Day 67: Nothing Happened Today

May 13: Really! I told you! Nothing happened today! As far as hiking days go, it was pretty dull. I hiked another 19.0 miles, but I saw only one thru-hiker during that entire time: Beaker. And we passed each other heading in opposite directions—my going into a shelter and her leaving it—so except for about 30 seconds of trivial conversation, there’s not much to report.

I did catch Bostrich and Beaker at Big Meadow after I had finished hiking for the day. Bostrich had gotten to the store in time to buy some drinks, but Beaker had arrived too late and sat outside the locked door looking dejected. We got her a cold drink from the ice chest that Amanda had, though, and all was right with the world again.

But yeah, nothing really happened today, you’ll mostly just see a few of the photos I took along the journey. A photo, after all, is worth a thousand words!

Day 66: Snakes!

May 12: Amanda dropped me back on the trail at around 9:00, which wasn’t too bad considering I had come in from town. Towns can be hard to escape. =)

Amanda is in the area again!

At the first shelter of the day, just a mile or so into my day’s hike, I found a brand new water bottle filled with water. Nobody else was at the shelter and the bottle wasn’t a cheap or disposable thing. I had one just like it at home and knew that as far as water bottles go, it was a fancy one! Under the assumption that whoever forgot it would like it back, and that most hikers were heading northbound (at least among thru-hikers, we were), I picked it up and carried it with me. I didn’t even empty the bottle of the heavy water. If I did catch up with the owner of the bottle, it might be because I found their body on the side of the trail and they were dying of thirst! Anyhow, I was slackpacking, so my pack wasn’t all that heavy to begin with. A little extra water wouldn’t hurt.

Amanda had also brought a change of clothes for me to wear so I could leave my dirty ones behind, but she brought a rather heavy, dark, long-sleeved shirt which after about an hour of hiking, I had to take off. It was just too hot for it. And worse for me, the trail often crossed into open areas. Since I was slackpacking, I left my toiletries bag behind and had no sunscreen to wear. Most of the trail was in shade, but I was concerned that enough of it wasn’t that I might get a sunburn on my arms. Heat stroke or sunburn… tough choice, but I went with the sunburn option. Hopefully it wouldn’t even come to that, however!

In unrelated news, I was a bit amused when I arrived at the camp store for the Loft Mountain Campground to find it closed. They were renovating the building or something—it was all torn up! The part that amused me was that it was also closed during my thru-hike twelve years earlier—is this store ever open?! The last time I passed by, it was during a fierce storm that knocked out power to most of the park so they were closed for the day. Different reason, but seriously, what are the chances of the same store being closed both times I hiked passed twelve years apart?

I carried the water bottle for most of the day, never finding its owner. Amanda was to pick me up just before another shelter, however, so I passed the bottle off to Gold Bond to keep it heading north and hopefully find an owner. He had no intention of carrying it while it was full of water and dumped it out. Which was fine by me… the longer I went without finding an owner, the less likely I’d find an owner at all. Whoever it was, they had to have gotten water somewhere else by now!

Amanda picked me up at the end of the day at Smith Roach Gap. As I feared, I did suffer a small sunburn from all of my bare-armed hiking. Not ideal, but at least it wasn’t severe. We decided to drive into Harrisonburg for the night since Waynesboro was getting to be quite a lengthy drive. We checked into a Motel 6 and went out for Mexican for dinner. Life is good! =)

The camp store at the Loft Mountain Campground was looking a little torn up!

I remember hanging out under this covered area to get out of the rain during my first thru-hike, and the door was shut and locked with a note saying they had closed for the day due to a power outage. The door was open now, but there was definitely no goods for sale this time through either!

Wolverine stopped to eat lunch here, but the wind was so strong, it nearly blew his tortilla away. So I had him hold it up in the wind to get this photo of it flapping in the wind.

