Update, Front Royal Virginia June 13, 2007

Greetings all. It has been a while since either Dewey or myself have updated this blog, but I got up especially 6:30 AM today to put on at least a brief update. We had a day in Waynesboro but the writing muse refused to inspire either Dewey or myself. We will have a couple of days off in Harper's Ferry, and will spend more time there to further writing.
As you can guess from looking at a map, we are on the verge of completing our trek through Virginia. This is a huge milestone for us, as Virginia represents over one quarter of the entire trail's length. Having hiked the Shenandoah Mountains over the last five days, we have only 58 miles remaining to reach Harper's Ferry, W.V. , likely by Friday. There we plan to take one or two 'Zero" days to rest and reset for the second half of the journey. (We have actually only taken off three full days to this point). Harper's Ferry is the psychological half way point at 1009 miles from Springer Mountain. (The actual half way point is 35 miles into Pennsylvania but it's hard to get excited in Pennsylvania) . It's hard to believe that we have been on the trail two months already to get to this point. Dewey plans to visit a friend in D. C., and I will probably just chill out.
As mentioned in previous entries, Virginia has held many challenges for us. There is a lot of difficult terrain to climb. Since leaving the Graceland Highlands, We have tackled the Blue Ridge Mountains, occasionally crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had several 4000' mountains in this area to climb. Unlike New England though, all these peaks are covered with hardwood forests of white oak, and would only get a brief views here and there. During this section the weather was quite humid, though not terribly hot. Days like these, we often go through 4 liters or more of water. Our last 4000' was reached in the Blue Ridge as we summit ed the North Ridge Peak of the the Three Ridges . This was our last time at 4000' until we reach Killington in Vermont.
During this section, we spent one night at the Dutch Haus, a hostel in Montibello. This is run by a lovely couple, Earl and Lois, who greet you at the door with a glass of lemonade, take and wash your dirty clothes and provide you with a bathrobe. They feed you a wonderful diner and breakfast (yes they are well familiar with how much thru-hikers consume) for $37 per person per night. If you are there at lunch time, they provide a free lunch for all thru-hikers, whether they are a guest or not. We had a room with a Queen bed, our own T.V., and a private bath. Not your usual hostel offering! We stayed through lunch the next day. The only catch is one needs to hike down from the trail a mile covering 1000' of elevation over a jeep road, but it is well worth the investment of effort. After staying till noon, we went on to cover 14 miles that afternoon, climbing Spy Rocks, so called as it was a Confederate station for watching and monitoring Union troop movements during the Civil War. In that same ridge, we also scaled the 4000' mountain, the Preist (derivation of the name unknown to us!)
After completing this section we spent a 'nero' day in Waynesboro, hiking only five miles to get there and taking the rest of the day off to eat, run errands, shop for food, tend to grooming needs, eat, etc. eat. We spent the night at a church hostel, and timed our visit just right as they provided a free home-cooked diner for the hikers that evening.
I also spent much of that afternoon shopping for a new pack. After 700 miles, The Go-lite I originally purchased, began loosening stitching, etc. I traded packs with Tres our last day together, using his Mountainsmith. That first day seemed fine, and Tres made the comment that he couldn't believe I had used the Go-lite pack for over 700 miles. However with the second day and a full complement of food, I found that the metal stays that anchored into the hip belt were attempting to anchor themselves into my Gluteus Maximus; an extremely painful procedure if done without Novocaine. I think this time I found the perfect pack in a Granite Gear Nimbus. It rides perfectly. I have learned that no matter how much time you put into researching and purchasing gear before an undertaking such as hiking the AT, its impossible to predict how well or how long the gear will perform up to expectations, and one needs to constantly 'tweek' the gear. Fortunately along the way there are many excellent outfitters in trail towns who are knowledgeable and used to dealing with the needs of thru-hikers.
The Shenandoah Mountains and National Park were beautiful and inspiring. The trail intersects with the Skyline Drive in over 32 places. We spent a total of five days covering the 110 mile distance. The weather was excellent, with cool 70's temperature and low humidity. Much of the time we were cruising at 3000' to 3500'. There were beautiful forests with lush undergrowth. The trail had its share of challenging ups and downs, but was amazingly well engineered, nicely graded and wide. Trail crews from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club were out at many points with weed whackers, creating a trail which at some points resembled a garden path. In some areas, the trail had been raised and graded by building of stone foundations up to 6 to 8 feet high, originally constructed in the 1930's by the CCC. We subsequently learned from a thru-hiker whose father is active in the PATC, that sections of the trail are assigned to members based on seniority and tenure. It is a reward and an honor to be assigned a section of the AT through the park. The club must have had its hands full clearing brush earlier this spring, as the mountains had sustained a very damaging ice storm last November. Here and there were wide swaths of forest were devastated by ice, downing limbs and tree tops. The residual trunks could only muster a handful of green leaves at the top. This was all too familiar, after seeing the damage in the Maine Woods after the ice storm of '98. To add insult to injury, many areas of the park were also being defoliated by an infestation of Gypsy Moth caterpillars.
As you can also image, we didn't have to 'rough it' all that much while in the national park. We took advantage of the Big Meadow campground, designed like Blackwoods as a drive-in camping area. There we were able to take a shower, and do a load of laundry. And did I mention the the Lodge nearby had a tap room? There were several stores throughout the park where we could resupply, and several waysides where one could supplement our simple backpacking fare with cheeseburgers, shakes, etc. Breakfast yesterday consisted of an egg sandwich, home fries and a blackberry milk shake (which was out of this world). It's entirely possible that at times our dietary choices might not under usual circumstances meet with spousal approval!
We saw our share of amazing wildlife. Deer were plentiful and completely unperterbed by our presence, often coming within 10 feet, showing only mild curiosity. After 900 miles, we finally caught sight of our first bears, seeing 7 bears in the last two days while in the northern end of the park. We have not seen any more snakes, since Tres and I saw two rattlesnakes earlier in the month. We did come across a troop of Boy Scouts at the Tye river who had seen several copperheads sunning themselves on the shores earlier in the day. THE FEWER SNAKES I SEE THE BETTER.
It's hard to believe that we are almost halfway home. We are told that things tend to fly by from this point onward, as that length of trail is much shorter through each of the remaining states. I think we can possibly be in New England within the next three and a half to four weeks. More updates to come!