Triple post!

June 28,

Start:  976.3 Dick's Dome Shelter, in tent.
End:   1002.4. Blackburn AT center.
Total:     26.1

Last night the hickory nuts were crashing to the ground around me.  Only plants, not bears, I tell myself.  Today I'm shooting for the big thousand mile mark.  I pack and am on the trail by seven thirty, enjoying a beautiful morning in the woods.  The Appalachian trail soon enters Sky Meadows state park, there is a camping ban for several miles which doesn't effect me, and some nice meadows.

It is getting hot though, as the trail dips below a thousand feet in elevation.  The weather has been cool for at least a week now, and I'm missing the cool days.  A sign on the trail placed by some straight up jerk warns hikers of a tough section coming up which the sign maker calls the Rollercoaster.  The elevation profile in Awol's book shows constant climbs and descent of about four hundred feet for around thirteen miles.  The sign also tells hikers to come to the Blackburn Appalachian Trail center if we survive the rollercoaster.  The sign brought me down by saying that I would hate the upcoming section, then advertised for me to come to a near trail business.  No worries though, I tore it down and hid it in the bushes.  No other hikers need to have their energy sapped by some pencil pusher at the PATC.  As for the litter that was a sign, the next forest fire will melt it down.

The rollercoaster turns out to be not all that bad, but it definitely drains me.  Streams at the bottom of every descent prove indispensable on this ninety degree day, as I suck down eight or nine liters of water today.  A heavy sun shower provides the cooldown the day needed to be great.

Seeing a sign on a tree with only "1000" carved into it, changes the day from a struggle to make miles, to a hour long sit down party.  More hikers come by and soon whiskey appears from a pack.  Six or seven shots later and with a feeling of accomplishment at having knocked back the first grand, I start weaving down the trail toward the Blackburn Appalachian Trail center to get water.

The Blackburn Appalachian Trail center is a steep three hundred foot drop from the trail for no other reason to get water.  Its sad to drop off the ridge with plenty of great sights to set up camp, for a lower elevation penguin roost, but I'm out of water and the next source is four miles away.

I miss dinner but I have my own food, so enjoy Ramen noodles and charge my phone.  I camp out on a huge wrap around screened porch at a building that the PATC rents out to large groups.  Tired I fall asleep fast.

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June 29,

Start:  1002.4 Blackburn Appalachian Trail Center
End:    1015.   Scott's floor.
Total:     12.6

Hikers packing and talking wake me up at six, which is perfect as I'm in a hurry to make miles today and get to Harper's Ferry, Wv.  I start talking quietly to a hiker who's up and one of the guys who woke me up tells me to shut up that there's people sleeping.  I tell him to shut the fuck up and not to camp around other people if hes going to be an asshole about stupid shit.  Problem solved.

I'm trying to hustle to get to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Harper's Ferry where Allison, a ATC employee works that stayed at the center last night.  She said that she would give me a ride with whoever else could fit in the car to a Chinese buffet.  We just needed to get there before lunch.  Game on. 

I hike fast on flat trail, and soon am crossing the wide Shenandoah river.  I enter historic Harper's Ferry on the grounds of an old college, and soon am at the world famous Appalachian trail Conservancy.  I arrive just after eleven, but Allison is busy and won't be able to go for an hour.  There is a hiker lounge here with phone, internet, sodas and a couch, as well as a hiker box.  AT hikers get their picture taken here for some unknown reason, then they number it in the order you arrived in the hiker pack this year.  I was hiker 629.

There is a family here talking to an ATC volunteer, so I hustle a ride out of them and get a first class ride to a second rate Chinese buffet, the Jumbo Buffet.  As a note, Chinese restaurants should always have a Asian sounding name, not slang American English.  If it was named, Jumbo Dynasty Buffet, or Imperial Jumbo Buffet, the added sense of authenticity would have surely improved my respect of the place.  Still, the food was marginally ok, though most items were lukewarm, sitting in the danger zone for food related bacterial growth far too long.  They were really good at refilling my sweet tea though, never letting it drop to half full.

I resupplied at a Super Wal-Mart next door then caught a bus back to Harper's Ferry.  The vortex was strong back on the couch in the air conditioned hiker lounge, and I didn't leave until five.  15,000 Union troops were stationed here to protect the armory that supplied the north with rifles.  The tight valley was impossible to defend though against Weaverton's artillery though which took the high ground on the cliffs across the Potomac river.  After a few volleys of canon fire, the union army quickly surrendered to Weaverton, and the south took the town. 

What made the town valuable to both rebels and union interests, was it's strategic location at the confluence of both the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers.  Also, the C&O canal and the railroad went through town making it a major transportation hub.

Harper's Ferry became famous months before the civil war though when abolitionist John Brown led a daring raid along with fourteen other men on the federal armory.  The abolitionists goal was to capture the one hundred thousand army rifles stored there, and use them to arm slaves in an anticipated rebellion.  Late one night in 1859, Brown and his men, several of whom were freed slaves, successfully captured the armory.  Doom may have been set as fate for Brown as a result of the first casualty of the raid, a freed slave employed as the night watchman.  The abolitionist victory was only temporary however.  Soon the local militia had the abolitionists barricaded in a fire house.  Union Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived with a force of 250 marines, and captured Brown. 