The last paragraph of this informational sign boasts that Shenandoah National Park hosts 95 miles of the AT and the trail crosses Skyline Drive 28 times. A whopping twenty-eight times! Frankly, I consider that a design error of the AT (which should be a wilderness experience), and the powers that by seem to be boasting that it crosses this road so many times. It shouldn’t be crossing roads that often!

Amanda, waiting for me at the end of the day’s hike! =)

Day 65: Into the Shenandoahs!

May 11: I woke up early, packed my bags and walked the half mile from the motel back to the Appalachian Trail. I had gotten off at Rockfish Gap, which marks the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the beginning of Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah Mountains.

Rockfish Gap

I filled out a backpacker permit at the entrance station for thru-hikers, but I suspected I wouldn’t really use it for anything since Amanda was flying out to visit. She’d pick me up off the trail and slackpack me through most of the Shanandoahs, but I filled out the permit anyhow just in case I didn’t get out of the park before she left. I’d need it then! And anyhow, I was still hiking with my full pack even though I didn’t intend to spend the night on the trail. I might have a hard time convincing a ranger that I wasn’t really planning to camp on the trail tonight when I had a full-sized pack on my back. I could just wave the permit around and say I’m thru-hiking. It’s true, after all!

I didn’t see many people on the trail. The whole day, I counted one southbound thru-hiker, one northbound thru-hiker, a two section hikers, and five day hikers. And two dogs. Which is pretty remarkable for Shenandoah National Park being such a famous and well-visited park!

The weather was once again hot and muggy and the trail had a relatively long 13-mile stretch with no water. It wasn’t an issue for me—I made sure to carry plenty of water to get me through the section—but it was bad water that heated up to the ambient air temperature which made the water warm and gross. I had water, but I had no way to keep it cool and refreshing!

Late in the day, I arrived at Blackrock Gap—the agreed meeting place I had set up with Amanda in advance, but she was nowhere to be seen. She must not have arrived yet, and I wondered if I should continue on to the next road crossing, but if I called her, would she get the message or wind up waiting for me at this road crossing even though I had already passed? I called her and was talking to her as she pulled up to the gap with cold drinks, watermelon and other goodies. Lovely!

Amanda drove us back towards Waynesboro for the night where we found a hotel and ate dinner at Five Guys.


Time to fill out a permit for Shenandoah National Park! It’ll be only the second permit I’ve needed for the entire trail! (The first was in the Smoky Mountains National Park.)


The trail crosses Skyline Road something like 28 times in about 100 miles! It’s kind of annoying, really, although it makes slackpacking with Amanda a lot easier with a lot of options for trail magic and meetups.

I might be hiking through a national park, but it’s definitely no wilderness!

This tree struck me as a little… obscene… There are kids hiking this trail!

This is where Amanda met me and swiped me off the trail! =)

Day 64: And into Waynesboro!

May 10: It didn't rain during the night nor even in the morning despite the small chance of it in weather reports, but my campsite had been invaded by a dozen or so millipedes during the night along with one stray snail. I flicked them off, packed up camp and headed down the trail.

It didn't rain during the night nor in the morning, but it sure looked like it could have!

Later in the morning, I caught up with a lone woman hiking along with a swing blade. It's a hand tool that's used to chop down vegetation along the sides of the trail and she was doing some trail work. We hiked together and chatted for a bit--her name was Laurie--and I apparently became inattentive towards the trail because I suddenly sprained my ankle and cried out in pain. I limped heavily at first, but mostly I was embarrassed. Here I was, walking from Georgia, and I suddenly sprain my ankle like I was a day-hiker.

Laurie was concerned about my ankle, but I told her it would be fine. I'll walk it off. I'd done worse (and I had done worse!), and the worst of the pain would likely pass quickly. The ankle would be tender for a few days, certainly, but I expected that the limp would stop after 10 or 15 minutes and I'd be fine after that--which is exactly what happened.

