Miles Hiked: 12.7
Miles Left: 1319.8
Ending Location: Calf Mountain Shelter, Mile 865.5

I was feeling much better in the morning but it was still a struggle dealing with my heat rashes. Part of it was simply getting used to the new clothing choices forced on me by the weather. Normally I hike covered up as much as possible. Long pants, long sleeved shirts, and a hat. The less skin showing the better as it protects me from bugs, the sun, and my own general clumsiness. Usually the extra heat caused by this isn’t an issue or is something I just deal with but now I’m finding myself hiking in shorts and with my sleeves rolled up. It’ll take some getting used to. The worst part of it though are the ticks. My permethrin treated pants had been doing a great job of keeping them off but now with just bug spray I’m finding them all over my legs. Let me tell you, ticks scare me way more than bears as they easily could end my hike thanks to Lyme disease.

Upon reaching Rockfish gap, I headed to Waynsboro’s visitors center which I thought was right across the road. Nope, it was on top of a ginourmous hill instead. Luckily there was a kettle corn van at the bottom so I was able fortify myself with hotdogs and soda before I started the climb. The reason I was going there was I wanted to refill my water bottles, recharge my phone, and get some information about the Shenandoahs before I entered them. I failed on all three counts. It was the most unhelpful visitor’s center I’ve ever seen. When I asked them about the backpacker registration for the park I was treated with a rant, detailing how the gov’ment was always trying to steal our money, before the two people there said they had no idea about any park registration. The same thing happened when I asked about camping in the park vs staying in the shelters. They did give me a hiker gift bag though that had a copy of the bible in it… They insisted I take it and it ended up being a couple of days before I could find a trash can to throw most of the contents of that gift bag away. I left that place pissed.

Upon entering the park though I ran into a ranger collecting backpacker registrations from the self check-in booth. She was more than helpful and answered all my questions. Registration and entrance to the park was free for AT through hikers. They just required it since they like to have an idea of how many people there were and where the clumps of hikers would be. You could camp in the park. You just had to be 20 feet from the trail and 50 feet from the streams. Oh, and she also highly recommended to not camp on animal trails unless you like being woken up by a bear. And yes, with close to 300 bears in the park I’d probably see one but the main thing was just not to panic. It was refreshing talking to her after dealing with the people in the visitors center.

The actual AT trail itself through the Shenandoahs was … weird. It was by far the best maintained trail on the AT and with the exception of some of the climbs there were almost no obstacles to walk around. For the part I hiked today there were also no views but a whole lot of ups and downs. I actually am having a hard time describing it, but the trail design was very distinctive. It took a while to grow on me but looking back on it I’m going to miss it. The way it was set up, even though it was anything but flat it let you maintain a steady pace that really let you bang out the miles. Because of that I found myself at the shelter before five. Remembering the bears, and not wanting to hike another 13 miles to the next shelter I ended up setting up my tent and staying for the night. It was a good thing I arrived early because it was the start of Memorial Day weekend and the shelter along with all the tentsites around it quickly became filled up with weekend campers. Well, actually I think the shelter was empty that night but that was were everyone was hanging out. This was a complication I hadn’t expected but it actually turned out for the best. No way a bear was going to be able to get me then!

Ticks are way scarier than bears!

Miles Hiked: 13.6
Miles Left: 1332.5
Ending Location: Paul C Wolfe Shelter, Mile 852.8

I had a decision to make this morning. Should I take another zero day in the hotel or head out to the trail? Owl and crew were leaving that afternoon to start their aqua blazing adventure so if I wanted a ride to the trail from him I had to take advantage of that then. Admittedly I could have instead hired a taxi/shuttle the next day if I zeroed but the costs start adding up and more importantly every zero day put me farther behind my friends and lessened the chances of me finishing on time. It’s not like I have a deadline but I’d really like to finish the AT before September!

