Jim's NC to PA Hike - Part 1

Here is the journal of Jim's first four days.

Mon., Feb. 29 - Happy Leap Day and Day #1 of the latest hike - Jim's voice:

The first day of the hike - always a challenge!  Do I minimize the miles to protect my body or do I go as far as I can comfortably?  Ah well, today it was the latter (contrary to Jane's opinion).  We started out the day with a 2.25 hour drive from Williamsburg, where we stayed overnight at our friends, the McEldowneys.  Thank you Clay & Pinky, who were actually in PA visiting family.

Traffic was heavy but moved well except for a brief slowdown due to an accident.  We arrived at the designated starting point - last year's ending point - the parking lot of Grandy Farm Market.  Of course Jane HAD to take a picture in front of the sign!

Then off I went at 10:20am.  It was a beautiful sunny day - a comfortable 60⁰ temperature with a brisk breeze - almost perfect conditions for a hike.  At the 4 mile point I visited a roadside rest area to use the facilities and apply vaseline to the spots on my feet that typically blister.  As if to supply some local "color", I observed in the parking lot a state trooper harassing two young black men who he had obviously just pulled over.  They were docile and he was searching their car for God knows what.  I exited the scene as soon as I could.  Three miles later I came to a large bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway.  This is also known as the Albemarle-Chesapeake Canal, built in 1855 to promote coastal commerce.  I observed no commerce happening today.

Shortly after, I stopped in at a gas station mart and bought a hot dog and diet coke for lunch.  Fifteen minutes later I was on my way with many more miles to go.  For the first 11 miles I was headed due north and enjoyed a cooling westerly breeze.  Alas, my route turned west at mile 11 and I was walking straight into the wind, which would gust occasionally to stop me in my tracks.  At this point the road did not have a paved shoulder, so for the rest of the day's walk I alternated between walking on pavement when there was no oncoming traffic and walking on grass when there was. 

For several miles I walked through a conservation area (perhaps a wildlife refuge) with lots of water on both sides.  It reminded me of the bayous of Louisiana.  Several times I saw many turtles sunning themselves as they perched on logs across the water.  Some had shells as much as a foot in diameter.  I kept looking for snakes coming out of the water but never did see one - WHEW!  I passed the intended finish point of today's hike at around 3pm, but felt good enough to continue for another few miles.  Forty minutes later I called Jane and another twenty minutes later she showed up to pick up the tired sore hiker.  We proceeded to drive half of tomorrow's route to see what it will be like.  It will take me on some nice country roads away from the highway traffic I had to deal with today.   We then headed to our hotel in Elizabeth City, NC.

Miles Today - 18..... Total Cumulative Miles - 18

Tues., Mar. 1 - Jane's voice:  After a hotel breakfast, we drove to yesterday afternoon's pickup spot and Jim started off a little past 9am.  It was another clear, sunny, rapidly warming day.  Jim set out wearing his fleece vest but within a few minutes had removed it.  For the first 3.5 miles he was again walking on US Hwy 158 as he was all day yesterday.  He was happy to leave it and its heavy traffic after an hour.  For the next 3.5 miles he was on little-trafficked country roads and then for the rest of the day on NC Hwy 343 heading north toward the Virginia state line.  While walking along, he observed some of the first signs of spring: blooming dandelions & daffodils and buds on the tree branches - no leaves yet but they won't be far behind now that March has arrived.  Jim wonders when he will see the first tree leaves of this hike.  He thinks perhaps it will be in another 7-10 days.  Today's route was again through a lot of agrarian countryside with large fields on both sides of the road.  The farmers haven't yet planted but Jim did see several of them spraying their fields with liquid fertilizer.  The land here is incredibly flat, so much so that the fields were ringed with drainage ditches because the water can't roll downhill.

Meanwhile, I was able to get a bike trail map of the historic area of Elizabeth City, which I walked for a little over an hour today.  The waterfront is beautiful and overlooks the Albemarle Canal.  There was an historical plaque commemorating several flat bottom schooner trips of the Wright brothers from Elizabeth City to Kitty Hawk.  This city is also the site of a Civil War Union occupation that ended up with the local secessionists burning much of the city rather than being under Union control.

