June 10, 2005 | Day 75 | Miles: 13.1 | Total Miles: 941.9
End: Gravel Spring Hut
Danielle:
Hot, humid, hazy with afternoon thunder but no rain
Ahhhh, 13 miles. A short day. How nice. Isn't it amazing that now 13 miles can seem like a short day? Wow. We slept in a bit and started at 9:45am. We rolled into the Elkwallow Wayside at 12:45, just in time for lunch. Excellent! A gardenburger, fries and a wonderful blackberry shake. Yum. Ice cream on the trail three days in a row--how great is that? A blackberry sundae at Big Meadows, blackberry pie at Skyland yesterday and a blackberry shake today. Yum, yum, yum.We lounged around for a bit and then only 5.9m to the shelter. (By the way, the word "hut" here in the Shenandoahs is a misnomer; they are really just the same three-sided shelters that we've been staying in previously.) Just as we were leaving the wayside, there was a cute little fawn right on the trail, just looking at us. So adorable. It stood there on its wobbly little legs and finally decided to turn around and take off in the other direction, running. Mom just kind of looked on and then took off after it.
Thunder was rolling in the distance as we walked on, but we didn't get wet, and arrived at the shelter at 4:30pm. It is so nice to get into camp early and have time to eat, relax a bit, write and chat before bed, instead of rolling in late, rushing to eat and get things done before dark, and then collapsing into bed. It can't happen every day, of course, as there are miles to hike, but it's so great every once in a while. Nick, Dave, Break-a-leg and Hopeful and Redwing are here tonight. A good crew. We've been having fun with them. Tomorrow we'll be out of the park, and into Front Royal--another 13-mile day. Yeah! Corie and Rob are hopefully meeting us there for the night, which should be great! :-)
Ryan:
three h's, pm thunder
not as hot today...but more humid...yup, everything is wet. nasty. but, today was much easier. best of all, we started late, 9:45, hit the elkmeadow wayside for lunch by 12:30. ate for 2 hours and were at the shelter by 4:45...much more relaxing. the wayside, you ask? the best part of the shenandoahs is the fact that since skyline drive runs through the middle of the park, and since there is a road, that means there are fat people in suvs who need to be fed. so, we've had a number of stops this week for food along the trail...very tasty. it's especially great to go into a restaurant type place reeking like hiker...some great looks from the aforementioned fat people...could be the skirt, too. that's really the best part of the shenandoahs. so, feel free to bump this national park to the bottom of the list. also, in the shenandoahs the shelters are called huts. they're not huts...if they are, then they're the worst huts ever. but, not bad as far as shelters go. tomorrow, we leave the shenandoahs, and onto harpers ferry in three days...huh?
June 11, 2005 | Day 76 | Miles: 13.4 | Total Miles: 955.3
End: Quality Inn, Front Royal, VA
Danielle:
Hot, hazy and humid again!
Ahhh, a wonderful night in the shelter. First, two thru-hikers rolled in around 9pm after doing 28m-yikes!--just as we were all going to sleep. They were very nice, but kept us up for a bit, and then the Irishman slept next to Ryan and snored all night and kept flapping his arm into his face. Not good. Then at 1:45am, Hopeful woke me up, saying the raccoon (there had been reports of it in the register) had gotten up the bear pole (an odd contraption in the park--a pole with hooks off the top to hang your food bags. To get the food bags up there, there is another pole that you raise the bag up with and hook it on the hook. Not very user-friendly.). Supposedly it keeps the bears away, but I guess raccoons can climb them, and this one was obviously practiced, and was getting into the food bags. So in the middle of the night we were all up hanging our bags from trees instead. And then poor Nick--the raccoon had snagged his bag on the pole, and he caught it up there, and was whacking it with the hanging pole, which was quite an amusing sight, but the raccoon got his revenge--even after Nick had hung his food in a tree, the raccoon got to it and ate most of his food. No fun!
So not much sleep, but a short day into town. Not a problem, right? So why is it that some days it's so hard to walk? I mean, it's only walking.... But it's tough work to get up and be motivated and excited every day to keep walking. The mental aspect is difficult at times, especially now that we've been out here for a while. And with the heat and humidity it's even tougher. Oh well. We keep each other going. And even on the tough days, it's always there in the back of our minds that this is a great gift to be out here doing this, what we've dreamed of, and that we'll always look back on this as a great six months and never regret it, even the days that we were hurting and it was tough to keep moving forward. Katahdin is what sticks in our minds, and that goal keeps us going.
So after all that, we made it and we're here in Front Royal, awaiting Corie and Rob, so we can go EAT! :-)
Ryan:
three h's
ok, in town with a visit from corie and rob. yeehoo! very full from mexican food and milkshakes. now very tired...didn't sleep very well last night due to raccoons and irishmen. let me elaborate. i am certain that i have previously mentioned the art and science of the "bear bag." bears and other woodland creatures want your food, so the best way to keep them from eating it is to hang it in a tree about 10 feet in the air and 4 feet from the trunk. each night this leads to fun and games as i attempt to find a proper branch and then execute the throw. for someone of my coordination level, it is usually a bit frustrating. to ease this frustration, shenandoah national park has bear poles, 12 foot metal poles with 4, 3 foot sections at the top, each pointed away from each other with two hooks on each end for a food bag. picture a candy cane with 4 curvy ends with 2 hooks on each. anyway, you use a ridiculously heavy pole to hoist your food onto a hook. basically, it's the worst system ever, but it keeps you from having to find a tree and throwing a rope. the shelter register had entries from a couple folks that mentioned a curious and hungry raccoon at the shelter, but the 8 of us staying there thought nothing of it. so, at about 9:00 with food in the air, we all decided to get to bed, when two guys who just finished a 28 mile day arrive at our already fairly full shelter. but, we always squeeze in and the irish guy ends up next to me. the two smoke for a little while filling the shelter....very nice. when they do decide to sleep the irish guy climbs in next to me, and an hour or so later i wake up with something hitting me in the head. the irish dude has his fist clenched and his arm at a 90 degree angle on my head...and he's twitching in his sleep. so, i move his arm, and he starts snoring...loudly. eventually, he stops snoring, but only when his fist is back on my head! so, i move it again and the snoring starts. so after a couple hours of fitfull and fistfull sleep, i awake to hustle and bustle in the shelter and danielle tapping me on the shoulder. apparently, a raccoon has climbed the bear pole and is laying siege to the food bags. i'm grumpy and asleep, so i decide that we don't need to move ours. about an hour later, more hustle, more bustle and more tapping. the raccoon is feasting. one of the guys, nick (no trail name) is whacking the raccoon with the metal pole as it assaults what is left of his food bag. so, there i am half asleep at 3:00 in the morning, in my underwear throwing a rope over a tree to hang the food. meanwhile, the irish dude wakes up, smokes a couple more butts, then goes back to bed to resume snoring. ahhhh....shelters.
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