Started the day a little late leaving Pearisburg around 10:30. The trail would be full of different scenery today.

After leaving town it started off full of green vegetation and wildflowers that covered the forest floor carpet.

Once I started climbing back into the hills, the greenery was replaced by dirt and rock. It seemed as if Spring hadn’t made it that far up the hills yet.

Finally worked through the rocks and found myself on to of a grassy ridgeline.

I heard a familiar sound off in the distance and a couple seconds later,  a pair of Harrier jets streaked over the ridgeline just a few thousand feet overhead!

Working my way across the ridgeline, I noticed some smoke off in the distance. It looked like a forest fire. We had been seeing flyers about controlled burns, hopefully that was the explanation.

Eventually I worked my way down off the ridgeline and to the Captains.

He lives across the river from the trail, but built a zip line for hikers to come over and camp in his back yard.  There was a fire pit and a refrigerator full of soda on the back porch.  And did I mention you get to take a zip line?!?