There was a nice bright overhead light near us last night, along with a smoky fire next campsite over. Neither of us slept well. We didn’t rush out camp, opting for the cheaper of two available breakfast options, followed by a very expensive resupply. National Park’s campstores are about double the price of a regular grocery store. Good thing we only need a couple days food to get to the next town. 

Anyways, we hit the trail by 9:30, not bad. We spent much of the day cursing spider webs and killing deer flies (sorry Judy!). Otherwise, much green tunnel, only really popped out for one view right before dinner. After dinner, I suggested we push on for a couple miles. We watched the sun set beautifully, but didn’t find a spot to camp til we had climbed the next mountain. So, we are perched in the trees atop a little peak tonight. I brushed my teeth watching lightning strikes in the distance. We got swarmed by noseeums as we got into the tent though, so we’ve been fighting them as a reasonably fitting end to the day.

My cramping muscles seem to be better, although continuing cooler weather makes it somewhat hard to tell. Fingers crossed.

The trail in Shenandoah NP is very nicely maintained. Even though I haven’t loved all the climbs, it’s been smooth sailing all the way. Today, rain threatened all day but never materialized. For me, another day of relief from the heat, and I’m feeling noticeably better. We climbed a bunch, fully in the clouds and dense forest, but just before lunch we got out of the fog on Stony Man Cliff. Turns out we were in a fog bank and the cliff was just out far enough to give us a lovely view down into the valley below.

Above the cliffs, we climbed some more but also started seeing hordes of day hikers. Always a sign of a nearby trailhead, we soon reached Skyland Wayside for burgers, coffee, and blackberry ice cream pie. We savoured our coffee on a nice cushy couch and people watched for a bit before throwing on our wet hiking clothes for more humid hiking!

View from Big Meadows Lodge

The afternoon was quick though, we chatted away and got to our destination by 5. Big Meadows Lodge and Campground has laundry, showers and a restaurant, so we spent the evening taking advantage of it all. We even tried some Virginia wine with dinner (how civilized!).  Clean and full, back to the campground for a dubious quality sleep near the busy entrance.

I did end up cramping a fair bit last night, but not full on “aliens trying to escape from my legs” cramps. I still wasn’t feeling very well this morning but the weather was very cloudy and cooler. Still hot and humid but manageable.

Notice how sweaty I am!

We filled up water and met 2 very odd guys. Between them they had a half filled backpacking pack, and a full day pack. One of them was carrying both though, while the other carried a thick bamboo pole and a katana! They offered us a pair of Crocs to help lighten their packs… We declined.

Once we got going, a couple 1000 foot climbs told me I wasn’t doing as well as I thought. I was having trouble concentrating and quickly overheating. I stopped often and hydrated, but was ultimately saved by a thunderstorm that cut the heat way down.  We eventually draged into a Wayside, which is Shenandoah code for gift shop, snacks and a grill all rolled into one. We sat under the overhang by the washroom and ate burgers and blackberry milkshakes, and all seemed right with the world again!

After lunch, I was cramping badly enough that I could barely get my shoes on, but somehow once we got hiking it was more manageable. We didn’t have too far to go, and the rain continued on and off all afternoon. We got to a shelter and called it a day, possibly our earliest stop of the trip. Megan is currently babying me while I try to move as little as possible, hoping to skip another round of cramps tonight. We shall see!

Very small writing on trail markers

We had a pretty good climb out of camp this morning. As promised,  “whatever you hear, Virginia is NOT flat!” (we got this from several northbound hikers, but not one of them had ever told us Virginia WAS flat). It’s not as flat as Pennsylvania, that’s for sure! Today was another very hot day, and both Ryley and I have several chaffing spots from the hot and sweaty hiking yesterday – thighs, under my arms where my pack straps are, back, and other uncomfortable unmentionables. We stopped for lunch at a remote campsite off trail and Ryley actually wrung out his boxers… Yep, ew.

