Early Morning Send Off

This morning I woke up at 5:30 AM in order to drop Mike E off at a trailhead for the Appalachian Trail. Mike’s starting point was VA-652. Going southbound on the trail from VA-652, you cross a bridge and then take on a small hill. That modest hill provides some splendid views of the surrounding area. It’s an excellent return on investment. Remembering that, I walked with Mike up the first hill. I took some pictures and then we parted ways.

Mike embarking on his journey. For some reason a hot air balloon is in the sky.

I went back to my car where the only thing I had to think about was dodging cow poo. Mike is going to continue southbound for 140 more miles and has more substantial things to worry about– water, food, shelter and the likes. In my defense, I was wearing sandals, so stepping in cow poo would have been remarkably unpleasant.

Mike will be posting regular updates of his journey from his cell phone to Twitter. Zooomabooma probably wouldn’t approve of this continued destruction of society, but if you have no objections to cell phones you can keep track of Mike’s progress on his Twitter site.

I’ll part with some pictures:

Stile on the Appalachian Trail at VA-652

View of Cows and Fields from the Appalachian Trail

A tower of Virginia Creeper doing what it does what it does best.

Blazed Bridge on the Appalachian Trail

As always, more pictures are available on Flickr.