As you could have guessed by reading the miles hiked stat at the top of this post, I decided to go out and hike today. I figured I’d take things easy and if I started to get sicker or my leg rashes spread I could still head back into town. Heck if I made good time I could even stay in a hotel for the night as Rockfish gap was coming up and that was the main hitch point into Waynsboro. There even was a hotel right at that gap if I arrived too late to catch a ride into town.

Once on the trail though I did anything but make good time. It turns out the rashes I was dealing with were heat rashes as they started to break out on my arms as well. I had to take things slow, keep cool, and drink lots and lots of water. I also took some benedryl to keep the itching down so I was walking in a haze. The medicine helped during the hot part of the day but as evening set in I did not take another dose as I did not like being on it and having to negotiate obstacles with a pack on my back.

I met a number of AT hikers I hadn’t seen before. Taking a couple of low milage days and then a zero will do that. I’m not sure if I made a good first impression as I wasn’t exactly the most cheerful person in the world but it was good to talk to them. Most of them had seen a bear but I must have completely missed. Everyone was also excited about getting into Waynsboro so I was able to give them the lowdown of the town thanks to my recent stay there.

Throughout the day I was also trying to get back in the habit of taking side trails to see the views. I was very happy I did that as not only were there some great spots but I ran into a vey nice couple out for a short backpacking trip. The guy remarked that he always missed vegetables when hiking so he had brought way too many and he then offered me some. That had to be the healthiest trail magic I’ve received to date and it was much appreciated!

At the shelter I ran into Gargoyle, a soft spoken college student hiking the AT, and a group of brothers, all of whom were middle aged and had traveled across the country to meet up and go backpacking. It was a fun group and the shelter itself was so nice I ended up staying in it vs setting up my tent like I normally do. Usually this is where I’d say I had no problems sleeping that night, but I was itching something awful. Eventually though sleep did come and once it did I didn’t wake up again till the morning.

Hey all, thanks once again for reading my journal! There’s a couple items I wanted to talk about so here you go:

First, as you may have known already, my friend Owl is hiking for the “Hike for Mental Health” charity this year. It’s a really good cause and he came up with an inventive fundraiser for it. For every dollar donated to it, he’ll wear a kilt for one hour on the trail. Personally I think he should come up with stretch goals such as if he breaks 5k he has to carry a battle axe too, but it’s a start :p If you want to help fund innovative research that’ll make the world a better place while at the same time making the AT more colorful please check out how to donate at Brian Hikes Home

Second, as you may have picked up from the few journal entries I have posted lately, I’ve come down with a hard case of the Virginia Blues. It really crystallized this week though. I’ve been missing home as last weekend was the qualification round for the Defcon Capture the Flag competition. It’s basically like the World Cup for hacking. I of course was unable to help out and my team did not advance into the finals. I’m not saying that I would have been able to change that but still I really would have liked to share in that defeat vs wondering. Plus those things are tons of fun. Then while out in the woods I came down with Norovirus which is a really bad stomach bug. That was not a pleasant experience. To top things off, after I was over that yesterday I broke out in rashes all over my legs. So my body really isn’t cooperating with getting me out of Virginia. Finally I had been planning on Aqua blazing with a bunch of friends which would have involved canoeing down the Shenandoah river but since I’ve been sick and don’t want to skip any sections of the AT I had to pass on that opportunity. I’m not saying this just to complain, but to put in perspective how much I appreciated Sunshine, (one of the many friends I’ve made on the trail), sharing her experiences with the Virginia Blues as well. I recommend you checking it out over at her and YoungBeard’s blog Life is Short Do Epic Sh**

Third, as several people have commented, I’ve been slacking on my updates. I still haven’t figured out how or even if I’ll get caught up but expect a lot of “stub” entries for a while. I’ll probably also be writing entries out of order as I might just hit a few of the high, (or low), points of the last two weeks. I realize that makes following this journal harder but I have to spend some time on the trail vs pecking on my phone ;p

Thank you all once again for your support and well wishes. I’m going to finish this trail! This journal on the other hand, eh it’s a work in progress 🙂

Miles Hiked: 11.2
Miles Left: 1346.6
Ending Location: Mile 839.2, Three Ridges Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Quality Inn, Waynesboro VA

I strongly considered taking another zero day today, but the next eleven mile section included the Three Peaks which represented the biggest sustained climb I’ll see until I hit Vermont. Now normally that would be even more reason to take a zero, but the chance to slack pack that section was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So after grabbing an iced frapachino from a local coffee place, Owl dropped me off at the trail.