John Brown's trial was swift and he was sentenced to be hanged in nearby Charles Town.  In one of his last statements, he foretold.of the civil war, saying that he feared a long and bloody conflict soon to come to rid our guilty nation of it's crimes of slavery.  In Harper's Ferry there are many historic sights and museums dedicated to African civil rights causes, there is also a wax museum of John Brown's raid.  Most construction in the national historic park which is the small downtown, is pre civil war.  Slaves dug out stone to form flat building sights on the steep rock hills, then used the stone to build the buildings.  In the Secret Six Tavern where I ate dinner, the axe strokes formed by slaves chopping the beams down to size and putting finishing touches on the wood, can still be seen.  The Secret Six was named in honor of the six silent member of John Brown's raid, who helped plan and finance it.

I crash this evening on the floor of a land house, who lives in a slave built house next door to the Secret Six, Scott.  Remarkably there is a ice cream cooler full of five gallon tubs of ice cream next to where I sleep.  Scott lives above another restaurant and gets to stay in this apartment as exchange for doing construction work for the restaurant owner.

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June 30,
Start:  1015. Scott's floor
End:   1046.1 Ensign Cowall Shelter
Total:     31.1 miles.

I sweated all night but slept like a rock next to sweet ice cream.  I'm out by eight, heading to the trail.  I decide not to eat till I'm walking following the white blazes to freedom.  White blazes are about the size of a dollar bill standing vertically and painted on trees to show the trail.   The Potomac is awesome to cross, but first I stroll by many historic buildings, including the firehouse where the brave abolitionist John Brown was capture along with his men, who were willing to be hanged or die in battle rather then see a disgraced nation continue to keep men enslaved, just to satisfy rich men's greed. 

After crossing the Potomac, the C&O canal path offered a welcome two mile flat walk along the course that oxen walked pulling ships up the canal that ran parallel to the Potomac river. 

Crossing the Potomac also means that I crossed into Maryland, where I will be till tomorrow when I cross the Mason-Dixon line and head into Pennsylvania.  Maryland's AT is remarkably flat, and wide enough to be called a jeep road.  I figure with so many eager volunteers on hand, and such a short state in miles, around thirty, there isn't enough trail work to do, so they just keep making it wider.

Smooth terrain and little water makes the miles go by.  I cross many historic sights, and am really starting to feel the Civil War history of the area.  Armies of 90,000 men marched through these hills, and engaged other similar sized armies in battle.  One battle field I pass was where 90,000 troops from Michigan, went to battle with confederate troops.  Monuments mark the place where two generals were killed in the battle.   Hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives for nothing in that war.  What was it even about?  It wasn't about slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation just coincidentally happened because of it.

I take a break crossing I-70 and see in my data book China 88 in a town that is a few miles off trail thirty one miles into my day, and a shelter just after.  I decide to hoof it and try for buffet.  I make the road at eight, with plenty of daylight left.  The second car picks me up and drops.me in town.  Sadly a local tells me the buffet is two miles out of town.  Another local tells me to get pizza, so I oblige him, and am not disappointed.

The pizza place is also a Mexican restaurant though with an Italian theme.  A Latin family is working, and maybe it's because of my team Mexico futbol jersey I'm wearing, or maybe not, but I get excellent service and great super cheesy pizza relatively inexpensive.  I don't even finish half of my large pie, and take the rest back with me to the trail pitching with the pizza box.

A quick ride back, and I walk to the shelter .2 away.  A group of hikers recognize me and I'm amazed that they caught me.  It was easy for them though, they skipped eighty miles via hitch hiking.  Yellow Blazers really bother some people, but I couldn't care less how other people choose to hike their own hikes.  I'm walking the while way though.

One hiker hands me a beer that he got in town, I drink it and socialize a few minutes, then head back to my tent, to spend a ling time writing these three entries.  Loud Bluegrass music is playing somewhere nearby, and I would love to join a local party

Another China buffet

June 27,

Start:  958.2 Tom Floyd Wayside
End:   976.3 Dick's Dome Shelter
Total:  18.1 Miles

Last night was all about the rain.  It wasn't a good Arizona monsoon, but it still rained constantly all night.  By morning though it was just dripping from the trees. 

Red Stripe, the hammocker from last night and I decided to hitch in to Front Royal together, it's usually easier getting rides for two dirty looking people then one.  Hiking and talking, the three miles to US 522 go quickly.

Just before the highway, there was a five gallon water container and a sign that said "welcome" on it at a side trail to a home.  We didn't need any water, but it is the thought that counts.  We did see a day hiker approaching us sobo.  The hiker turned out to be a Ridge Runner for the ATC, a person paid to do minor trail work and educate the public.  Basically a wilderness ranger with no law enforcement ability.  The Ridge Runners name was Junker. 

We hitched for five minutes before Junker returned and started messing around in his car parked at the trail head.  He said if we didn't get a ride, he would run us the three and a half miles into Front Royal.

