Date: 2008-04-17
From: Bear Den's Hostel, VA

To: 1000 Mile Mark, Stealth Site, WV
Miles today: 11.4

Start: Bears Den Hostel, VAEnd: 1000 Mile Mark, stealth site, WVMiles: 11.4HammockOk ok..what a freakin AWESOME day! But first, I slept like a rock @ the hostel. Comfy bunks, lots of blankets, and when you do laundry there, there's actualCOTTON clothes to wear! I slept in them. So on this note, a sidestory fromEarl, owner of the Dutch Haus in Montebello, VA. I asked him what gave themthe fantastic idea of having comfy soft robes for the hikers to wear while allof the laundry was getting done. He says they knew they needed to do somethingwhen they walked out to the porch and a woman hiker was wearing her tent rainflyand a guy hiker just had a tiny wite washcloth over his unmentionables andTHAT'S IT!! Oh my gosh...I haven't stopped laughing about this all freakinday!So anyway, I was ready to go about 8:30 this morning, but finally ran into the 2mystery slackpackers that Ken helps out. 2 fantastic women, Margaret (CO) andAnn (MA). Margaret is headed to NY, and she will have completed her sectionhiking of the entire AT! That's so exciting to me, to meet people like her.I was chatty Cathy this morning, so I finally stepped off closer to 9 aftertelling Redwing & Hopeful thanks a ton for their hospitality.There was a decent view @ Bears Den Rocks, and then it was down to Snickers Gapto start the first of 4 remaining climbs of the rollercoaster.I had plenty of energy from dinner last nite, and my legs were fresh, so theclimbs weren't too bad. I knew when I got water before the 3rd climb, it wouldbe my last water stop in VA. I sat there and contemplated about my (very long)time in this state. Eventually, I was ready, I climbed about .4 of a mile andit happened, I MADE IT TO WEST VIRGINIA EVERYBODY!! WHOO HOO!! To FINALLY see that sign and know I made it through 4 states was amazing, but it alsomeans I have to get out of the habit of typing VA now.I was ecstatic, and I took a moment to look back into Virginia and acknowledgeeverything I experienced there....taking off due to my plantars (which by theway seems to be completely healed now..no pain in my foot), Persistent and Isplitting up, getting sick from the meds the doc gave me for my foot, almostgetting hit by lightening, seeing a bobcat, my first (and ONLY) triple 20 milerdays, and the end of last year's hike, eating the best fried chicken @ The homePlace in Catawba, and calling upon a total stranger (McDog) when I was strandedin Marion, VA after miraculously finding a ride down the mountain whe my stomachgot screwed up. I know there's more, I just feel like I've been in VA for aboutas long as a person can take.It was a glorious day, in the high 70's (maybe even low 80's). The last climbof the roller coaster is called Devil Racecourse, which is well-named becauseman was it rocky.So my next stop was the Blackburn Trail Center, also run by the PATC. I do haveto say I think the sign stating it's .2 miles DOWN (WAY down) is a littleoptimistic, but hey, what's one more climb up after the Rollercoaster right? This is a pretty cool place, but the caretakers were not there. I took pics ofeverything though, and I loved the giant screened porch around the main house,with a porch swing. Cool solar shower as well, so I just snooped around, andtook pics, got water, rested my feet, etc. I will stress that the hiker hostelhere only bunks 4 people and those bunks didn't have mattresses, so for youhangers, if you don't have a sleeping pad, I'm not sure how it works, unlessyou hang outside.So I started the big climb back up and knew I was only 3 miles from David LesserShelter, where I'd planned on making dinner and then hiking to the 1000 mark (.3further). I start hiking and on my way I "believe" I saw a coyote or fox orsomething. It wasn't a dog, but it was dog-like, it just ran away before Icould get to it. Cool though. So before I know it...I'm at the shelter and Iget my dinner all set up and go to get water which is quite a ways DOWN themountain again (man, I was tired of climbing by this point). One cool thingwas that I was clearing out the little pool where the water collected, lots ofleaves and sticks and stuff and I found a crawdad in there! I picked her upand said hello, then put her back.During dinner, a weekend hiker, Steve from Boston, and I were talking about howrestless people from our generation are. He's 23 and has a job in the cube,and doesn't care for it. I encouraged him to take risks, because everytime Ihad (which is a lot) it's always enriched my life. He seemed to be right on mybrainwave, so it was a good talk.I started hiking again @ 6:17 p.m. and I knew in 10 minutes, I'd hit my 1000mile mark, so I was like a freakin little kid waiting for the mailman to bringmy secret decoder ring, I kept looking at my watch and then finally, it was6:27 p.m. and I had officially hiked 1000 miles of the Appalachian Trail!!! Igot such an adrenalin rush, I jumped up and down, ate my celebratory Oreo's andof course, made a toast. Besides the things I mentioned above about being inVirginia, I toasted to my incredible fortune of being back out here, working inthe cube and filing/highlighting/copying more pieces of paper than I care toadmit for the past several months, reconnecting with my AT community (whichincludes all of you reading this), and finally, my partner Karen who wouldn'tallow me to give up on realizing my dream of completing this journey. Iexercise such great privilege by being able to do this and I don't take onesweaty painful step for granted, which is why I can keep going. I know what itfeels like to have this journey become something that I "hope" to finishsomeday, and I appreciate this chance more than anyone could understand.I can't believe I've hiked 1000 miles people! So whereas I was going to hike afew more miles, I changed my mind and decided to hang right at 1000 miles toreally take it in. As I lay here in my hammock, it's 67 wonderful degrees andI'm glad to be in here, because the gnats, biting flies and skeeters are out infull force already!! I watched a most incredible sunset tonight and justrelished in this moment in this beautiful place. An amazing day full of somany wonderful memories already.Tomorrow, it's to Harper's Ferry where Karen is driving up and meeting me forthe weekend. I desperately need some R&R because I've been rolling my ankles alot the past 2 days, which I think is caused by fatigue. It's all good, and I'mtotally exhausted. Another great day on the AT.~Certain