Date: 2007-10-04
From: VA 725 parking

To: VA 601 parking
Miles today: 12.3

Thursday, October 4, 2007Today I¢m remembering the Chattanooga girls and their parents who visited Bears Den last June when I was helping out. They gave me a sweet AT shirt with all their names on it and I'm hiking in it today and tomorrow.Rte 55 to Ashby Gap Parking area, 12.3 milesI leave my car at Ashby Gap and Queen Diva drops me off in Linden. Thank you, Miss Lori!Start 10:40, high 70¢s, humid, not windy. Feels like summer. Brand new bridge made from Trex and lumber, over a small creek.Woods dry, like Maine.4-foot long black rat snake stretched out halfway across the trail, looking like the curvy black arrow on a yellow diamond road sign warning sharp turns ahead.Motionless, until I step across it. Then it moves to the sidelines, under some vegetation.Hello to Steve (out for a few days) , then to Chuckles.11:20 Hello to Rotten Rodney, started in HF, hiking south on the AT til Thanksgiving, however far he gets. He thruhiked in 1982 and, again, in the winter in 1998-99. Last time he passed through Manassas Gap it was all mud on the south side and snow/ice on the north. In those conditions, it took 2 hours to hike just a tiny section of trail. I¢ve got hiking the AT in my blood, he says, and this is my favorite time of year for hiking, no bugs, not wet.11:50 Manassas Gap Shleter, sign loose page stuffed in the back of a register filled with entries.Sign on the shelter wall says Dear Hikers, Please note in the log book any copperhead or rattlesnakes you may find near the shelter. Pictured above are two color variants of the copperhead snake. Like all snakes copperheads play important roles in the economy of nature and should never be killed. Sincerely, your shelter overseer.Big round green walnuts size between golf and tennis balls, closer to tennis ball size.Woods are mostly green, just a few yellows and dull reds here and there, not the changes we saw up in Maine.12:20 turn left on gravel road. Hike west a little ways on the road and turn right into the woods.12:40 drink and half sandwich. Sit on hip-high rock next to the trail and as I get up after eating I see there¢s poison ivy on the rock where I¢m sitting. Like everything else it¢s dry, shrunken and inconspicuous. I look more carefully. There are patches of poison ivy all through here.1PM a trail off to my left. The trail to parking lot #6 at mile 22?1:10 PM repeat 12:20.North of the Virginia Native Plant Society sign, trail widens, 6¢ at least.Hard to see blazes in dappled light but no matter, trail is obvious.1:30 hello to Death March, Flip Flop thruhiker, Harpers to Katahdin done, now hiking Harpers Ferry to Springer.1:35 a path crosses the AT.2:15 pass sign for 0.2 Dick¢s Dome Shelter. Memories of being there with Spinner in Aptil 2004 when the trail was in a state of high flood, water rushing all around and under that shelter. No time today to revisit Dick¢s Dome if I¢m to be out in time to get to Blackburn for supper at 6, with a stop in Purcellville first for groceries.2:20 out of ascent from dried-up stream that runs down to Dick¢s Dome. Another unmarked path crossing.2:30 telephone line.Large toad.3:15 south boundary of Sky Meadow State Park. Park is posted. Closed to hunting and, except for in a designated area, camping as well.3:20 at juncture, 1.7 to Sky Meadows Visitors Center, 1.3 to a tent campgound (fee charged). 7.7 back to Manassas Shelter, 21.5 to Shenandoah. 2.9 to Ashby Gap. I¢m a little over 3 miles to the car at the trailhead parking lot.Come to an open area with small view to the east. Wide grassy trail, grassy landscape like a park, which of course it is, dotted with tulip trees, interspersed with others that I don¢t recognize, except for dogwoods. Need to get my book out again to ID the southern trees.Ambassador Whitehouse Trail to the right, AT to the left.Crickets and grasshoppers.Dogwood leaves colored up but dull, dessicated and drooping. Effects of prolonged drought in this area.Back into the woods, an interesting oak tree with one of its lower branches buttressed by an arm of tissue that connects main trunk to the branch, creating a hole through which you can see the forest. An askew natural oval frame awaiting a proper subject, like squirrel eating acorn.This part of the hike has been one easy long down through the park.Bog bridges and one regular bridge. No water here at all.South of Rte 50 I meet SOBO Whiskers, headed for Manassas Gap tonight. Maybe a little night-hiking to get to the shelter. I did see water in one place, but I don¢t remember exactly where. Not dependent of natural sources of water myself, I¢m not as conscious of where it can be found as hikers who are.Out at 4:55, 6 hours and 10 minutes of hiking, 12.3 (plus a little side trail).Go to Purcellville for beverages to contribute to the supper tonight. Call Hopeful on the cell. You¢ll be right on time, she says, I just threw in the lasagne. We won¢t be eating til 6:30.At Blackburn are Paparazzi and Uncle Walt and a SOBO hiker named Treehouse.Treehouse is a tall lanky, skinny actually, young man who consumes 9¢x10¢ of lasagne, salad, several rolls, 2 quarts of soda and lemonade, 16 ounces of apple crisp and about that same amount of ice cream.2005 NOBO¢s Paparazzi, Redwing and Hopeful, plus Hikelet and Hopeful¢s Mom are going to the Gathering together tmorrow night. I met Paparazzi (Papa) in August 2005 at the Cabin in Maine. Papa, Hopeful and Redwing reminisce about hiking together in 2005 southern and central Maine.Hikelet is growing up. She¢s beautiful. Sure resembles her mother and grandmother.As we¢re eating dessert, Fanny Pack arrives, and joins us.Back at Bears Den, I give the hiker room a once-over, and wash and dry some laundry. Tomorrow, an AM hike and then the Gathering in Gettysburg.