Now back to Jim's day: we were in touch by phone a couple of times and I picked Jim up around 2:20pm - another successful day.  We again drove a portion of tomorrow's route just to be prepared.

Miles Today - 16..... Total Cumulative Miles - 34

Wed., Mar. 2 -   Jim's voice:    The early morning rain gave us a good excuse to visit the nearby IHOP in lieu of the hotel-provided breakfast.  By the time I got back to yesterday's finish point the skies were clearing.  I had a little under 2.5 miles of road walking to arrive at the trail head of the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail.  I have been looking forward to walking this paved hiker/biker trail for several months.  I was on it for almost 3 miles before it led me to the NC Visitors Center just off the adjacent Rt. 17 highway.  It was a lovely stretch of trail with the canal on my left and in most places a wall of trees between me and the highway on my right.  Along the way there were benches, picnic tables and trash containers conveniently spaced for the comfort of those using the trail.  There were also bird houses along the trail, built for everything from tiny birds to large wood ducks, the latter built by a local eagle girl scout.  Upon entering the Visitors Center I inquired about where to pick up the trail going north.  I was told that I would need to "walk the highway for a few miles" until after I crossed into Virginia!  That I did for the next 5 miles until I found the path through the field that brought me to the southern terminus of the Virginia section of the trail.  A nearby bench gave me a convenient resting spot, which I needed after 10.5 miles.  Jane called and we discussed where I thought our pickup spot would be, about 8 miles north of where I was.  The trail for that 8 miles is the old Rt. 17 highway - two full lanes wide, still with the yellow and white lane markings visible.  Away from the traffic, I truly enjoyed those 8 miles and met along the way only a handful of joggers and bicyclists.  I enjoyed the fact that along the trail there were mile markers every quarter mile.  And because it took me 4.5 minutes between each marker, I knew that I was maintaining an 18 minute per mile pace.  That brought me to mile marker 0 at 3:45 and a few minutes later Jane drove into the trail head parking lot - another successful day.
Miles Today - 18.5..... Total Cumulative Miles - 52.5

Thurs., Mar. 3 -   Jane's voice:     We started today at 8:30 with a 50 minute drive to scope out today's and tomorrow's routes.  There was a tricky area that Jim was concerned about, so this helped make it easier for him to navigate as a walker later on.  We then both set off on foot at the Dismal Swamp Canal Trailhead at 9:30 and a very cool 37⁰. 

I decided that Jim's description of this trail was so good that I had to walk a small part of it myself.  It was just as beautiful as he described.  I loved all of the bird sounds and the scuffling in the woods, probably squirrels and chipmunks.  I saw bicyclists, joggers, walkers and a mom with a stroller and her dog.  I would say that this trail is definitely not aptly named - it is most assuredly not "dismal" at all.  I walked for an hour covering 3 miles - not too bad for me!

Meanwhile, Jim set off in the opposite direction.  He had a pleasant paved walkway for the first half hour and then he was for most of the rest of the day hopping between pavement and grass to evade traffic.  Most of the roads were through residential neighborhoods so he didn't have to deal with a lot of truck traffic.  He started out with 5 layers of shirts, fleece and jackets and shed them as the temperature warmed and the wind died down.  But later in the day the clouds moved in, the wind picked up and he had to put on some of the layers he had earlier taken off.  Jim wanted to walk as many miles today as he could in order to cut tomorrow's planned distance given the weather forecast - heavy rain, high winds and cold temperatures.  Perhaps this will be the yuckiest day of this trip.  So he pushed on until late afternoon covering several more miles than planned.  When I picked him up at 4pm he was happy to have walked 19 miles in 6.5 hours, but his hands were freezing cold.  I can't believe he didn't pull his warm gloves out of his pack.  The pickup was the best so far for me, since I only had to drive 3 miles down the road from our hotel.  It will make tomorrow's drop off just as sweet!  The first

Jim's hiking friend, David Ascher, from South Orange, NJ drove from home to here arriving shortly after 5.  They will hike together for the next two days.  This will be a pleasant change for this normally solo hiker. 

Miles Today - 19..... Total Cumulative Miles - 71.5

The first picture is self-explanatory (same as last fall's end), the next three are from Jane's walk along the waterfront in Elizabeth City, the next three are from Jane's hike in Dismal Swamp and the last are visitors in our hotel parking lot.