Date: 2009-10-29
From: Waynesboro, Maryland

To: Daleville, Virginia (Roanoke visit)
Miles today: 335.6
Weather: broken clouds

Hello Friends,Our apologies that it has been over 300 miles since we last updated our journal. Since we left you last we have visited Harpers Ferry and gotten our picture taken at the official Appalachian Trail Headquarters there marking our symbolic halfway point, We had a great stay with Handyman there, a northbound thru-hiker we met back in Maine while climbing Saddleback Mtn. who gave his number out to southbounders as trail magic for when they reached Harpers Ferry. We have finished Maryland and West Virginia and are half way through Virginia, having completed the Shenandoah National Park. Shenandoah was beautiful with the changing leaves and peak colors and there we met Jim, who was RV-ing with his wife Cindy and are our first trail journal fans. We had never met them before but they had been following us on trail journals, recognized us, and performed some trail magic for us by gifting our hiker bellies with some food goodies to eat.We were rescued from the Shenandoahs a few days later by Jo-Ellen and Brian who are family friends of Anya's, as the weather changed from sunny shorts wearing weather, to wet and cold winter weather and snow and ice, they let us rest at there house where we received our winter gear packages preparing us for the weather ahead, and where we were treated to great rest, entertainment and relaxation.And now we just rested up with Jes, who is a University friend of Anya's who picked us up in Daleville, VA. and gave us a warm place to rest out of the rain and some delicious food to prepare us for a short couple day hike till we meet Anya's Mom Dora and relatives Ina, Matt and Jakob in Blacksburg for Holloween :-).We are soo thankful to be able to hike, to feel like we can keep going despite hardships, to have great friends, old and new, who rejuvenate our morale and to see such amazing sights, wildlife, and people/acts of kindness on our journey.We are now teamed up with/ traveling with Phil a.k.a. "Hungry Creepster" as he is known on the trail. Him and his girlfriend Jo "Someday" were traveling with us off and on since Vermont, but as Someday has gotten off the trail and we miss her, Hungry Creepster, after finally catching up to eachother and hiking with us for a week has decided to continue on the trail and we are a hiking trio currently. A "Southbound Train" on our way to GA. We only have 718 miles left to go to Springer Mtn.!!!! woohoo!Here is the play by play from my Journal entries of our past days/ month.10/5: After having a great stay with Nicole and David (Fred's Cousins) in Maryland/Pennsylvania Anya and I hiked on with our packs full of home made beef jerky that David makes (he is a great cook). We had an emotional hike today and only went 10 miles to the shelter in Maryland, Lightweight hiked in.10/6: Felt like a long day, We were tired, did 20 miles to Cogden Shelter, Saw the 1st monument to Washington and Civil War memorials, cool history.10/7: Hiked 10 miles and Anya got a ride with some day hikers for the last 3 miles while I hiked the rest of the miles in to Harpers Ferry. Anyas feet hurt. It was a windy fall day, taken back to Handy Man's where we had hamburgers with Light weight.10/8: Light weight and I (Mtn Yogi) hiked to Blackburn A.T. center doing 12 miles in 4 hours as we didn't start till after 2pm. ANya was driven there by Handy Man and she rested for the day. Handy man was a very gracious host, as a thru hiker he knows how much we rely on trail angels/ trail magic and he definitely helped us out. Anya packed out Subways and had them for Light Weight and I when we arrived at the shelter that night. Yum.10/9: Anya and I hiked 18.5 miles. We were looking for Rod shelter after hiking thru the roller-coaster (which is a section of Virginia trail that is up and down continuously over hills and mtns. and is called the roller coaster as that is how you feel hiking it. It was dark and we couldn't find the shelter so we wound up camping on the trail in the rain that night. When we awoke in the morning we found that we were almost at the shelter, maybe .1 away and we had just gotten confused by our maps. There was no water at the shelter though, so we had to hike without for a while.10/10: 19 miles to Denton Shelter, nice shelter, shared it with 3 airforce guys, good hike, nice fall sites. Happy to be in a shelter for the night and not camping on the trail.10/11: Hiked 19 into the Shenandoah National Park! Saw our 1st BEAR!! He Shimmied down a tree right after we entered the park (Anya was singing and scared him out of the tree). Great graded trails here, nice hiking, We Stayed at Gravel Spring Hut. A day hiker gave us some water and another who stayed at the shelter gave Anya a book. We met another guy at the shelter who was hiking the Shenandoahs who recently graduated from Emory Law school and was at the same graduation speech that Anya attended.10/12: We hiked to Elkwallow Wayside in the morning and had breakfast. Met Jim and Cindy who have been following us on trail journals. Jum recognized Anya and he gave us a bunch of food and entemanns cakes, yum. We hiked