Today was a nice relaxing zero day here in town. Aunt Linda and Michael left this morning (Thanks for coming guys!), but then my good college buddy Scoop came to town since he’s only an hour or so drive away. He took us to Walmart for some good fun resupply and out to eat. Thanks again Scoop! Otherwise, it was low key and we stayed off our feet as much as possible. Continue reading
The hike itself today was mostly uneventful. It had some rockiness, but was otherwise easy. However, it was amazing to hit what is considered to be the “psychological” halfway point of the trail here. The real mileage halfway point is another 75 miles or so north in PA, but this is generally still considered being halfway there. So crazy that it’s half over already.
Midpoint photo taken at Appalachian Trail Headquarters
We were thru-hikers 695 and 696 that came through this year so far. Continue reading
Today was a very crazy cool AT day. We got up early again to beat the heat since we had a lot of small but challenging climbs to do in The Roller Coaster. Things started off fine and we got through about 5 miles of it by 9:30 or so. We then unexpectedly hit some trail magic at a little dirt road.
Trail angels
These folks were awesome. They made us hot dogs and hamburgers for breakfast. Score! The lady in the picture, Trail Mamma – her husband did a thru-hike in 2012 and they drove 9 hours from their home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, just to do some trail magic this year. Wow… To make it even cooler, years ago her husband was in a serious car accident and broke his neck and the doctors said he either wouldn’t live or would be a quadriplegic. He recovered and went on to not only walk, but to do his thru-hike. So cool. Then not only did they make us food, but they “slack packed” our backpacks about 6 miles up the trail to the Bears Den Hostel. So we got to hike those 6 miles of the Coaster without a backpack. It felt like we were flying. Continue reading
We grabbed continental breakfast at the Quality Inn (it was good) and got their return “shuttle” (old maintenance dude in pickup truck) back to the trail. We didn’t get started until almost 11, so it was already sweltering when we started. Most of the day we ambled through the green canopy of Northern Virginia, so that at least kept the sun off of us. Some of the trail went through forests with some really cool tall soaring trees and some went through overgrown weed areas. I think this is kudzu that is taking over some areas?
Overgrown weeds
We surprisingly hit two trail magic offerings, which is not typical for a weekday. The first was a software engineer (nerd alert!) who just finished up a section hike and had a spare day and wanted to chat with some thrus. Seemed like a really nice guy. We started to talk about software engineer interview questions and it almost got really nerdy. He wants to thru-hike in a few years. I couldn’t relate to the weirdo.
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We got up bright (kind of) and early to beat some of the predicted 90+ degree heat and 300% humidity of the day. We got hiking a bit before 6:30am, which guarantees that you clear all the spider webs for the other hikers later in the day. We had a few ascents and descents to get out of the park. We had a couple nice views from North and South Marshall mountains.
Marshall mountain view of Skyline Drive
We bid farewell to the park and Skyline Drive after crossing it for the 623rd (perhaps a slight exaggeration). The heat and humidity was really kicking in by the time we descended down to US 522. We hitched a ride in to town from a friendly farmer in the back of his truck. He asked how many bears we saw and how active they were in the park and then told us about how much of a royal pain they are to his livestock and crops. He got a 2 week hunting permit last year he said and he shot 14 of them on his farm. Wow…Mmm…Bear jerky. Continue reading
Today was a lot more of the same as the other days in the park. The morning trails were quite rocky and tough on the feet. We heard and read some things that most of the tread in the park was smooth, but I’d say that’s only about 50% the case. We had a nice view of Skyline Drive from above at Little Stony Man Cliffs in the morning.
The ever present Skyline Drive from Little Stony Man Cliffs
We saw two bears today, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. These guys are smallish and kind of cute and I might try to cuddle one tomorrow. I don’t know, perhaps that is not a good idea.
Slightly better picture of a bear in Shenandoah
If you want to see bears, come here. That’s 5 we’ve seen in the park in 4 days (plus the one right outside the park). We talked to a thru-hiker at the Wayside today who said he has seen 13 bears in his 4 days in the park. He almost got renamed to “Bear Bait.” Continue reading
Ugh WordPress deleted my original post. Huge Wtf. Rage!
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We made it through the night and day without any bears. We had a nice camp spot near the summit of Blackrock. I scrambled up to the top before we left camp since I didn’t get a chance to last night with the lightning.
View from summit of Blackrock scramble
We kept on trucking through the park the rest of the day. There were a lot of volunteers out today from the Potomac Trail Club doing maintenance. Many thanks to these awesome people. It was literally the first time I have seen the trail being mowed with a push mower, so that was amusing. Continue reading
We had breakfast at the B&B in Waynesboro with Chase and Jen and then they took us back to the trail. It was awesome to see them. Continue reading
Today was an excellent and super fun zero day hanging out with Chase and Jen. We went to 2 local wineries (Veritas and Afton) and a local brewpub (Blue Mountain) for some tastings. We also hung out at the Tree Streets pool again and had a nice dinner in town at The Green Leaf. It’s been awesome to see some friendly faces! Tomorrow it’s back on the trail as we head into Shenandoah National Park.