2014/5/5 Mile 575.7
Whoever said Virginia was flat is wrong (at least for today's section of trail). Started off with a big climb up to Chestnut Knob Shelter for the first half of the day.
The view overlooks Burke's Garden, also known as God's Thumbprint. Its basically a giant crater but formed naturally. Its now filled with farms and the trail follows the ridge around it for about 8 miles.
Those 8 miles were rough. Tons of short climbs and falls all of which were steep. On top of that the trail was extremely rocky so you had to rock hop about 30% of the time. Tough work for what looks flat on the map.
Ran out water about half a mile from where I planned to refill and didn't think much of. Not until I hit the water source with a sign saying its 0.5 miles off the trail and scribbled in marker: "Its steep, downhill, and stinging nettles. Don't go." So I skipped it and had a crappy two miles to an unmarked spring.
Stopped at Jenkins Shelter for the day. Only 19 miles but I was pretty worn out at that point. Maybe I can push tomorrow if it is actually as flat as it looks on the map.
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