The first half of the hike went great. I wasn’t exactly bounding up the mountain but I was feeling pretty good. Around the second half though my legs started breaking out all over in rashes. It was all I could do not to scratch them and I just felt horrible. I texted Owl and let him know I needed evac off that mountain ASAP. The original plan had been for everyone to go out to a local brewery but I was in no mood for drinking. In fact I was really scared. What the heck was going on with my body? Also with everyone leaving the next day, what should I do on my own?!

For the record Owl offered to stay behind as well but I let him know I’d be pissed at him if he passed up canoeing on my account. I can rent a car if need be or get a ride to a medical clinic on my own. I really appreciated the offer though.

That night was rough. My legs were on fire, I had Pizza Hut for dinner vs hanging out at the pub with my friends, and I had doubts on if I’d even be able to finish my through hike. In short I had a serious case of the Virginia Blues. To end this post on a high note thoug, as I’m writing this right now I’ve managed to hike over a hundred more miles and am in excellent health, so the blues do pass. But yeah it was a rough night.

Still not exactly sure what all this sign was trying to tell me, but I’m pretty sure if you enter this in your video game controller you get 50 extra lives in Contra

Miles Hiked: 0
Miles Left: 1357.3
Ending Location: Mile 828.0, VA 56 road crossing, Quality Inn, Waynesboro VA

I had talked with Owl the other day about slack packing the next 30 miles of the trail. My problem was I didn’t want to skip any sections of the AT. While aqua blazing officially counts for the section it runs along, I still had to make it to the jump off location if I wanted to keep my through hike honest. Everyone was waiting in town for the water level in the river to go down, the recent rains had made it too dangerous, which gave me about two days to hike those 30 miles. 30 miles in two days while slack packing is totally doable … unless you are getting over being sick. Realizing that it would be nuts to hike today given how I was feeling I opted to take a zero day instead. This left me with a very difficult decision though. I had to choose if I wanted to skip a section or skip aqua blazing with my friends.

In the end I decided to give up on canoeing and hike the Shenandoahs instead. This wasn’t an easy decision and it was made harder when I went to Walmart with everyone and got to see how much fun they were having getting ready for their adventure. Still looking back on it, I totally made the right decision.

Not much more to say about today. I did laundry and grabbed a very salty burger at the Green Leaf, (I probably should have sent it back to the kitchen but I hate doing that). Mostly I just slept a lot which is what I rally needed.

Miles Hiked: 4.8
Miles Left: 1357.3
Ending Location: Mile 828.0, VA 56 road crossing, Quality Inn, Waynesboro VA

That morning my fever had broken and I was able to eat some solid food for the first time in 24 hours. Feeling better, Owl arranged to rent a car from Enterprise and have them pick us up at the trail head. With their free pickup and drop off policy, Enterprise is often jokingly referred to as the Enterprise taxi service by hikers as it often can be cheaper to rent a car for the day than hire a shuttle. After that it was just a matter if hiking the remaining four miles to the road which still wasn’t all that much fun. What I really wanted was a bath, air conditioning and a bed.

It took our driver quite a while to find us. I’m not giving him a hard time. I’m actually still surprised we were able to say “pick us up on some random stretch of country road and here’s a gps location if that’ll help” and actually have someone show up. The driver was a retired cop who had some good stories and I’m pretty sure annoys the daylights out of everyone else at the office. He made several comments such as, “Well that’s what happens when you let 25 year olds run the place…” On the plus side, he told the manager he used the tip Owl gave him to buy gas so we had that taken off our bill.

