Day 72
Tuesday, 8/29/00
Harper’s Ferry, WV to Sam Moore Shelter
22.7 miles
Went down to breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant. All-you-can-eat for $5.95! I got my money’s worth! 1st trip: 6 slices of French toast, 3 pancakes, 6 strips of bacon. 2nd trip: 2 biscuits & gravy, tons of hashbrowns, 5 strips of bacon, scrambled eggs. 3rd trip: 2 biscuits & gravy, tons of hashbrowns, 6 strips of bacon. Also, 5 glasses of OJ and some soft serve ice cream. Good deal!!!
Holy crap, that first portion would be more than I could eat now! It’s interesting how my journal entries get more and more food-centric. By this point, I had burned off all the fat I had and was starting to burn away at muscle mass. I started the trail weighing about 245. By this point, I was probably right around 200lbs.
Walked to the P.O., sent back some more stuff. Headed to the trail, in the rain… rained all day…
Passed Cold Foot and Can-do after a few hours. Saw a box turtle! Pretty easy hiking, but the hills are starting to show up again every now and then… finally!
My new shoes feel great! No break-in required (I have lucky feet, I only had one blister at the very beginning). They get wet faster than my old ones though (and they also dried out faster, which is more important).
Entered Virginia!!! Met Gandalf, Double Zero and Strider. Chillin’ at this shelter with Gandalf playing the guitar… pleasant. He had one of those backpacker guitars and was pretty good from what I recall. Don’t think my kazoo would have made a very good duet…
Day 73
Wednesday, 8/30/00
Sam Moore Shelter to Jim & Molly Denton Shelter
25.8 miles
Rained all night. But, it wasn’t cold, so I slept fine! That fleece bag Mom made was perfect last night!
Woke up before everyone else. Packed up and left when everyone was still asleep. Started on the “roller coaster”. Just another one of those “hard” parts north-bounders bitch about. What a joke! Just some easy little ups and downs…
Climbed some other decent hills today. Actually got above 2,000 feet. I’ll get above 3,000 feet in the Shenandoah’s tomorrow! Haven’t been that high up since Vermont!
Passed a few shelters… stopped at a store 0.1 miles from the trail at Ashby Gap. Bought a pint of Ben & Jerry’s. 1,160 calories baby!!
Had some more ups and downs… Right before this shelter, I met a guy running! A thru-hiker (northbound). We talked a bit… he’s on day 74 and has only gotten this far! I’m on day 73 and way further! Damn, I’m good…
Met a girl named Czarina at the shelter. She started in NY and is going to Georgia. She’s pretty cool. Czarina and I wound up hiking together for a couple days through the Shenandoahs and we keep in touch to this day. Maybe I can get her to add something to this part of the story, since she shared it with me. It’d be interesting to hear her take on the same part… She actually met a guy on the trail that she wound up marrying. They live out in Washington or Oregon now.
Cooked with the alcohol stove again. I love it! I wanted to cook twice just to use it…
Get to enter Shenandoah National Park tomorrow. The trails are supposed to be easy there…
I’m either going 18 or 29 tomorrow, depending on the terrain…
Total miles so far: 1,213.7
Day 74
Thursday, 8/31/00
Jim & Molly Denton to Gravel Springs “Hut”
18.5 miles
Woke up around 7:00, I guess. It rained hard all night… Ate a balance bar for breakfast (a new addition to my mail-drop that mom had added). It was really good! I think it was honey nut or something… Left before Czarina…
Saw another box turtle. Started raining within an hour of beginning. Never did stop. Entered Shenandoah National Park. Had to pick up some dumb permit so I don’t get a ticket…
Started raining real hard. Passed “Just Bob” (started in Harpers Ferry and was headed to Georgia). Started raining even harder… and harder…
Got up to over 3,000 feet today! Most of it was one long climb. The trails here are REALLY well maintained. Grades are pretty dang easy too. Should be cruising!
Tomorrow I either have to go 13 or 28! If it rains like this, I’m doing the 13…
Got here finaly around 1:00. Dryed off and ate. “Big Hank” showed up and later Czarina…
Need more snack food! I’m out!
Two interesting things about this day to me. 1) I did 18.5 miles before 1:00. 2) I left town 3 days before and was already out of snack food!