Junker made some phone calls, then told us to hop in for a ride to the post office.  Today was basically Christmas.  At the PO, waiting for me were three pairs of new socks, the second half of the guide, and an extended battery for my phone.  We also got good info on one of the Chinese buffet in town.

Junker dropped us off near the buffet, then we headed to McDonald's for coffee and to charge phones.  There were no outlets though, so we headed next door to Burger King where there was one, and spent two hours. After the ling wait, we headed to Top's Buffet, and got stuffed.  We stayed three hours while my new battery charged.  We even made friends with some locals. 

After much happy time at the buffet, we hitched back and chilled at the trail for an hour before hiking north again.  Low elevation forests were dense along the Appalachian Trail today.  There were no views outside the trees.  That was ok though as at this point of the day, after relaxing so long, I just wanted to make miles. 

Red Stripe headed into the Jim and Molly Renting Shelter five miles out of town, and I continued on ten more miles.  Day turned to night, but no good spots were to be found to set up camp, in the lush firestone, so I headed on, hiking till nearly ten thirty this evening before reaching the Dick's Dome Shelter.  I found a spot to set up my tent, which was relatively difficult to find, being that this shelter was built on a rocky grade.  Then cooked dinner.  Now it's 12:21 AM and I need sleep.

Leaving Shenandoah

June 26,

Start:  933.1 Panorama rest area
End:   958.2. Tom Floyd Wayside
Total:   25.1

Last night was a great night, I slept soundly under the stars while cool breezes blew.  The old stone stairwell definitely was a good choice.  I have a bagel with strawberry cream cheese, then fill my water from the faucets that have the signs warning of E. colli.  A sobo hiker rolls in, and I start chatting with him.  I am thirsty and start to drink the tainted water.  Oops.

The morning is nice with a light pack, and I soon pass a shelter and see two more sobo's who tell me of a Chinese buffet in Front Royal.  Guino becomes so happy at this news, for Chinese buffet is a Penguin favorite food.  They also say I need to stop at Elkwallow wayside, a gas station near the trail and eat.  I decide to pass on the food by the trail, I have food in my pack to eat. 

My legs.start screaming for a break as noon approaches, and I take a minute near the short side trail to the wayside to make up my mind.  I look down and see a Elaphe obsoleta, a black rat snake.  Allegedly a nonvenomous snake.  I smell food and decide to head head over.

The wayside has a grill and gift store, the food is pricey, so I get hot dogs and buns from the grocery side of the store.  I eat eight hot dogs and buns, a 2250 calorie lunch.  After a break I head back to the trail, three hours lost from my hiking day. 

I hustle on in cool weather under cloudy skys.  I know that I won't make the road to town tonight, but am content with camping out.  After eight rain starts, only lightly though, so I get to bust out my umbrella.  The Go-light umbrella may possibly be my favorite gear item.  I decide to night hike on, and reach to Tom Floyd wayside shelter at ten PM.  Red Stripe is the only shelter occupant, and is sleeping in a hammock hung from the roof beams.  There is plenty of room for me beneath though.  The rain pours all night, and I sleep dry as the rain beats on the metal roof.

Back to back thirties.

June 25, 2011

Start:  902.2 South River picnic area.
End:   933.1 Panorama rest area.
Total:  30.9 Miles!!!

Last night the stars were amazing, the best of the whole trip, to this point.  I forgot what a dark clear moonless sky looked like.  Stars filled every portion of the sky.  It was actually quite cool and breezey also.  I wore my Patagonia nano puff synthetic jacket all night.  My picnic table made the perfect roost away from the crawly things.  At six I awoke with my alarm, fell back to sleep for half an hour, took a Vivarin, then slept another hour.  People were already coming to other tables to eat breakfast.  It was good to get an extra hour and a half of sleep.  Yesterday's 35.3 mile day drained me.  Not today I tell myself, sub thirty today, no more. 

The other crew still has their tents set up, a unwise thing while openly camped illegally in a park, when I head over to say high after eight.  I didn't camp illegally, I was just pinicing, or maybe just resting.  I head to use the nice restroom, on the way back I catch a brief glimpse of a law enforcement ranger, leaving.  He told the section hikers that they couldn't camp here, or any other illegal place.  He didn't write any tickets though, so the crew got lucky.

I take off and try to make the miles.  I do a really good job at it, in fact.  The big priority is to finish the trail and get back to Flagstaff, Az. by August 27.  I start school on the twenty ninth.  I worry about the late start today, but the trail is cruising again and the miles quickly pass.  The trail is busy today, to say the least.  I'm passing several camp grounds and two lodges today where I could eat and charge my phone.  I choose to pass the lodges as they would surely be expensive to buy food at, and a waste of time.  I choose to take my first break of the day, at one forty five, in a camp ground, and charge my phone in the bathroom for forty minutes. 

After that it is more hustling down the trail for, to steal a line from Alex DeLarge, your humble narrator and only true friend.  Just before seven, I take another break at the Pinnacle picnic area, where a rather large Persian family is having a reunion. 
These guys do it up right, they have large pits boiling water for tea, the largest tea pots that I have ever seen, and a spread of food, which unfortunately is being put away.  I eat a three hundred calorie bagel with five hundred calories of pepper jack cheese, before I'm offered Cheetohs, a mountain dew and fruit by some of the girls in the group.  They said they would look for cake too, but I said that I was fool, which was true.  These guys had Persian rugs arranged on the ground around large platters of fruit.  I like the rug idea, plus ten pounds of grapes is never bad.