We hiked down to a gap (the road to the town of Front Royal) and walked 100yds to a hiker hostel where we were welcomed by owner Lisa with cold lemonade, cookies, and a cool place to sit (AC!). We stayed for almost an hour chatting with her and cooling down! Then got back on the trail and hiked up ~1500ft to the entrance to Shenandoah National Park where we self-registered, and another 500 ft to where we got water and camped for the night. There is a resident deer in our campsite so we are looking forward to huffing wheezy snorting noises all night… Ryley has had a pretty good bout of cramps last night and tonight, which look pretty awful and painful. We are both feeling tired after yesterday’s big miles, rollercoaster, and heat. Apparently it was even hotter today at 93F and we got 22 miles in, so we’ll probably also feel tired tomorrow? It is thankfully cooler camping up at almost 3000ft, though – the highest we’ve been since Mt Greylock in Massachusetts!

We were up early, eager to get started before it got too hot out. The hike today was through a section called the Rollercoaster. As expected, it was a long series of short climbs and descents. Not much to see, so we just sweated through it til after lunch. We didn’t succeed in beating the heat too much, and I was soaked with sweat, possibly a new record – my sleeping bag stuff sack is wet from sweat that seeped through my pack. Gross but true!

We got onto gentler trail in the evening, so pushed to a shelter after about 25 miles. Dinner was a treat – fancy Mountain House freeze dried dinners for both of us. It was dark by the time we setup camp, making this one of our longest days on trail so far.

Shenandoah River

Third morning in a row of big waffle breakfast, coffee, bacon, and fresh fruit. Somehow we managed to go through 2 bottles of maple syrup?! Today wrapped up a great visit and rest with Jimmy and Judy (THANK YOU!!!!). We packed up and they drove us back to Harper’s Ferry mid-morning. After dawdling a bit in the AT Centre then saying bye to J&J, we hit the trail about 1:30pm. The first thing we did was cross the Shenandoah River then head up the ridge 1000ft climb above it. At the top we crossed the West Virginia-Virginia border, having only spent 3 trail miles in WV (it’s the shortest state on the trail). A fairly easy afternoon hike with some ups and downs and a few rocky sections, but we made good time into Blackburn Trail Centre, 13 miles. We decided to stop there to fill up our water and eat dinner, then either camp or head on a few more miles. While we were starting to make dinner the caretaker asked if we’d like some leftover pulled pork and ribs? We weren’t exactly feeling short on good food after our time off but we’re smarter than to pass on good food 🙂 We ate with a northbound hiker named Romeo who went and pilfered us a couple of root beers, too!

We decided to hike on after eating and headed back up to the ridge and another couple miles before finding a flat spot to set up camp. We have a couple new items from REI we’re breaking out tonight – I got a lightweight pillow hoping to sleep a bit better, and we replaced or low-quality Kmart sheet with a silk-cotton blend liner that I unstitched to make into a sheet (and weighs 4.6oz – 1/4 the weight). And, Ryley got a new hat!! So he was sporting that today, too.

Jimmy, Judy, Megan, Ryley and Chris

We ate and drank and chatted and it was lovely. Judy and Jimmy were great hosts and really bent over backwards to ensure we were well fed and rested. Well fed included some delicious home cooked meals – BBQ steak, corn on the cob and salad one night, and curry fried sea scallops, couscous and salad another night. And lots of fresh fruit – nectarine blueberry crumble and vanilla ice cream was amazing! They also treated us to the movies to watch A Man Called Uncle – comfy seats!

Front page news!

Here’s a story from a NY newspaper that included a few pictures of us to tide you over til we get hiking again!

Ben and Jerry’s blog:
Ryley – NY Super Fudge Chunk, and raspberry with raspberry jam core
Megan – Tonight Dough

Beer:
Tasting at Heritage Brewing, tried most of their beers
Abita Porter
Port City Porter
Flying Dog Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout
Smuttynose Old brown Dog Ale
Rogue Sriracha Hot Stout

A fast and interesting hike along the Shenandoah River this morning. We followed a tow path beside a canal that has been converted to a multi-use trail. It’s both the Appalachian Trail and a bike path that is 120 miles long – you can bike or walk to DC on it.