Day 75
Friday, 9/1/00
Gravel Springs Hut to Pass Mountain Hut
13.1 miles
Ugh! More rain! That makes 4 days in a row. Actually 6, because it rained both days in Harper’s Ferry. Rained on and off al night (mostly on). Woke up to pouring rain…
Put on my wet clothes and shoes. Always LOVE doing that! It wasn’t raining when I left, but it soon started pouring again. Oh the misery…
Made it 6 miles to Elkwallow Gap, where there was a store and a restaurant (known as “Waysides” in SNP). Bought a sandwich, 6 Moon Pies, and 4 packs of crackers. It stopped raining! Saw some blue sky! Czarina showed up. I bought a milkshake to celebrate the change in weather (I remember it was blackberry, and delicious…). I even saw my shadow!!!
Took off hiking again. Easy going. No rain for a bit. I dried out! Then it sprinkled a little… Got here about 1:00. Set all my stuff out to dry. As soon as Czarina showed up it started raining again…
“Just Bob” showed up soaking wet…
Still raining and getting harder… If it’s not raining tomorrow, I’m doing 27 miles.
Gotta get going. Running out of food…
Day 76
Saturday, 9/2/00
Pass Mountain Shelter to Bearfence Mountain Hut
26.8 miles
As you probably noticed (to the person originally reading the handwritten version of this), I got a spiffy new pen! It’s n extra-fine “sharpie”. Found it last night. It amazes me that I was thrilled to find a Sharpie, something I used constantly these days.
It didn’t rain all night! Czarina’s alarm woke me (but not her) up at 6:00. Pretty soon it started raining… it had stopped by 7:00 when I left. Everything was dry except my shoes & socks (and pack).
It was 1.2 miles down to a restaurant, but, I was too early and didn’t have any cash anyway… 2 mile climb after that… easy… Lots of long climbs and descends today. Nothing hard. Got above 3,800 feet! It’s been a while!
There were a few sprinkles here and there, but I didn’t get too wet. Stayed mostly dry all day (except my feet). Stopped at Big Meadows Wayside and picked up some food!
Left there about 2:00, made it ~8 miles by 4:00! I was trucking! Ate lots of food when I got here. Lots of folks out for the weekend.
Only about 20 miles tomorrow…
Day 77
Sunday, 9/3/00
Bearfence Mountain Hut to Pinefield Hut
20.6 miles
It poured for about 8 hours last night! Loud, with thunder and lightning too…
Lots of bats in the hut, flying back and forth about a foot from my face… 4 of them. Probably attacted to the bugs that were circling around my candle I was reading/writing by.
It wasn’t raining when I got up, but everything was soaked. I was a little chilly last night but I wasn’t wearing my polypro tights… the rest of this week the fleece bag was perfect! Got going pretty early.
Started raining, of course. Will it ever stop!? It’s been raining since Harper’s Ferry! There’s supposed to be great views here but all I see is clouds and fog. I want views!!!
Met some guys going from Georgia to New York. They said the rest of Virginia has some tough stuff. North-bounders!!! We’ll see… Turns out they were right, Virginia does have some challenging stuff.
Got here around 2:30. 4 weekenders here. They gave me some grub. Hope I don’t get food poisoning again…
Doing 26.2 tomorrow, rain or shine…
Day 78
Monday, 8/4/00
Pinefield Hut to Calf Mountain Hut
26.2 miles
I forgot to mention all the stinging nettles I had to go through yesterday…
The four other people at the shelter treated me like a celebrity. They had me sign their copy of “A Walk in the Woods”. It had inspired them to start backpacking. Bill Bryson’s book had just come out that summer, and I met several people who were on the trail after reading that. This strikes me as odd, because Bryson bitched and moaned about almost everything he encountered. There are some parts of that book that make me really mad, but I guess if it gets people interested in hiking, it’s a good thing.
Rained some after dinner last night but not all night. Foggy again in the morning. Made it 6 miles to a wayside to buy some grub. Yum!
Oh, this morning, I screwed up my camera and wasted a whole roll of film (unexposed). Doh! And, it didn’t rain today, and the sun came out and burned off some of the fog! But, still had no great views… no camera anyway…
Got pretty warm today! Lots of ups and downs (hooray). Here at shelter with a former thru-hiker (1998). Only 7 miles to Wayside tomorrow then onward…
Day 78
Tuesday, 9/5/00
Calf Mountain Shelter to Paul C. Wolfe Shelter
11.9 miles
I forgot to mention the 2 copperheads I saw yesterday… some tourists were all scared show I showed them how to bite a snake’s head off… I don’t know what my joke was about biting things heads off…
Didn’t start raining until I left. No, I taked that back, it started raining while I was eating last night.
