Slackpacking Trip - Day 4

[woke up at 0645 (didn't sleep well, loud traffic outside all night) - left hotel at 0730 and scouted out locations where I might be able to hike later - at 0745, I drove back up to the parking area for "Angel's Rest" (where I stopped yesterday) - the hike up allowed about 1700 feet of elevation increase in around 2 miles - very steep, lots of switchbacks - just when I thought I had made it to the top, I would see another ridge around the bend - tiring hike and getting hot, using up all water - just before I reached Angel's Rest, I found a group of five hikers (NOBO), who warned me about something related to a rat (didn't understand) - enjoyed the beautiful view of the New River valley - decided to hike father along the ridge and saw more tremendous views of the Wilburn Valley on the other side - the weather was great and I rested on a rock at the top of the hill, high above the people in the valley below - hawks circled below me - at one point on the hike, I encountered a huge black rat snake, dangling from a tree (then I understood the warning!) - I saw one other NOBO solo man and encountered a father and son from town walking near the bottom of the hill (he had never hiked to the top in all his life) - finished up this walk at 1115 and then moved the car down to the side of the road (VA-100) north of Pearisburg - walked the rest of the section I couldn't finish last night and continued all the way to the other side of the New River - by this point, it was really hot - walked back along US-460 to my car (finding interesting trash as I walked) - drove to the Dairy Queen and had lunch (1230) - almost impossible to walk - filled up water bottles and hoped to do some more hiking - however, a crisis with Nicky derailed that plan - the rest did me good, though - used VA-42, VA-606 and VA-608 - had trouble finding the trail again and gave up at 1645 (after several "misses" and detours along a dirt road to Dismal Falls and others near Holly Brook) - made it to US-52 north of Bland and found the Big Walker Hotel near the intersection of I-77 - relieved to soak my blistered feet - ate cold ramen noodles for dinner - posted photos on Facebook and went to bed early (2130) - total for today was 4.07 miles (not counting backtracks), Grand Total is now 24.2 miles]