We crossed a bridge over the Potomac River and into the town of Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The trail only seems to be in WV for 3 miles before we hit Virginia. Harper’s Ferry is the home of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, who maintain and advocate for the AT.  One of the many services they offer hikers is a lounge with couches and computers for us to hang out in. So, we dropped off our packs there and trekked to a far off cafe for a couple breakfasts. I had 2 breakfasts, plus we both had hot out of the oven pie!  Back to the ATC HQ, where they took our pictures for photo trail registry. They have pictures of almost every hiker that makes it this far, and even label each picture with a number. We were number 6 and 7, meaning 5 southbound hikers are ahead of us. The last number for northbounders was 1350.

We flipped through the album, seeing pictures of all the northbounders that we had met.  Then we had a pizza and met up with Judy, who had driven 1.5 hours from the DC area to pick us up. She drove us to her home and our time off began. We plan to start hiking again in a few days, so I won’t bore you with the details of our eating until then!

The night wasn’t quite as restful as I hoped. One of our shelter-mates needed her headlamp multiple times to find things in the night. Another one got up at 2am to have a snack, which involved opening every crinkly bag he owned, it seemed, then examining the contents with his headlamp, which coincidentally also shone directly in my eyes. 20 annoying minutes later, he finally went back to sleep… But he was back up at 6,knocking things over and stomping around the shelter. Amazingly, when we finally accepted defeat and got up at 7:30, he was still eating breakfast. When we left 20 minutes later… Still eating.

The bizarre War Correspondents Memorial

So off we went, lacking sleep, but eager to see what Maryland had to offer. Megan’s shin was feeling better, so she was going strong. The trail was pretty nice, but we missed a few views due to some fog. Just before lunch we went by a monument to George Washington on top of a hill, and there was a nice view of the surrounding valley. We stopped for lunch in a little pavilion nearby, which was especially great when it poured 30 minutes later. We lingered until the rain cleared, then hiked off again for a hot afternoon.

A sweaty but cold night for me, so we were both up early, and hiking by 7-something. Pretty quickly we hit a highway that we hoped to hitch into Waynesboro on, but after a few minutes we gave up, as cars were just flying by. An hour later we hit a much quieter road and started hitching there. Also at the intersection just heading out, were two Canadian women, Twisted Sister #1 & #2. They are out section hiking for 2 weeks (and have hiked southbound in sections starting in 1992); #2 has done the whole International AT (Maine to the tip of Newfoundland). Pretty cool. Anyways, the spot we picked to hitch was right in front of a house, and one of the first cars to go by pulled right into it. A few minutes later, the unimpressed looking lady came out to talk to us. She eyed us up and actually sniffed at Megan, then asked us if we were particularly stinky. We are by our standards, but apparently we passed the test, because she offered us a ride into town. It turns out her car is a brand new Acura, leather seats and all. We got a doggy blanket and were told to both sit in the back… Still, very nice of her.

We did our resupply, grabbed some Subway as everything else was further away or didn’t look particularly good. On the way back to the road we passed a gas station, and I was desperate enough for a coffee to suggest we go in. It turns out that Sheetz Bros is more of a coffee shop with a gas station attached than the other way around. They had real espresso, but you ordered with a confusing touch screen interface. Good coffee though, and while we waited for our order, the guy next to me offered us a ride back to the trail!

We ended up sitting in the dirt at the trailhead, drinking delicious coffee and eating donuts before starting our afternoon hike.  The weather was looking like rain, which was too bad because the first thing we did was climb up to a nice seeming viewpoint, from which we saw very little. Megan’s shin splints are back too, probably from us pushing a bit too far yesterday. She was actually willing to compress her shin with my tensor bandage, so it’s not looking so good. Luckily, we are going to take a couple days off soon, so hopefully that, along with ibuprofen, will take care of the issue.

We stopped early, as it started raining and we got to a shelter. The Canadians are here along with one other guy. Should be a quiet, restful evening watching the rain.

Oh, one last thing, we found out that the journalist writing a story about the AT got it published last week, and our pretty mugs are on the cover page!