My day of rest in troutville wasn’t very restful, even though I had a “zero day.”

The mosquitoes were far too bad and the grocery and hot food places were all far, far away down dangerous roads with no sidewalks nor shoulders. It was an exercise in managing anxiety for sure: push it down and complete the mission.

Troutville has some of the best infrastructure available for travellers, with hot water, electricity, and free camping.

However, it’s poorly executed: the location has none of the town amenities that people need on a journey. Most people will walk, shuttle, or hitch to Daleville, meaning that Troutville foots the bill while Daleville makes the money.

I picked up my grocery resupply, ate many sandwiches, and battled mosquitoes nonstop. I picked up a case of trench foot doing long road walks on wet grass. I got a new outfit at goodwill.

I couldn’t find laundry anywhere in town, so I used the wash sink. This is what the sink looked like after washing 1 set of shorts and 1 set of socks.

That is all.

Trail blog 5: Cornelius Creek to Troutville.

My phone was dead here so no pics nor vids on this post. Sorry.

It was about a ten mile walk into Troutville. It was mostly cruise with one big up to get to Fullhardt knob.

When I got to the shelter there were 3 tents set up inside with everyone still asleep. Or pretending to be. I wasn’t able to access the shelter or sign the log.

There was a guy named Ralph who I shared some conversation with. We talked about religion and objective faith. Ralph seemed a bit dismayed at my flexibility of belief, perhaps not understanding it is brought about through uncertainty. Ralph seemed very certain and barely able to concede the possibility of error.

After I made it to the road I took a mile walk to the free camping at the town park.

Normally free camping is a great idea, but I realized soon after I got there it wouldn’t be all rainbows and bubble gum.

The mosquitoes are really really bad. I can’t say this enough. The whole time I was in troutville I was fully clothed with long sleeves and pants. I also liberally applied deet. Everything was ineffective. I received 100s of bites during my stay and I’m pretty sure I’ve exchanged vital fluids via mosquito with every person and squirrel that visited the park.

The other issue, especially arriving on Sunday was that there are no stores near the camping area. If you want to spend any money or acuire any goods you have to walk 2-3 miles each way. There are no sidewalks, no shoulders,and no shade on troutville roads. There is lots of long grass to tromp through and I acquired a minor case of trench foot from walking through wet grass for miles during my stay.

But free is free and I got what I paid for.

I did manage to eat 4 burgers.That was probably the highlight of my day. I picked up some flowers and did some washing of clothes  that never actually dried. Then sleep.