Date: 2007-11-01
From: Gravel Springs Hut

To: Pass Mountain Hut
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: scattered clouds

mi. 13.1sleep hammockdest. Pass Mountain Hut day 112 Ok I really have some issues. As you can see the really big day never happened. I fell asleep for a few minutes, then woke up again. I hate that. That means usually I will be up for awhile. Either that or the coffee I had this evening. It usually doesn't effect me, but I hadn't made it after dinner in awhile. I also got the strong dark roast with a bend of espresso. But back to me having issues. Since I stopped at 4pm I have read over 180 pages of a cheezy romance novel before finally going to bed around midnight. What can I say, it was a train wreck and I couldn't turn away. After the late night I wasn't surprised to oversleep. I woke up for a few minutes at 4am, but not again until 7:30. Which in turn ment I wasn't hiking until after 8:30. Which ment to make a huge day I would have to hike until around 8pm. Not really what I wanted to do. So instead I took my time and enjoyed myself. For the first time in awhile I have been enjoying the easy days. The hiking in the park is uber chill. Uber makes me crack up for the fact that the novel way over used it. Apparently very or ultra wasn't enough. Anyways, the park has a great feature to hikers. Well it is there for people driving, but it is close to where the trail crosses the road. They are called waysides. They are basically food, store, and gas stops for people driving on Skyline Dr. It was only .1 off of the trail, no way I wasn't stopping. So I enjoyed a pricey chz steak, fries, and a soda. It also gave me a chance to send my emails, I didn't at my last stop. I was very close to packing out a beer or 2. I already knew at this point it was going to be an easy day. But I decided not to. I would rather drink a warm drink. At this point it was around noon and I knew I wasn't going to press on past the next shelter, called huts in park. So I decided to do some sight seeing. Just off the trail was Birds nest #4. They are CCC era stone shelters. You used to be allowed to camp there. Now they are day use or emergency only. I saw a pic of this in a book that Queen Diva got of aerial views of the trail. It was only .5 off. So I figured why not. In looking at the map originally I thought there was a northbound and southbound trail leading there. I found out later this wasn't the case. It was all it was made out to be. It looked like a giant AT shelter with a picnic table and fireplace inside. It would be nice if the AT shelters had fireplaces. It was partly sunny at this point. I decided to lay out the mat and soak up some sun. Also what better time to enjoy some coffee. I also used this excuse to read some more of my book. Now I had to decide how to get back. I could either backtrack the . to the AT, o take the service road t Skyline D which met u with the A .9 south o where I got off.                                                                                                                                                                                             I am trying to make it a point not to look at the map and figure out each crossing. There are times when you can take the road instead of the AT and shave off some considerable distance. In the order of miles. I really don't care for walking with cars and don't want that temptation. So I don't figure out how much and which ones to take. I was walking along the road and a park ranger drove by. I waved, she waved back. A few seconds later I saw thr patrol car drive by the opposite way and pull over in front of me. I figured great what did I do. I did have my self registration tag hanging from my pack. I had to do that when I entered the park. The is a Kiosk on the trail. That way I can legally camp in the park. She gets out, and we exchange pleasantries. She said something and I said yes sir, crap. I quickly said soory yes maam. She just laughed a little. She said they were looking for someone in the area and asked if I had seen him. She figured it was worth a shoot to ask since I was hiking the AT. It felt great to have someone notice and say that without asking first. I said no and asked why they were looking. Apparently the guy got out of his girl friends car after an argument with only some cash and smokes. No one has seen him in a couple days and they are concerned. She said they found !the cash. She said to call if I see anything. Hopefully he got out of the park somewhere and is ok. This isn't the place and espesically no the time of year to be out with nothing. The ranger also said it wasn't supposed to rain tonight or within the next couple days. It looked it though. Appartently where I am at is on the edge of the clouds for a tropical storm. Great if that turns, it is going to mean a lot of rain. Which is needed, but I don't want to be hiking in it. Luckily I am still carrying extra food and can wait it out if needed. I got to the shelter around 4pm again. It feels nice to get to camp with plenty of day light again. Plenty of time to get everything done before dark. Good thing. The spring is piped but just barely flowing. That means the water is flowing out of a pipe comeing out of the ground. Think the flow of a continuously leaky fuacet. About a quart every 5 minutes. The puddle was just that. A muddy mess, no way I was getting water from that. So I propped up my gatoraid bottle underneath it. I only had .5 liter left and am really lucky it was flowing at all. In the mean time I gathered some firewood. It took a while, but I finally treated 4 liters and gathered enough firewood. Someone was nice enough to leave some kendling and larger pieces at the shelter. Whcih is always nice when you need a fire fast. I didn't want to use it up ,so gathered more. I also found a big log that someone cut from a blowdown. Which gives me an idea. I have wondered why before. If I ever maintain a section around a shelter, I will cut the blow downs up into useable firewood sizes chunks. I wouldn't stack them. I would only leave a note saying they are around and to burn what you need. It would clear out a lot of the downed trees close to this and most shelters. Oh, I also finished my novel. It only took 2 days. Funny I only managed 27 miles in 2 days of hiking, but read a 250+ page book. What can I say, but I have issues. Hiking wise. Tomorrow staying at a shelter means either a 15 or 27 mile day. There is a campground in 20 that the guide says is closed. I could probibly hang there and get away with it. If it is open I coud pay and get a shower out of it. We'll see. One thing is for sure. I either need to turn it up or plan a resupply in a couple days. There are resupply options and towns inside of that, so that isn't an issue. I am thinking I'll turn it up and get somewhere though. Today was a good day to lounge and relax. Tomorrow is Friday and this is a popular park, which means more people. I can except that through Sunday I will be seeing a good amount of day hikers, people at the shelter, and worest of all more cars on the road. But some company at night would be nice. Still no sign or Torque. Torque's mom if you are reading this sign in the guest book with your email address and I will send my contact info onto you to send to him. I heard from some section hikers that he was in Harper's Ferry the day or day before I was going into Front Royal. So that would put him 1 to 2 days back. He must be putting around like I am. I figured he would catch me before I went into town. I should have got his number. I could have put him in touch with Sharon and gave him a place to stay and regroup in town. Planning wise. If it doesn't rain and cause a weather related zero I am planning my next one in about 100 miles. There is a hostel that everone talks about I want to stay at. It is one of those places everyone either hated it or loved it. Yup Rusty's Hard Time Hollow. I heard he hates it when people only stay a night. So if I like it, it is a restful zero for me. I'll explain more about it later. I will say it is very back to basics. The guy only got electricity within the last couple years. I noticed something the last few days that I wanted to share. Up until then I could only tell around how many miles I hiked. But for the first time I am keeping track of how many miles I have left. Around 928 now. I think it has something to do with being over half way and under 1000 to go. I used to do the same on my rowing workouts back in the day. No use thinking about how much left you had to do until the distance you had left was less than the distance you traveled. I know I have been under my 15 miled per day goal the last few days. But one 20 miler will put me back on track. I talked to a guy who saw a few bears today, and saw people talking about them in the register. I also saw a couple huge piles of bear poo on the trail. They are not stupid, they take the easy path (the trails) like the rest of us. I don't really want to run into one at night. So I am trying to get done by dark. Unfortunatly that means some smaller than I would like days. Even 3 more would be nice. Anyways off to bed. Where I'll report for tomorrow is anyone's guess.