on to Thornton Gap 14 mile day and hitched in at 3pm to resupply at Loray, VA. We saw a Bear and her cub on the trail today.10/13: After spending the night in Loray and ressupplying/ showering/ laundry. Anya and I hitched out late (got a ride from a lady who used to work with horses in the park and got fired for flashing a coworker) and didn't get to the trail till after noon. walked 14 miles to Rockhollow shelter, Great views.10/14: 24 mile hike from Rocksprings to Hightop shelter today! Cold day, long day, we got up in the dark and hiked till dark. Morale was low on Anya's side. Her feet hurt from the miles and she is tired. I feel o.k., it was lengthy but o.k. We had ice fall as hail balls hit us on our trek today.10/15: Only 8 miles today to Pinefield Hut. It rained and was very cold today. We were planning to do a 21 mile day to the next hut after pinefield fut we got wet and cold hiking and spent the rest of the day drying out our clothes and getting warm in our sleeping bags at the shelter. We will get picked up early tommorow and get our winter gear and fix our malfunctioning gear for the weather. We will rest in Charlottsville with Anya's friends for a couple days then back to the trail.10/16/17: Rested with Brian and Joellen. Good food, beer, saw a movie, even drove there car to the outfitter and grocery. awesome morale boost. Anya went from thinking of going home for a week to staying on the trail. I felt alot better as well.10/18: On Trail around 1pm, Started to hike thru the snow that had fallen that weekend we got off the trail. As we hiked a few miles Anya felt sick. We hitched at the next wayside to Blackrock shelter and stayed there so she could feel better. Met up with another Southbound hiker G-Fog that night.10/19: 20 miles into Rockfish Gap. Stayed at the Inn there with G-Fog and Hungry Creepster. NIce to be in a bed, eat pizza and Ben & Jerrys. and to be with other Southbounders.10/20: 20 miles to Maupin FIeld shelter. THe rocky path made it a hard hike. Got a scary hitch from a guy on the Blue Ridge Pkwy as we were trying to find Rustys Hard Time Hollow that night, but we couldn't find the place and the guy drove 70 mph on mtn roads! So we hiked into the shelter the rest of the way in the dark. G-Fog was there, Hungry Creepster didn't make it.10/21: Hiked 14 miles over 3-ridges and up the Priest. Felt long but good views and weather was great! Heard from Phil "Hungry Creepster" that he is thinking of getting off the trail. I'm sorry to hear that, we wanted to hike more with him. We will call him tommorow.10/22: Anya and I Hiked into Beuna Vista, got a motel and ressupply. 21 miles. Great views on Cold Mtn. and Beautiful Day. The fall colors are pretty. We will meet up with Phil tommorow. The room was nice and we had subway sandwiches for dinner and ice cream for dessert.10/23: Didn't get out till 11pm. Went to Post office and didn't hit the trail till 12-ish. We hiked 12 miles to Punch Bowl shelter (which is rummored as the haunted shelter) A boy named Ottie had died wandering the mountain 11 miles away from his school house. They have a memorial to where they found his body. We stayed in the shelter with G-Fog, Hungry Creepster, and Derick(a section hiker).10/24: 13 miles, Rainy day. for the first half of the day it was foggy hiking.Beautiful fall colors though. We got 3 hitches into Big Island (which is neither big, nor and Island) from 3 different pickup trucks. One Guy only gave us a hitch for a mile, another gy was offering us beer as he drove (Phil and I both had a budweiser) The danger was that we think he had also been drinking beer and weed was all over his car.. oh hitching a ride, what folk you may meet! We ate in town and phil ressupplied and we hitched back in the back of a pickup of a guy who had his baby in the front passenger seat. Then we hiked the remaining 2 miles over the bridge, along the James River and to the shelter, easy day.10/25: 17.5 miles. met 4 "Soup Dogs" today!! these dogs who were wandering the trail and followed us. The dogs have big radio frequency collars and we hiked with an entaurage of 4 dogs following behind us till there owner met us on the trail and we returned his dogs to him. Had an awesome fire at the shelter, nice day, cold night. Grateful for the Fire, Phil and I talked about life and reasons for doing the trail by the fire as Anya read in her sleeping bag.10/26: 18.5 Miles, Stayed at shelter with a Nobo section hiker who let us use his water filter in the silty spring puddle. We might want to get a water filter if the water situation is as tight as it has been. Saw land that was scarred from forest fire on our hike here. We will be in town tommorow visiting Anyas Friend, Hungry Creepster Hiked farther and camped so he could get in before the post office closed tommorow.10/27: hiked into Daleville! Had snacks at the Wendy's out of the rain. Phil is hiking on with us! YAY! Jes picks us up and we had some awesome hommade pizza and great music and rest with her friends.10/28: Had a great rest day with Jes and her cool village area town. saw a movie "where the wild things are" and enjoyed rest, reading and food and good company. Onward:Mtn. YogiAnya and Josh Sobo 09'