Those of you who are just here for the beard? Come back in 3 or 4 weeks. There’s been an accident. It involved some shears over at Eula’s Hairstyling in Damascus, Virginia. [Side note for my software engineer friends: how cool is the name EULA, right?!]

That’s right, I’m in Virginia! Only 10 more states to go. Plus… Virginia. It has a longer stretch of trail than 7 of the other states combined. It’s a solid 25% of the entire trail, so we’ll be here for the rest of winter and well into spring. We’ll have a new beard by then. A 100% Virginian beard. My father grew up in this state, and I doubt he’s ever spent enough time here as an adult to grow a 100% Virginian beard. [Cue fact-checkers!]

My resupply box had a little something extra this week: a gift from my ceramic artist sister-in-law! I forgot to take a picture of the reverse side, but the back says “AT 2025.” I love it!! It’s attached to the front of my water bottle holder on my backpack shoulder strap. So you’ll see it in pretty much all future hiking selfies. 😍 Thanks, Becca!

What else did I do with my rainy zero day in Damascus? My hostel host, Lady Di, spends a lot of time knitting, has an old wooden spinner, and was watching a YouTube video about dyeing wool. [No, I swear this has nothing to do with my former beard. Let’s move on!] So I knew we’d have to spend a few hours watching my Migratory Pebbles adventure buddy Maurice’s Dreaming Robots Electric Eel Wheel wool spinner videos, and drum carder videos, and review videos, etc. Lady Di is a die-hard old-school manual spinner, but I could tell she was warming up to the idea, since she couldn’t stop watching more videos of Moe and his fiber-manipulating inventions!

In other news, I “aqua-blazed” past the one and only remaining post-Helene impassable section of trail a few days ago. This was made possible by Jim at Boots Off Hostel who hooked me up with a kayak, and collected me at the other end of Lake Watauga, and delivered me and my pack to the next trailhead. Many days on the trail blend together. This one never will!

Now I’ve got a solid 5 days of hiking before my next resupply box arrives (thanks, Bae!) at an alpaca farm. And it’s going to get real cold: back-to-back nights this weekend in the mid-teens. That’s January weather, but it’ll be March. I’m not excited about it, but I’m sure by the end of Virginia I’ll be nostalgic about sub-20° temperatures. (Until I hit them again in New England in June.) My face is going to be cold without that beard…