard Mountain before beginning a steep, rocky descent. Fortunately that descent did not last long and soon I hit the Guillotine. Although I think I enjoyed going under it more than Robespierre in 1794…

After the Guillotine, the path moderated significantly and passed much more smoothly. Since I had over 5000 feet of elevation drop today, it made sense that the next few miles would be mostly downhill. The day really had two notable climbs. The first, moderate, which went quickly as it only had 500 feet of positive elevation gain. Then there was a descent that took me to a parking lot where I found a magical trail. Livingston, a former hiker, was making some magic on the trails while he had a break from finals at college. I helped myself to an orange, Coca-Cola and a cookie. It was nice to chat to him for a short time, but I wanted to keep moving to get to Glasgow at a reasonable time. After that I had my second climb of the day, which was the longest and most strenuous. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t the most terrible thing, but it did take some effort to get over the 700+ feet of elevation gain. After that, the rest of the day was pretty downhill.

Down, down, down

Miles and miles of burned area return

Shortly after the descent I crossed a couple of miles of burned area. I’m not sure if it was from a forest fire or a controlled burn, but it was interesting to see the landscape interspersed with parts of baron, plants starting to return, and then the charred trunks of the trees with leaves. The last mile of the day was a nice trail along the James River, culminating in crossing the James River Bridge. It is a pedestrian-only bridge and is the longest of its kind on the AT.

When I reached the other side, my transportation to the city was already waiting for me. I was going to stay at Stanimals tonight and if you stay there they offer a shuttle service into town. I received a parcel that I wanted to collect, which was the impetus for my visit to Glasgow. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the hostel, I discovered that my package had not arrived… Anyway, I continued with my hiking duties and got settled. After doing laundry and showering, I headed to the pizzeria in town for dinner. I ordered a medium meat lovers pizza, 14 inches. Two other hikers at the table ordered a large 16-inch pizza to share, and when the pizzas arrived, they were the same size. I think they made me a large pizza by accident. However, he fell victim to me anyway…

It may be my best performance so far.

After that dominant performance, I headed to the Dollar General to work on my grocery restock. After getting enough food to get me to Waynesboro, about 80 miles away, I returned to the shelter and worked on my blog posts until I went to bed.

Statistics for day 55:

15.9 miles

1,808′ ascent, 5,361′ descent

Apple Orchard Mountain to US 501

1 DSLC…

Stove use times: 10

Tracker of whole pizzas consumed: 9

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