I hustle on passing Byrd's shelter, named after the group I believe, at my twenty eighth mile of the day.  There is still an hour left in the day, so I head two point nine miles further to the Panorama roadside rest area, which has water and is near the trail. 

The water at Panorama is contaminated with E. colli,  so I treat it with MSR Sweetwater drops, and drink up.  I find an outlet on the outside of the building so I charge my phone completely while setting up camp and eating my Ramen noodles.  I cowboy camp again under the stars.  The two picnic tables here are pretty bad, but a very wide old stone staircase offers a large flat spot to roost.  I will be out of the rangers sight here as well, protected by stone walls.

Tomorrow it is only twenty eight miles to town.  I will either wait by the road, and hitch in in the morning, or get my hat trick for camping three nights illegally in a row.  I figure that there must be a park in town to stealth camp in. Then I can resupply, and hit the list office early.  There is a restaurant called Hong Kong in Front Royal, Va. too, which I am hoping is a Chinese buffet.

Though for now it's starry skys, lightening bugs and mire cool gentle breezes.

Good night.

Biggest day ever!!!

June 24,

Start:  867. Breezey ridge
End:    902.2 South River Picnic Area.
Total:  35.2 miles!!!

I feel bad for the hikers who choose to sleep only under a tarp, and not include bug netting into their system.  Virginia seems to be a hot spot for daddy long leg spiders, and many other as well.  These giant bugs are usually crawling all over my tent, even as I'm setting it up.  I would hate not having the mesh as protection.  It did add a few ounces to my tent though, so....  no still need it.

I'm off just before eight this morning.  Hiking down the long green tunnel that is the Appalachian Trail.  The name long green tunnel comes from the fact that since Georgia, I have nearly exclusively been strolling through lush hardwood forests.  Very rarely are there views outside of the dense canopy of trees.  On balds in Tennessee and North Carolina there were some, but not long enough.  Usually, a view is only a few steps long and formed by a cliff or other break in the trees. 

The miles go by fast, and I have ten down by eleven.  I even get a rare twelve by twelve.  I wonder if I can get a thirty today.  The terrain is similar to what it has been the last week, a long ridge with many road crossings at the passes, or gaps as there known here.  I was following the Blue Ridge Parkway, but that ended at the entrance to Shenandoah National Park, now it is called Skyline drive.

I would imagine these two famous roads would have more traffic on them especially Skyline drive in the national park.  It is summer and busy tourist season.  The road is dead every time I cross it though. 

I saw another bear today, this one www only twenty feet away when I yelled at it and it ran off.  It didn't have a clue that I ease there, and looked very startled.  I also saw another rattlesnake today, my second of the trail.  As is often the case though, it didn't rattle at me, at all.  I also saw a long black snake with a diamond shaped head.  A local hilljack told me two weeks ago that all snakes with a diamond shaped head are poisonus, I believe he knew what he was talking about, and I left it alone.

By four I have 22 miles down, so I know a thirty mile day is within my grasp.  I find it hard to believe when that mile passes at seven and I still have energy.   A cinnamon raisin bagels and strawberry cream cheese gets me going for the last stretch.  I make it to water, in a picnic area and see a new group of hikers.  These guys are doing about three hundred miles, finishing in Maryland. 

After setting up camp under the stars, on a picnic table on a cool and breezey hill I head back to equipment hi to these guys, and only hear one name, its Grey.  Back at my picnic table, actually a long row of four, I eat Ramen noodles with instant mashed potatoes, then pull off my shoes.  Waiting under one sock with his head borrowed in me is a tiny tick.  I take the advice a lady on trail gave me the other day, and hit it with Deet.  After half an hour, like she said, it still didn't come out, so I burned it with hot metal.  That didn't work, so after much trying, I yanked it out with my fingers, head and all.

Shenandoah National Park.

June 23,

Start:  854 Waynesboro, Va. 
End:  867 Breezey ridge.
Total:  13 miles.

Today I got the luxury of sleeping in.  Though I was surrounded by a neighborhood my campsite at the YMCA's mosquito pond was very quiet this morning.  Stirring in my tent around nine, I look out to see the two hikers, whom I saw yesterday, heading back to a bench in the woods.  Smoking some of the devil's lettuce. 

I break camp, as rain begins drizzeling down on me.  It soon ends though.  I decide to write a report for school this morning, for a class that I'm taking, at NAU, and break out the smart phone to type it.  I bought Quick Office for my phone which is a numbed down version of MS Office.  It's a cool program, but it's hard to attach a document to an email and for some rwason, it make me hold the phone upright, not sideways.  This way I don't have the luxury of a larger keypad.  I'm writing this post on it.  I think that i'll use this for all future blog posts, so I won't lose them occasionally.

I head over to the large library that is only a block away, and see Jaws who is still waiting on her BF, So Far to show up.  She's planning to spend the day at a multiplex cinema bouncing between all the shows, smart girl.  I stay at the library and finish my report. 

