Shenandoah National Park

The day before I entered the Shenies, I had a great day. I woke up at Blackburn Trail Center and the sun was shining once again through clear blue skies. Breakfast was good; half a box of reese's cereal. Stumblewolf and I hiked together all morning. We talked the whole way. He is a great dude, but not a strong hiker. I'm really impressed by his determination! Watched him fall twice that day through a rough section of trail called the rollercoaster. I can't remember if I've talked about him before. Here is his story if I haven't. When Stumblewolf was young he had a brain aneurysm that put him in a wheelchair. No one thought he would walk again, but after 4 years he did. He still doesn't have good use of the left side of his body. Wathcing him hike, and hearing his story is truely inspirational. He is very positive about everything, and a friend to everyone! At one point in the day he made this comment after we talked about how nice it was seeing each other again, and talking about how it would be nice to hike together for a while. I said 'Yeah it would be great to hike together for a while!' and he said "Yeah cuz we're having a blast together!" I hope you see the beauty in that, like I saw at the time, despite my poor retelling of the story. He didn't even check to see if that was how felt about it, but just assumed. I remember thinking this guy has a heart of gold, and that is definitely one of the reasons I like him. I felt bad leaving him at Bear's Den Hostel, but he said it was up to me, and we had only gone 7 by 1P. As you can imagine, I was itching to burn some trial by then, so I left. It would be nice to stay, and I worry about him through the rocky parts, but I reasoned that it is unfair for both of us for him to burden me with doing that.

I took a shower at Bear's Den, and started off towards Rod Hollow Shelter. It felt great to stretch out my legs, and go fast! The hike was long, and became even longer when the spring was dry at Rod Hollow. By then it was 5:30P, and I'd had my fill of hiking for the day (17m), but only had 8oz of water left, and I can't operate on that. So, I set out again towards the streams about 3m down the trail thinking 'O.K. I'll get some water there and find a place to camp close by.' Well, the water was there, good water too, but the campsites were not there. I ended up pushing on 6 more miles all the way through Ashby Gap and Sky Meadows State Park to Dick's Dome Shelter. I got there late, around 8:30P, and was super glad to be there! Should've followed Dad's advice back when I was in Memphis and replaced the headlamp batteries, because my headlamp was extremely dim. I had to night hike for a good 30 minutes. My thoughts at the time were something like 'Oh shit! I'm going to be stuck out here with no idea where I am, in the middle of the trail, no light to guide me. If my headlamp goes, I can't see, so I'll just feel around for a flat spot in the trail and lay there until morning! hopefully no bears will come.' Some backup plan huh? I made sure to get batteries 2 days later at the wayside in the Shenies. I really liked hiking at dusk, and in the state park. So, that is how a short day turned into a long day (26m total).

The next day I entered Shenandoah National Park; making sure to get the permit when I passed the info booth. The trails are pretty easy and flat, and I'm really enjoying Virginia! I've been seeing a ton of apple trees, and even spotted a peach tree in front of Gravel Springs Hut! Pretty cool. Friday night I was again blessed with more company. When I arrived at Gravel Springs, I met Antspants and Yaw; two SOBOs. Yaw has a crank radio, and Antspants make great fires! They're fun guys. Friday was a long day and I was glad to be done with it. When we woke up Saturday morning there was a black bear roaming around the camp! That was cool. It let us get a good view before scurrying back into the woods for cover. Saturday we left the shelter around 10A; a late start for me. It was good timing because we hiked the 7m to the wayside for lunch, but I don't like getting started so late. Saturday, like all the rest was a beautiful day as well! We got to the wayside, and met two other hikers going south from Duncannon. The 3 man wolfpack was now 5 strong. Those other two guys were cool, but are also the drink lots, hike slow type and Yaw got sucked in with them for the day. He packed out 2 sixers of bud from the wayside, and we still had 12m to hike to get to Byrds Nest #3 Shelter. Those other two guys didn't make it either, because they not only packed out beer, but were hauling 35 pound or so packs (it looked like).

Antspants and I ended up at the shelter with two more SOBOs, Guac and Queso. Guac does yoga, and has been doing it for 2 years. I've been doing some basic yoga now for the past several days, and it is helping out a ton! I'm stretching muscles on my legs that I've never stretched before. After doing yoga that first night, my legs felt so good; like they were melting. It also rained all night and quit early morning! I slept like a baby. Had some trail magic Honey Buns from breakfast from a guy who brought Antspants some new batteries for his watch-battery headlamp. Sunday morning was beautiful, and I got some great shots of the hike. That was the last day I hiked with those guys. The last two days I hiked longer in order to zero here in Waynesboro today. They are actually here at the library with me right now though! So we are all camping out behind the YMCA and using the showers. What a nice gesture to the hikers!

The last two days I saw some more bears, and just hiked my heart out. The last 17m of the Shenies were dry. No water at all! So I got pretty dehydrated the last little bit coming into town. It is nice having sunny great weather, but I passed three water sources that were completely dried up! Being dehydrated is the worst. Hope to never have that happen again! I think I'm going to resupply next in Glasgow, VA in 4 days. Long Mtn. Wayside is 3 days away, so I'll only need that much food, then I can get food for another day there. Well, I can share more, but I'm afraid of writing too much. So, love yall and thanks for reading!!! God bless! Until next post :)

The Kid