Apparently NOBO hikers often pick up an unwanted case of the Virginia Blues. I could understand their trouble while crossing during the heat of the summer. Afterall, there are more than 500 miles of A.T. in VA, so the sense of accomplishment of crossing a state line is long gone for a while.
But Virginia in the fall-time is amazing! There's nothing blue about it! Autumn's peak foliage came around October 20th while passing over the rolling ridges of Shenandoah National Park. The higher elevations have since turned brown and wind-blown, while the drainages near the valley floors begin to display their fall color. Bob Ross would have a field day out here! The diversity of colors across a forest presents the viewer with a revealing landscape. I love it when I can spot a mono-culture of Tulip-polpars or even a single Maple tree from miles away! The golden hues of the Ash trees are speckled with burgundy Oak. Magenta stalks of pokeweed rise through red stripes of Virginia Creeper. Orange is best displayed by our beloved Sassafras tree. The ripe Spicebush buds have made nice flavor additions at the camp stove.
Time for Tea
Reunion with the BassTerds
On the morning of October 14, I woke up in Manasas Gap shelter with a wet sleeping bag. There was an electric storm the night before, but Foxtrot <NOBO '97> and I stayed mostly dry. But later as I fell asleep the drizzle-cloud-mist must have lightly blown in far enough to dampen my sleeping bag and extra clothing. So the pack weight to start out the day was uneccessarily 4 pounds heavier just from water weight. Early in the afternoon I reach the road into Front Royal to find success hitch-hiking while donning a blaze-orange hat and bright-yellow rain jacket. It sure is nice to be visible on these high-speed corridors. Front Royal ended up serving my needs for laundry and cheap Mexican food at Jalisco's.
I hadn't seen the Bastards3 since parting at the Watermelon park on October 1st. Not only did they all successfully complete the Harper's Ferry marathon, but Bogart formerly known as SpecialEffect took 8th place overall. The young bucks had become the most popular people in Harper's Ferry overnight. While handing out awards and delivering final anouncements at the end of the marathon, the man behind the microphone brought attention to the boys from the A.T. "I want you all to know that these guys here are thru-hiking the whole Appalachian Trail and without any training for this race they decided to run... If you see them tonight be sure to buy them a beer!" sooo......Well let's just say that Denim Chicken and Coach got nice and 'sauced up' that night. After the marathon, the bastards3 retured to Port Clinton, PA to complete the missing gap in their thru-hike. Then, after reaching Caledonia SP near Gettysburg, Powder River provided the car ride back into Virginia where I eventually met up with them.
Outside Front Royal..... Back on trail on up to Floyd Shelter... "Is that T-Mello?" says Coach. I turn around to find the 3Bastards climbing the hill below. Tag said "I knew it was you when I saw those crazy socks!" We exchanged hugs right on the trail, and there happened to be some trail magic just up the way. A flip-flopper by the name of SweetTea happened to live directly on the trail outside Front Royal. She left all hikers a cooler holding a pitcher of SweetTea and some other goodies. The next day we decided to take a 'zero day' at Floyd Shelter and wait up for our companion Bobwhite. This gave us some town time to run errands and reconnect with family and friends. I got to meet up with Susan, United Plant Savers coordinator, and talk about the "Penny a Mile for the Plant Savers" fund-raiser. Susan took her three kids, the three bastards and I to Spelunker's burger joint. I got a chocolate milkshake and french fries. Here we met up with trail angel Mitch <NOBO '98>. She and Skylar dog hiked with us up to Floyd Shelter for the night. Next day Mitch slackpacked me into Shenandoah and made sure I wouldn't miss my weekly ritual of watching the Ravens play football on the TV.
Here I am crossing into my home-state...the MD barefoot challenge was short lived
(October 7th 2011 was 18 miles from Caledonia to PEN-MAR)
A great sunset from PEN-MAR county park
This is Maddison aka ChillsonWilson signing into her first A.T. register
Now that I am close to my hometown of Baltimore, I have been so lucky to have back-to-back days with visits from family. Big sister Debbie, niece Maddie, and nephew Reilly aka TigerBlood got to go hiking with their Uncle Ted. This photo was taken at PotomacATC's Blackburn Trail Center in Virginia on October 11th 2011.
October 26th 2011
We <Tag, Bogart, Coach, and Bobwhite and I> have been cranking out the miles, averaging 18 a day. A walk through Shenandoah National Park took us 6 days. There is going to be a large gathering of hikers for the upcoming Halloween weekend. Powder River and more friends from Baltimore will join us for this festive weekend. Two days ago we all met trail ledgend Warren Doyle, who claims to have walked the entire A.T. 16 times. He is now a professor of the A.T. teaching at his AT Institute based in Mountain City, TN near Damascus, VA. With Warren Doyle was Jean, a prospective 2012 NOBO from Baltimore. She is learning the ropes from the master himself. Mr Doyle used the 5 of us seasoned SOBO's as teaching examples. "Notice Jean their footwear... running shoes, not boots" Warren had a well worn style about him. His hiking pole was a vintage 1980's white ski pole with dayglow splashings up and down its length. For water Warren carried only a small tin cup, not a plastic water bottle. I've seen the old black and white videos of Myron Avery and others using a similar dipping method for drinking water. This means they must "water up" at the source, instead of carrying the bottle with cap long distances for no reason.
The view off of Hanging Rock deserved a long hang-out session atop Three Ridges mountain. I hurried down the mountain switchbacks which included a Konnarock Trail Crew 2008-2009 relocation at the MauHar trail junction. I see a light at the bottom. It's gotta be them. My favorite drinking buddies. Rogebo and Marbo were waiting for me with a cooler of beer and a pack of cigars at the Tye River suspension bridge. Rogebo said he saw my headlight through the dark woods tracking left to right / right to left as I descended the switchbacks. And finally here I was hanging out with the Bubs about 30 minutes before kickoff.
Slackpacking is always a touchy subject for fellow thru-hikers. Generally, if one person in a group decides to slack-pack, then he or she should rightfully recieve a raft of shit from the rest of the group. Roegbo and Marbo offered slackpacking services the next day, Tuesday October 25, and this time all accepted the slackpack minus Bobwhite. Without a good map, I wrote down the A.T. road crossing on paper for the Bubs trusting they would get good directions from a local townsman. Rogebo and Marbo ended up going to the wrong crossing that day. When me and the bastards orginally laughed at Bobwhite for carrying a full pack up and over the Priest we didn't know that our packs including warm clothing and sleeping bags would not be recovered until we had all hovered around a campfire for 4 hours in the dark cold night. But all was recovered, and we will all think twice the next time someone offers to slack pack us.