After business is taken care of, I head over to the Ming Garden for round two of super buffet action.  They still have no love for hikers, the hostess seats me in a side room at a long table with another hiker, Whistler.  The people watching would be better in the open restaurant, but at least we have a private banquet room.  The food is once again awesome, today though there are mote beef dishes, the sushi still rocks.  My fortune cookie inspires me to move on, "Idleness is a fool's vacation."

  Passing a Main street block on the way out of town, I decide to check out the flag lined street.  Basic small town Americana, shops, banks, martini lounge.  None for me though, I walk toward the outfitter's to by replacement hiking pole tips and fuel.  The Napa auto parts store I pass on the way is more likely to carry the fuel I need for my homemade stove, so I go there and quickly find the HEET that I'm looking for.  HEET is denatured alcohol that is used as gas line antifreeze.  Sure enough they have it, and I don't believe the outfitter did. 
I bash and bash with a wrench to get my pile points off, they finally fly off, each glued in.  Then I hitch the three miles back to the trail, after only having my thumb out a minute.

After I get back to the trail, I hit a self registration kiosk for Shenandoah National Park, fill a permit out and hustle on.  The trail is cruising terrain, but watertless.  When I do get to a spring, the last for twelve and a half miles, I puzzle the rest of ly water, and plan to drink more after the five minutes that I must wait for my purifier to work.  As I'm drinking a weird noise breaks my attention from the water to a young bear loading in a tree a hundred feet away.  I guzzle a few sips, refill quickly at the spring and  get out of the area.  The bear was high off the ground and relaxing like a cat, all stretched out.

I make it thirteen miles today, to a breezey ridge line.  Rocks limit camp sites, and ants rule up here, but I enjoy the breeze, and it's late.  Daddy long legs are crawling all over my tent in minutes.  I don't know how hikers use traps with nno netting, that would be horrible in the woods, where it's spiders all night.  Goodnight.

Good day.

Today got way better.  I hustled down the trail in beautiful weather, many miles today.  Actually a marathon.  There were many awesome views of farm nestled in the mountains, and of course of the long green tunnel, the Appalachian trail.

The trail crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway numerous times, in passes between the high points the Appalachian trail sought.  Climbing one such high point, a commanding view of the mountains surrounding me, was minuscule by a small ski resort with large hotels lining one side.  This 15 run 500 acre resort looked to be mostly blue runs with tight, but only moderately steep and wide sections of trees.in between. 

The road to town arrived just after seven PM.  I took my pack off flicked off a tick, then had a car stop before I was even ready to begin hitching. 

John said he saw me standing up there, I was near the span of a road bridge over a freeway, and figured I needed a ride somewhere.  He took the cloverleafs to get to me, and had no idea what the Appalachian trail was.  He was just a fellow hitch hiker.

John dropped me off at the Ming Garden Buffet, for inexpensive all you can eat Chinese and made before my eyes sushi.  The food was great, but they didn't like hikers much.  There was a sign on the door telling hikers of the free showers at the local YMCA.

I headed there after the Ming Garden, clutching my overfull belly.  The Y registered me to camp by a little pond on a field they owned nearby.  I headed over there, and saw two hikers stepping out of the trees, having just treated their chronic conditions with medical marijuana. 

The hikers told me of a Lutheran church a block away that was a free hostel, and sounded nice.  Reluctantly I left the mosquito pond and followed them to the church.  Upon walking in, a delighted shout of, "Guino!" welcomed me in.  Jaws had been here as night already and was waiting for So Far to catch up.

I took a shower and washed my clothes in a sink, completely clean, nice.  I wasn't about to be locked in like a dog at a pound at ten though, minutes away.  I needed to resupply and wasn't ready for lights out.   The mosquito pond run by the YMCA was only a block away though, so I left. 

I got a 106 mile resupply, three nights, taken care of, and will get better sleep then in a room with fifteen hikers.  Now it's time to sleep.

Goodnight Hiker Trash.

Bypassing Waynesboro.

My dreams of a Chinese buffet in Waynesboro have fallen apart.  I needed to head into that town to resupply, but found out my account was over drawn and I need to wait a few days for an electronic transfer to go through.  Hopefully I can bum extra food off of hikers at the shelters for the next few days.  Hungry hiking is no fun.  Food fantasies are already hitting me hard, doing back to back high twenty mile days.  Today I'll probably hit thirty miles.

I zero'd in Buena Vista, Va.  Trying to let my heat rash get better and not get a serious staph infection, Like hikers get from being filthy for days on end in humidity and heat. 

Everything else is good.  Congratulations to Kristin for getting your job in the math department.

Guino photo.

Got to post the self portrait.  I like the light weight PAck.

I just found a tick.  The black is where I keyed to burn it with a lighter.  Fun times.

On a lighter note, mailed one and three quarters of a pound home today.  Turns out I didn't need it.  Though my camera, iPod, journal, chargers and receipt collection will be missed.

Run town run

Well I tried twice last night to post, and after writing for an hour, I tried to publish my post, but it never showed. So this is the quick version.