While we were walking, we came across another hiker named Little Boy Blue and just walking up to him, I knew that he was a little 'different.' He had tattoos on both cheeks and his forehead, and although I'm not 100% certain, they actually looked pretty permanent. Very bright and cartoonish, though, not unlike the ones I bought for the Four Horsemen earlier in the hike. Plus he had a ponytail--I guess it's a ponytail for lack of a better word--sticking straight up out of the top of his head. All his clothes were camo, but the effect was lost by his wearing shorts that exposed his bright, white legs.

Then he started to talk. I was in shock. I'd never seen anything like this guy. He talked like a young kid. He looked like he could have been 50, but he had a high-pitched voice and a manner of speech that resembled a young boy. He told us a story of a rattlesnake he had once seen, and jumped and rattled a finger in an imitation of a rattlesnake. The guy clearly had some sort of disability, but I couldn't even guess what it was. Watching him and listening to him talk, I was a little worried that maybe he was out of his element and might even be a danger to himself in the backcountry, but he had assured us that he had backpacked this section of trail many times before and eventually I decided that he wasn't a danger to himself--or anyone else for that matter. He was a very friendly guy, but wow--I'd never seen anything like this before. I kind of wish I knew more about what, exactly, his condition was, but it seemed rude to ask. I'm not even sure if he realized that he was "abnormal."

Proudfoot admires the view, or lack thereof.

Laurie's segment of trail work started at the shelter and she went to work whacking down grasses glowing alongside the trail, and I continued onwards to Waynesboro where I intended to spend the night. The rest of the day's hiking was uneventful. The trail crosses at Rockfish Gap, a few miles from the downtown core of Waynesboro, but a food truck was parked nearby--called King's Gourmet Popcorn--where I caught up with Proudfoot and I ordered a hot dog, fries and a Coke.

Tortoise, Hare and Voltron also caught up with me, and Voltron had called a trail angel to pick him up and take him into town. I decided to stay in a hotel about a half mile away and walk, but when his ride arrived to pick him up, he offered to drive me the half mile to the hotel as well so yeah, why not! Thanks, Trail Angel Bob! =)

Bob dropped me off at the Colony House Hotel. Knowing I didn't want to bother with getting a ride into town or a ride back from town, I thoughtfully had mailed myself enough food to the hotel so I could resupply without even leaving the hotel! I picked up my maildrop at the front desk while checking in and was ready to hit the trail again! I didn't, however. I had a hotel room for the night, after all.

Unfortunately, I did not have my laptop to get any real work done--that I had shipped ahead to Front Royal--so for the rest of the night I tried using my smartphone to get as much work done as I could. Which mostly consisted of answering emails and message board posts.

Some of the morning fog has started burning off!

This shelter had a memorial bench, but the thing that was unusual about this one was that it was in honor of someone who died during a Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike ten years earlier. Seemed like it should have been set up on the PCT as a warning to other thru-hikers to not walk into snowstorms unprepared!

Laurie cutting down growth alongside the trail with her swing blade.

Trail magic at Rockfish Gap! =)

The King's Gourmet Popcorn food truck.

Proudfoot got popcorn, but I got the hot dog, fries and Coke. Here Proudfoot is checking his data book about the trail ahead.

Day 63: To blue-blaze, or not to blue-blaze....

May 9: The day was beautiful, warm and sunny! Bugs were still bad, but the air didn't seem quite as thick with them as the day before. The heat didn't seem as oppressive either, but my gut feeling was that the temperatures were just as high--just the humidity was lower.

My big decision today was whether or not to take the Mau-Har Trail or the Appalachian Trail. Most of the time, obviously, I'm following the Appalachian Trail, but for those of you who missed it, this was my second time around. Doing the same trail can be tedious at times, but occasionally, there are small trails that loop off the Appalachian Trail then reconnect with it again further up. Typically they have blue blazes and thus the term "blue-blazing." Usually the term is used in a derogatory sense because most of the time, thru-hikers will use them as shortcuts.

