Day 35

Miles: 13.0
Total Miles: 444.5

I yellow blazed about 200 miles so that I could get back to the same group of hikers after my two-week graduation-themed hiatus from hiking. I started today in Pearisburg, VA after a nice night in a hotel in nearby Blacksburg with Sarah. The trail cut through kind of a trailer park-like area of town and was a very weird way to acclimate back to the trail-life. It then cut even more through town to go across a large bridge over the New River.
Once I got back into the woods I remembered how to hike and made decent time even following my late 1 pm start to the day. The woods in Virginia are much different to that of the three prior states with a lot more grass and much different vegetation for groundcover. The trail was relatively level today with only a few little climbs and no difficult rocky terrain. The weather was moderately threatening all day and began to pick up a little towards the end leading me to walk about 100 yards off-trail and stealth camp with my newly acquired Hennessey Ultralite hammock. It's a newer model of the same hammock that both Dave and Kelley are using. I got the larger rainfly like Kelley has and it proved to be worth it tonight as I had a dry place to prepare dinner and get ready for bed.
I didn't see anyone from before but made sure to check a log when I passed a shelter and saw a few familiar writings. Arrow, Shiver and Mule, Switchback, and a few others are not too far ahead of me so I might see someone I recognize soon.