Checking in to the hotel, even though it was 4:30 our rooms were still not clean and ready for us. I was not amused as I wanted that shower now! The rooms were cleaned though so soon enough so was I. After that it was nap time. Later that night a bunch of people went out to the AYCE Chinese buffet. Backing up a bit, several of our old friends had been waiting in Waynesboro for us so that we all could rent canoes and go aqua blazing along the Shenandoah river together. A lot of them like Youngbeard, Sunshine, and Vegimite I hadn’t seen since we had gotten off the trail for a week when Owl had his intestinal difficulties so I really wanted to hang out with them. At the same time I was ravenously hungry. All I had eaten in the last 48 hours was two energy bars and just because I was sick didn’t mean my metabolism had been put on hold. So that’s a longer way of saying that even though in retrospect it sounds like a really dumb idea, I went out to Chinese along with everyone else. It was actually a very enjoyable evening and I had a great time, but at the end of it I was feeling very tired and declined to go out for drinks afterwards.

Then it was back to my room and back to bed … for at least a couple of hours anyways. I won’t be too graphic but I awoke that night to a demonstration of what happens when you attempt to shove five pounds of Chinese food into twenty feet of empty tubing. It was a very uncomfortable experience but I made it through it without blowing out my gut so I count that a success.

Miles Hiked: 6.6
Miles Left: 1362.1
Ending Location: The Priest Sheltet, Mile 823.2

I woke up this morning with a bad stomach bug. It was really disheartening since I had been feeling so good the night before. My insides were iffy but after taking some medicine it solidified enough for Owl and I to start hiking to the next shelter. The idea was we’d then be closer to the road if I needed to get into town. We made progress but I was very unsteady on my feet and I had to take several breaks. We also bypassed the side trail to Spy Rock. It was a little annoying when all the other hikers walked past us talking about how awesome it was, but I was not in the mindset to appreciate scenic views.

When we finally made it to camp I was completely spent. There was no way I was going to be able to continue on to the road so I set up my tent and crashed for the day. By that point my main problem wasn’t intestinal distress but a bad fever that pretty much knocked me out. I briefly considered taking ibuprofen to tone the fever down, but I wanted it to do its thing and kill whatever was infecting my gut. So that was pretty much my day, lying in my tent feeling sick. One strange thing though. That night a couple hikers broke out banjos and fiddles and started playing. Owl backs me up on the fact that it really happened and wasn’t me hallucinating, but I’ve now heard banjo music in the south. They were pretty good too!

Miles Hiked: 18.3
Miles Left: 1368.7
Ending Location: Seeley Woodworth Shelter, Mile: 816.6

The river had gone down over the night but there was still no dry path across it. While Owl and I were debating what to do another hiker came by, took off his shoes, and then waded right across it. Oh right, it’s water and not lava! After realizing that fact crossing the river wasn’t a problem.

Right before the big climb of the day we came across some amazing trail magic. It was being given out by Uncle Buc who had attempted to hike the AT this year but dropped out after the Smokies. He had driven nearly two hours to give hikers soda, food, and offer them rides into town. It was kind of funny since everyone’s initial reaction was to just grab fruit, but by the end of it they were like, “Yeah I’ll have a second bag of chips and another Mountain Dew!” Apparently he had driven a couple hikers to the grocery store to resupply and one of them had left their Mentos in the truck so I volunteered to try and catch up and return them. I figured even if I didn’t catch them, free Mentos for me.

So with our bellies full Owl and I headed up Cold Mountain. It was a bit of a climb with about three thousand feet of elevation gained. Despite that I was feeling great and made speedy progress up the mountain. The top of it was a bald which I wasn’t expecting and offered some of the best views since Roan mountain. The downside was there was about a million boy scouts and weekend campers about. Due to the crowds there was no temptation whatsoever to stop early at one of the many campgrounds along the way. When I finally arrived at the shelter I felt like I could do another ten miles. Sky’s friend was there and I found out he was the hiker with the Mentos so I handed them back and he shared them with everyone. I can’t remember his name but he was just hiking a section of the trail. You could tell he wasn’t a through hiker since he managed to start a fire, cooked campfire nachos for dinner, and had brought a seat to sit in. No through hiker would be that competent. We really are the worst at everything ;p