In this case, the Mau-Har Trail was about 4 miles long and it would cut out about 7 miles of Appalachian Trail. It is a shortcut, but for me, it's not about shortcuts. Lord knows walking off trail to nearly every single shelter and viewpoint has added countless miles to my trek and I'll likely have hundreds of extra off-trail miles under my belt by the end of the hike. No, the reason I was drawn to this trail was because I heard it was filled with waterfalls. The Appalachian Trail, on the other hand, boasted of spectacular views along the stretch I'd be missing.

So I was torn. Did I want to see new waterfalls I'd never seen before, or scenic views that I had seen once before already? On the AT, waterfalls seem like a much more rare commodity than viewpoints so I'd rather see waterfalls.

But... it comes back down to the fact that it's blue-blazed. A lot of hikers will take every shortcut they can giving blue-blazers a bad name, but they'll be defensive about taking blue blazes and try to justify why they did so claiming about every excuse in the book except that it was shorter. I remembered a hiker telling me during my first thru-hike--one who had followed the blue blaze--that the trail was really hard and filled with great waterfalls, but I always wondered if he wasn't playing up the toughness of the trail or the waterfalls as an excuse for his blue-blazing.

So I was torn. I really wanted to see waterfalls, but I wasn't entirely certain my source of information was reliable. I almost wished it was a foggy, rainy day invalidating the views from the AT. My choice would have been easy then.

I thought about the decision all morning as I walked along, and even when I finally reached the junction of the two trails, I set down my pack and took a break. I still didn't know which direction I wanted to go.

Forrest, taking a photo of the view.

I mentally tallied a list of pros and cons for each route. People using Walking 4 Fun would probably prefer my staying true to the AT. Nobody would call me a blue-blazer if I followed the AT, but frankly, who cared? I'd already done the AT once before (and the PCT, and the Florida Trail, and the Arizona Trail), and I have a very strong sense that I have absolutely nothing to prove to anyone!

But I am re-hiking this trail specifically for Walking 4 Fun, so it made sense that I should think about what those users would prefer to see, and I figured they'd probably prefer to stay on the Appalachian Trail, and that's what I ended up doing.

During the long slog up the mountain, I met some day hikers who were making a loop out of their hike following the Mau-Har trail out then the Appalachian Trail back to their car, so I asked them about the Mau-Har trail--not that I had any intention at this point of backtracking if the reports were good. They did tell me that there were waterfalls. Not huge ones, but definite waterfalls. More interestingly, though, they described the trail as being far more difficult and steep than the one we were currently climbing. By their accounts, we were on the "easy" trail!

In the end, I think I made the right choice for Walking 4 Fun. On a personal level, however, I think I'd have preferred seeing the new terrain.

Late in the day, at the Maupin Field Shelter, another hiker signed the register "Forest." He had a big, bushy beard--among one of the biggest I've ever seen on a thru-hiker--and I didn't think twice about his trailname until he said he was named after Forrest Gump. Then the rest of us hikers told him that he'd been signing his name incorrectly--it should have been Forrest with two R's. He looked at his register entry and quickly fixed it... by adding "Forrest in the" before the name he had first signed so it now read "Forrest in the Forest." We got a kick out of that, but mostly we were amused that he didn't know how to spell his own trailname. That might have been a first on the trail! Although it was an understandable mistake--it's certainly pronounced the same as "forest."

Near dusk, I set up camp on a small rocky patch just off the trail about a mile past the Three Ridges Overlook of the Blue Ridge Parkway (MM 13.1). About a half hour later, Tortoise and Hare joined me and we chatted until dark.

That was it! Nothing else happened today! =)

That's my shadow down there as I crossed the bridge!

Another typical shelter along the trail. That's Bullet on the left. I forget who was sitting at the table, and with his back turned to me, I can't even recognize him!

Staying on the AT provided some great views along the way!

Another awesome view from Chimney Rock!

These guys were EVERYWHERE!!!!

The Blue Ridge Parkway