Southern hospitality and bears!
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2010
1
20
26
Trip End
Ongoing
Front Royal, Virginia
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Woke up with my knee hurting. Had to zero at the Dutch haus.
Had to leave Nobody. Hung around all day Braids On the Loose showed
up along with the section hikers eagle, kneecap, cheese and..... Knee
cap gave an extra knee brace! Hitchcock and bulldog were also
zeroing there. Bulldog is the blind lawyer trying to thru hike!
After an amazing dinner we went into the sauna. 220 degrees was way
to hot couldn't last 20 minutes!
5/26
got a ride from Earl the b&b owner to Waynesboro. 30 miles up
the trail. When I finish I'll have to come back and do that part.
Zeroed at the quality inn. Met up with Nobody. Then later we went to
a country karaoke bar! Watched the Celtics lose! After the locals
got done singing the rap music came on! WTF.
5/27
zeroed again rested my knee. Did nothing ate a lot and watched
TV. Talked to johnny horrigan. He's coming to harpers ferry on the
6! Can't wait to share this experience with him!
5/28
woke up early. Got a shuttle to the trail with nobody and
tiller-man (a 50ish contractor from ME). Hiked slow knee didn't feel
too bad. Ended up doing 19 miles. About 2/10 of a mile from the
shelter the sky opened up! Got drenched! Saw a deer today had some
trail magic h2o! Also entered the Shenandoah mountains! So far pretty
cool! Saw my first bear! He came by the shelter and was looking at
our food bags that were hung up. There was 10 people in the shelter
and he didn't care he was 10-15 feet away!!! Then he just wandered
away in no hurry. I'm sure we'll see him again! Well we did see him
again. He circled around and came around from the back.
5/29.
High top hut 21.4 miles. Saw another bear! This guy was in a
tree above the trail. Scared the shot out of me. I thought it was a
squirrel until I looked up and saw a freaking bear 30 feet up in a
tree. He growled and hit a branch, then I let him be in a hurry.
Stopped by a camp ground. Got a ride to the camp store from a couple
of guys. Had a ice cream, coffee, Twinkie, cheese and crackers and a
Gatorade. Not bad for a second breakfast. Rest of the day was easy
hiking. A lot of people were out because of memorial day weekend. We've
been walking parallel to the skyline parkway so we're always hearing
cars. The Forrest however is really pretty and full or ticks! I
pulled 4 off of me today! I hate ticks!
5/30
another 24 mile day. We hiked to the camp store and had lunch.
Lunch was a total of 1500 calories! We hiked some more to this
restaurant in a camp ground. Me and Nobody ended up at the bar.
Nobody had a friend who was in town. Amy grew up in Front Royal and
was home visiting her parents. So Amy met us for dinner. After
dinner we had 3 more miles to go. Amy also brought leftovers and a 6
pack. Me an Nobody hiked off into the night with a beer can in one
hand hiking poles in another and our headlamps on.
5/31
memorial day! A short day. 17 miles. Woke up to several deer
grazing around the shelter. There was also another bear sighting this
am. We hiked a quick 7 miles to make it in time for a breakfast buffet
on skyline drive. I wasn't feeling to good after breakfast. Just
depressed and not wanting to hike another 20 more miles. So Nobody
called Amy and she rearranged her schedule to help us out.
So we would hike 10 more miles then she would bring us home to her
dads house. We left breakfast in better spirits. Then it started to
downpour. So we hiked some more and came upon this picnic area. There
was a Iranian church group there. They welcomed me Nobody and another
hiker called Nap time (a 19old girl from Maine) with open arms. I had all kinds of different
middle eastern food. We stayed at the picnic for a while. What a good
time! Then we hiked to the road and Amy brought us to her dads
house. We showered her step mom washed our clothes. Then we went out
for pizza! What a way to make a gloomy day better.
6/1
28 miles slack pack. So we started off the day flying! Did 10
miles in 2 1/2 hours. Stopped at a grill on skyline drive had an
amazing blackberry milkshake and a cheese burger and fries. Then had
to hike another 18 miles after lunch. We hiked from 8 am till 8pm. I
saw tons of deer some only a few feet away. I left the Shenandoah
national park. At the end p the day Amy picked us up. Her dad and
step mom cooked us a amazing supper then I went to bed early.
6/2. Short 9 mile slack pack. Woke up at 9 . slept 11 hours after a
long day yesterday. Started at 10 finished by 1pm 10 miles in 3
hours. Amy's dad picked me up then we all went out for lunch. : )
just wanted to say thank you to Amy and her family. they opened their door to a stranger
and treated me like family. without the kindness of strangers this trip would so much more difficult than it already is.
Comments
Wholly cow, those bears look a little to close for comfort! I'm happy to hear that your knee is feeling better and that Horrigan will be joining you soon! I'm sure it will be good to see a familiar face. You boys be careful and watch out for those bears!