A horrible bird, the whipperwill woke me up at 5:20 as predicted by many waters. Same spot to, on the table in front of the shelter in which I fitfully slept. MW has been here before I guess. My other shelter mate just rolled over and went back to sleep. I slept horribly last night, probably a result of the heat, and a blister forming under a callous on my left heal. I couldn't sleep on my back and stretch out as a result.

Normallybirds wake me at 5:50, then I lay there until six, when my watch alarm goes off. The alarm signals me to take my NoDoz caffeine pill, 200 mg of wonderful happiness. According to the package they're, "safe as coffee." I'll take one then fall back to sleep for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes the drug takes effect and I come flying into the world like David Lee Roth, ready to party throughout the day. How can any one waste time and effort on coffee out here, when you can get the caffeine you need in a pill?

Many Water's is also packing early to leave and we hang out a few minutes. He says it's fifteen switchbacks, and1800 feet to the top of the climb in front of me. I fly up the hill, then descend and start heading up the next climb, Bluff mountain, 3372 feet. Steps from the summit there us a plaque honoring, "The exact spot where little Ottie Cline's body was found." In 1881 Ottie was a month shy of five years old when he wandered from a schoolhouse seven miles away on a November day. He climbed well beyond the logical search area and died alone in the cold forest on a mountain top.

I hustle through the miles, Chinese buffet on my mind in Buena Vista, Va. There is no one out here today, just the squirrels and I.

I pass through evidence of former habitation along Brown mountain creek. This was a sharecroppers community according to an interpretive sign. Barely seen through the thick forest lies the evidence in the form of a few stone walls, slowly being returnind back to the forest. The sharecroppers were freed slaves who paid half of their crop to their landlord in exchange for the right to farm. If the farmer owned his own stock team he paid only a quarter of the crop. The mill located in this valley charged an eight of the crop. After considering these figures, it is hard to see how this differed from slavery.

Soon I'm at US 60, a much lonely road today then US 50. There is very little traffic, but thankfully a trail angel left two gallons of water and a bag of fruit and Rice Crisp treats. It takes nearly two hours to get a ride. A pickup passes then turns around and gets me. The driver tells me to be careful of the blood in back, he killed a ground hog in his yard this morning and somehow the blood made it to the truck.

Yes after two hours I accept a ride in the back of a bloody truck with hill jacks at the wheel. Riding in the back of pickups is a lot of fun, made more so on a near ten mile ride of windy mountain roads, with a southern mountain man at the wheel. They drop me at the Budget Inn, I don't want to head back to the trail now it is already almost six. Plus I need to take more showers to win the battle against all my heat rash getting infected. Some of the heat rash bumps are white and when I pinch them a little puss oozes out. A good reason to bathe.

After getting a room I head to the Canton restaurant. This town, a typical Appalachian trail town is surrounded by pointed thousand foot mountains. Pre civil war era homes are seen on the poking through trees, and false front buildings on Main street are probably post civil war construction.

The Chinese buffet is closesed for two months, so I head to Don Tequila's across the street. I expect that it will fail as far as Mexican food goes, but when I enter and see only smiling Latino waiting the tables and cooking, I know it will be great. True enough, it was the best meal of the trail. My dinner filled two plates.

After that I wrote this entry twice, each time taking an hour I could have done something else. Each time the post was lost. Now I learned to publish a little at a time, then edit and add more to the post. So as I'm writing my readers will see partial posts.

Happy fathers day!

Pulling a thirty

I was the first awake this morning at Johnny K's, and Fins trail magic event. The birds woke me at 6:02. They slept in. I almost did, I forgot to reset my alarm after town. I eat and brake camp every one else is still in their tents or hammock though. Except Fin, who comes by me making my stuff up, then leaves for town in his car to pick up breakfast supplies.

I take off, but make sure to say goodbye to Johnny K first, who is starting to stir. He apologized for not making me a huge pancake breakfast. I say its cool, I had a raspberry cream cheese danish that I brought from town.

I feel like giving a James Brown style scream while hiking the ridge above the sleeping camp, but decide to mercifully let the hikers sleep.

The trail magic was perfectly timed for me, right at the end of a twenty eight mile day. Another hikers, also named Penguin told me about it minutes before, when I passed him on the trail. The kind trail magicians were set up for four nights already. A large fire greeted me with a dozen smiling faces. A beer was quickly handed to me, and invites to chill at the fire, oxymoron, I know. I set up my tent nearby and enjoyed the festivities. Last to bed first up, that's me.

Today I really want to do a thirty mile day. Thirty miles would set me up nice tomorrow with a twenty two mile day into Buena Vista, Va. where there is a Chinese restaurant. I'm not sure if it's a buffet or not, but I'm definitely going. Then its just 55 more miles, an overnight to the Ming Garden Buffet in Waynesboro.

Im rocking this current 80 mile stretch that I'm cruising through in just two nights.

The miles go fast, soon I'm at a twenty person two story shelter, where I have a snack. After that the miles blur by as I gain elevation but still get ten miles down by noon. As the saying goes, "if you can do ten by noon and twenty by for, then you've got a thirty in the bag.