Miles Hiked: 17.5
Miles Left: 1386.0
Ending Location: Mile 798.3, Camping by the stream

Today started with the standard town question, “How do we get back to the trail?!” Some of the other hikers mentioned there was a list of trail angels in the pizza shack so we could grab an early lunch and then call somebody on that list for a ride. Owl and I opted to try our hands, (or thumbs), at hitchhiking though since if we sat down for lunch we might never escape Glasgow. Hiking is all about momentum. It’s always easier to stay where you are and even when you are moving there are a million sources of friction. I think 90% of the challenge of the AT is just getting that starting momentum going.

Our initial attempts at catching a ride from town were laughably unsuccessful. Luckily, following the advice of one of the locals we walked to the highway and someone pulled over not long afterwards. We talked with him for a bit on the way to the trailhead and the comment that stood out in my mind the most was he mentioned, “You know you boys smell something awful, right?!” We said we did, but for those reading at home, this was after we had showered and done laundry. I think it’ll be a bit before I can reintegrate with polite society when I finish the trail….

Any thoughts of jumping off the footbridge were promptly dashed when glancing at the river. It was brown with mud and debris. It certainly had no problems with momentum! Anyone jumping in that would not make it to shore. So Owl and I instead started our hike for the day. The same god that makes it rain after you wash your car must also take delight in making the trail a muddy mess the day after you get your non-waterproof hiking shoes. As we gained elevation the trail dried out though and it turned into a fairly decent day.

We stopped by Punchbowl shelter briefly to check in. Supposedly the shelter is haunted but the only weirdness was a birdnest in the rafters filled with chicks. The downside was that the shelter itself was covered in bird poop but that’s nature. There was a group of adults taking at risk youth into the woods who were camping there too. The chaperones looked like they really needed a drink but the kids were having a blast. After leaving the shelter the following trail was supposed to be flat and scenic but in what I’ve come to expect from the trail maintainers they rerouted it over another mountain with no view. At this point it had gotten dark and Owl and I were hiking by headlamp. We hadn’t been planning on night hiking but the campsite we were expecting was nowhere to be found and in fact there were “No Camping” signs everywhere. Eventually we hit a river crossing but the water had risen high enough that there was no dry path across it. Not wanting to chance it, we instead set up our tents right by the river and called it a night.

There was a birds nest in the shelter. This made it very difficult for hikers to sleep there but … baby birds are so cute!!

It’s cool when you can see where you came from. The bridge in the distance is where we started in the morning.

The water level was a bit high after the storm yesterday

Miles Hiked: 0
Miles Left: 1404.5
Ending Location: Mile 780.8, Town shelter in Glasgow VA

The day started with the fire chief stopping by the shelter and telling us if any tornados developed that we were welcome to take cover in the fire house. The weather report was bad but after that we all decided a zero day was in order. The only problem, what’s there to do in Glasgow?

Well first, let me back up. The night before had been rough. Two of the people staying in the shelter had become violently ill to the point where they were puking off the bunk beds. As someone who had been trying to avoid getting sick, you just had to fatalistically accept the Noro train was coming and had no breaks at that point. That morning we moved our stuff and a local trail runner was dousing everything in bleach but riding out the rainstorm in the shelter had very limited appeal.

So we needed a place which hopefully wouldn’t kick a bunch of smelly hikers out after a couple hours and preferably had bathrooms and power. Public libraries to the rescue! Plus there were books there!

We stayed there from opening to closing and the library staff was very understanding and patient with us. It actually was one of the most enjoyable pure zero days I’ve had as I was able to update my journal, recharge my phone, read, and just relax. Still, I felt guilty being so grubby and more excited about the flush toilets than the recommended reading list.

Dinner was once again at the pizza place where I had an excellent calzone. The field where the shelter was had turned into a swamp which ruled out camping so I crawled into my bunk for the night and used lots of hand sanitizer.

My favorite part is that the cover story was “How to Walk off 10 Pounds”

Classy Reading