Temperature got cold at night. I shivered in my fleece bag… Twas cold in the morning too. And wet. I was freezing all the way to the road. My hands got cold and numb too.
Got to the road to Waynesboro, VA (US-250) and didn’t have much luck hitching. Walked about a mile before some cute chick picked me up. She was nice… I think I sent her a postcard when I finished, but I never heard from her again. She drove me to the P.O. then to the YMCA, where I was going to stay… Told her I’d send her a postcard when I finish…
Went to the YMCA and repacked my stuff. Back to P.O. to send back stuff, to library, lanudromat, etc. Decided I’d keep movin’. Walked 2 miles to outfitter. Bought some string for my tarp (which I’d just gotten at the P.O.) and a light rain coat (I still have the rain coat, but it’s long since worn out). I couldn’t wait for mine to get sent back to me (after so many days of rain, I think that’s reasonable of me). They gave me some new tips for my poles because I didn’t have enough money… nice folks…
Got a ride back to the trail. Made it 4.9 miles in 1.25 hours. Bookin’ it!
2 weekenders here… nice shelter.
Day 79
Wednesday, 9/6/00
Paul C. Wolfe Shelter to Harper’s Creek Shelter
21.4 miles
Ahh… so nice to have my sleeping bag back! Just in time! It was cold again. I don’t like the extra weight though.
It was clear this morning and would stay that way all day! It was chilly too! I could see my breath until about 11:00 when the sun started shining and warming things up. Had 2 major climbs today! Yahoo! They’re graded pretty well so it’s not hard. Not that anything is for me (what a cocky whipper-snapper I was). Got some great view today! Took some pics…
Only saw one other hiker all day. Ahh… solitude… A few more stinging nettles today too, but nothing too bad.
Got here and fooled around with my tarp. Boy it’s pretty big (That’s what she said! Ha, it’s an 8x10’ silicone-impregnated tarp made by Equinox. Still have it.)! Kinda hard to set up too. But, I’ll get used to it!
Ate those scalloped potatoes. Yum. Having pudding for dessert.
I plan to go 22 miles tomorrow and camp out with the tarp.
I get over 4,000 feet tomorrow! Oh, one more thing…
Now that I have the legs to my pants back… It feels so weird to wear pants after about 2 months without them. Thing about how that would feel… I had some of those “shants” or whatever you call the pants with zip-off legs. The legs were too much extra weight to carry. I actually hiked in a pair of soccer shorts most of the time.
Day 80
Thursday, 9/7/00
Harper’s Creek Shelter to Hog Camp Gap
22 miles
Wow. I month ago I was in Kent, Connecticut! That’s almost 600 miles ago!
Woke up kind of late. The bugs weren’t making noise, must have been too cold… Alone last night. The previous night I had a very hard time getting to sleep because what seemed like millions of bugs (probably a couple katydids) were making noise in unison and the noise was deafening.
Downhill a few miles before climbing “The Priest”. Climbed over 3,000 vertical feet over 4.8 miles. Nice climb. When I got to the top (4,063 feet) it had clouded over! So, no view… but I had some good ones going up… At The Priest Shelter I met Tripwire and Flatiron, two south-bounders. Nice guys… These would be about the last south-bounders I would pass. At this point, I had passed most of the rest of them, and there were a couple ahead traveling at about the same pace as me. I would push myself to try and catch them, but I never did. I think I finished about a day behind them.
Stayed pretty high up all day. No other major climbs… My left ankle has been hurting lately. In the front, so it’s not because of the sneakers… I think I’ll take it easy tomorrow..
I’m camped out under my tarp. Nice and cozy! Oh, I passed some apple trees today and there were some ripe ones! Nice treat!
Went over a grassy “bald” today. More ahead. Nowhere in the southern Appalachians does the trail get truly above treeline, but there are numerous mountain tops that are devoid of trees. The origins of these are pretty mysterious, but they are quite a nice respite from the “long green tunnel” of hiking in the trees all the time. I need to find out where my next mail-drop is. Need MORE snackfood!
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