The long green tunnel opens occasionally allowing awesome views off the Blue Ridge, which I climbed onto again today. The trail crosses it numerous times in the roughly one hundred miles it parallels this famous road. Perfect weather makes for a great day.

About five o'clock, the clouds that were providing nice shade start threatening rain. I don't believe it will happen though, and gallantly hike on, defiant to the rumblings of thunder overhead. The sky opens up, though just barely. I use my Go-Lite umbrella for half an hour, then the sky clears.

There is a wide river meandering amongst mountains below me that I will soon cross, the James river. The descent is brutal after already doing a marathon today, but that's trail life. There are shelters on either end of the low stretch of trail near the James river three point eight miles apart. I'm shooting for the second one, securing my thirty today. Actually it will turn out to be thirty point three miles.

The first shelter has a tent in half of it, with a garland nailed across half the front. Protection against the gentle thunderstorm from this evening. There is a family of three there, so I day hello and let them know another hikers will be coming by shortly wanting to camp there.

I pass by and am soon hiking along the wide James river. The longest foot bridge on the trail crosses it. This bridge would be an excellent spot to camp if it was an hour later. The cool breezes off the water, one hundred feet from either shore would be welcome in the humid night. There are people fishing at the far end, which is near a road and several canoes in the water.

I push on eager to see the upcoming shelter. There is a group here but only three are staying in the shelter, the rest are tenting to avoid bugs. A trail magician, Many Waters is here and hands me a beer. A mile back at a road crossing he left cold Sunkist soda. The group of us hang out for a half hour, dark, then people head for there tents. Two shelterers decide to tent to avoid bugs, so I get to share it with only one other hikers.

Oh and this phone rocks. I love getting 3G service at shelters. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Daleville, Va.

I have a bling new HTC thunderbolt phone now, thanks to my parents. I saw a Verizon store yesterday and had to update my old pre paid phone. It will ne nice now to update more often.

I made it to Daleville,VA. Yesterday, "Ray day." It was a goal, to make it to 702 by this important day on the PCT. The day Ray Marine says you should get to the Sierra Nevada range on the Pacific Crest Trail. Well I made it to 719. Now I'm just lingering on the town vortex.

My parents set me up with a new phone yesterday too which was really awesome. I needed internet access and a smart phone for school, I'm taking three credits this summer. Also with this unlimited 4G data plan, I can update this blog more, and have better service in case of an emergency. Watching live radar on weather.com will be neat too.

The last few days have been great on the trail. There have been a few showers, but they didn't last long. I have rocked the miles, pulling a near 31 mile day, and the rest, since I last posted, were in the mid to upper twenties.

The landscape has been changing in my northeastern sauntering across Virginia too. Further south the land was isolated mountains with ridges and hills. Now the land is more akin to the basin and range of Nevada. There are long ranges running dozens of miles with long valley/ basins in between. The ranges traversed by us Appalachian trail hikers are home to the bear and the captors that circle the sky. The basins are lined with pastureland. The occasional civil war era town brakes the distance between cow pasture. Many protestant and Baptist churches serve the faithful folds between the rocky ridges which are often USDA forest service wilderness.

Virginia itself is different ad far as the town people go. Perhaps I am wrong to include this in a description, but the people are prettier here. The day hikers on the trail look and smell more civilized. Farther south it seemed as if people just didn't care about there appearance. Now people are fit and trim. The fragrant smells of bath soap can be sensed before a day hikers is seen, and when they do appear, they are nicely dressed, for the woods.

I like the AT. The trail is just cool. It is sad to see many hikers skipping miles already though. There is no need to avoid snow storms or the like, just an overwhelming distance to Katadin induces the skips. I am a purest here. I aim to do every mile of the Appalachian trail without skipping in one summer. When I finish I will be proud of my accomplishment.

Trying to leave Damascus

I decided to take a zero yesterday.  This small Virginia town is comparable to Etna, Ca. on the Pacific Crest Trail.  This however is the Appalachian Trail.  There is a place here, called The Place, which is owned by a Methodist church, and is a free hostel for AT hikers, and long distance bikers.  They ask for a $5 donation, which probably is often ignored by hikers.  I threw my Lincoln into the box.  The Place is right in town, and is a 6 bedroom house that other then the living room and kitchen, is full of bunkbeds.  I tented out in the yard, not being properly socialized enough to feel comfortable in a warm room with 6 other people.  Truthfully I'm starting to love my tent.

My first week out here I stayed in shelters every night.  Appalachian trail shelters are three sided structures that have a elevated floor for hikers to sleep on.  The sleeping capacity at the shelters I have seen so far range from five people to a twenty person barn, to the twenty four pack "Fontana Hilton."  A six to eight person capacity is the norm though.  That's eight hikers layed out right next to each other.  Tight.

I heard stories last night from the group of hikers that were camped near Wataunga Lake.  They took a zero day at the lake, camping there two nights and swimming around and resupplying in town the middle day.  It sounded really shitty.  First off some went to Hampton, Tn. to look for pot.  I decided to skip this town, even though it has a McDonalds.  They got completely hustled and ripped off by the locals.  Never give someone money and expect them to come back with your merchandise, especially when your just visiting some place that you will leave soon.  Someone did score though, and got a horrible deal on really bad weed.  Everyone in the town was a shithead according to these guys, and it seems like a good place to skip.  Back at the lake, the locals who are apparently a bunch of skinheads were playing on a rope swing all day by the hikers camp.  These losers all had swastika tattoos.  One of the local girls had Aryan Princess tattooed on her.  The hikers said that every last time they swung on the rope swing, they would yell, "White Power!"  Sounds like a horrible day.   Also one of the skinheads had two Rottweilers who attempted to kill another guys dog at the beach.  Horrible day, though they said the lake was nice to swim in.

Last night I saw a band at the local pizza place, then went to a bonfire that some local was having for hikers.  He is going to start letting hikers camp in his yard as a regular thing, I believe.  He had a few camping in his yard already last night.

Well now I'm heading back to the trail, which happens to go right by the door of this coffee shop, that I'm in.  The Appalachian trail goes right through Damascus, Va. the next resupply I have is in Atkins, Va. another walk through town.  I believe there will be many such towns on this trail where the AT goes right down Main St.

New pack, still in Damascus.

Well I tried really hard to leave town last night.  My afternoon of swimming in the river, which flows through the town park, with another hiker, Scout dehydrated me and I decided to get a sweet tea at the pizza place.  Scout was really cool.  She is doing a section this summer for a few weeks, and is headed back to Pennsylvania today for a wedding, with a friend.  She lives three miles from the Appalachian Trail up in Pennsylvania, and will be a great trail angel when I'm in the neighborhood, around July fourth.

There was quite the hiker herd at the pizza place, about 20 showed up.  I decided to eat my leftover pizza from lunch, and have some beers.  Fortunate for me, I decided to lapse into having a drink.  I haven't been drinking in town, in order to save money, and increase my speed.  Not paying for beer means I can eat better food at restaurants along the trail, and still save money.  Tonight I lapsed, and found out the pizza place had wifi.  I used my iPod to check my email, and saw that Zpacks shipped a new backpack, to replace my damaged one, here to Damascus.   The arrival date was yesterday Friday.  Wow, I screwed around all day and I have a new pack at the post office. 

Luckily this small town has Post Office hours on Saturdays from 9-11 AM.  I decided to stay the night, and joined the huge hiker party.  We stayed at the pizza place till 11PM, then we all went to Fire Tower's room in a really nice inn close by.  I couldn't stay awake with all the kiddies so passed out early, not before taking off my shoes.  Someone was kind enough to remind me to remove them.  If you pass out with your shoes on, it is completely acceptable for people to write on you with sharpies.  I was planning on sleeping in the park, by the river, but Fire Tower is very generous and offered his floor to me. 

This morning a nice continental breakfast filled me up, and I hit the post office.  My beautiful new pack was in, and I switched my gear into it.  I decided to mail my long underwear home along with the pack, and my platypus bag.  I decided that gatorade bottles would be lighter and more durable.

Damascus, Va.

Since leaving the Greasey Creek Friendly, I have started to run into the tail end of the herd.  The herd is the largest concentration of thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail.  Most of the herd started around the middle of march.  The back of the pack, the cool kids.  These hikers are fun but will slow you down, that's why they're at the back of the pack, not the front, 400 miles ahead.

There were two large packs of hikers near Watauga Lake two nights ago.  Large social gatherings are a draw for me, but I needed to make miles, it was still light out, so I continued past.  I found a place to roost on top of the Watuanga Dam, 646 feet long and 318 feet high.  My site was perfect, great views of the stars and a constant cool breeze off the lake, that was stronger then the bugs could bear. 

Yesterday I ended up doing 28.9 miles, even though I had several long breaks.  From Kincora hostel in Hampton, Tn. to Damascus, Va. is 56 miles.  People try to do this in a day.  Many people were trying to get from those two hiker groups to Damascus in a 40 mile day.  Many succeeded, though they were the true losers.  Those who chose to do 32 miles, 28.9 for me since I hiked further the night before, were rewarded with a Hiker Trash party at the Abingdon Gap shelter. 

A mile from the shelter was a road crossing were a pickup truck proudly displayed a Hiker Trash sticker.  I knew we were in for a treat.  Upon arrival at the shelter we saw a large bonfire a hundred yards away.  Brent the owner of the truck handed Caver and I both a beer (Caver gave his away.)  They then came to the shelter and invited us all over for a free concert in the woods, courtesy of the three Hiker Trash, Bobby, Seldom Seen, and Brent.  All of us near the shelter obliged and were rewarded with awesome trail magic; hot dogs with buns, potato salad, macaroni salad, whiskey, and great music.  Not a bad free show in the middle of the forest.

Our first trail magic of the day though, was a cooler along the trail in a metal crate that had crosses burned out of it with an acetylene torch.  Courtesy of a baptist church that has an Appalachian Trail ministry.  The cooler had Pepsi and other soda, then there was a tool box of cookies and a bottle of honey that wasn't sticky.  Plus pamplets with butterfly and frog facts.  Butterflys taste with their feet.

The library is closing so got to go.  But want to say I rocked the swimming hole in the Damascus town park today.  No cell service either.  Adios/