Date: 2004-06-16
From: Calf Mtn Shelter

To: Pinefield Hut
Miles today: 26.2
Weather: light rain

The uncomfortable night on the muddy edge of the overfull Calf Mountain Shelter resulted in a very early start. That's not a bad thing. It helps to make the most of these long days near the solstice.A mile from the shelter we actually crossed into Shenandoah National Park. Shelters would now be called huts but they would still be lean-tos. The trail would cross the Skyline Drive more than ten times today. That's not to mention the other road crossings. Shelters were 13 miles apart today. That meant the choice of a short day or a long day. It would be a long day of course. That's ok because these days have the most sunlight hours of the year and it was dry today. Blackrock Hut, a Shenandoah shelter built in 1941, was only two tenths to the right but it was down all the way. Lunch up here on the trail would have been fine but the need for water was too great. It was hot and the shade of the roof was nice too. There was a nice creek at the shelter too. There were two older trail maintainers there and some other folk arrived later. After lunch I climbed back up the switchbacks to the trail.A guy was sitting there writing in his journal. We exchanged a brief how do you do. He said he didn't need water and wasn't going down to the shelter. I didn't blame him and headed north. He was just out of sight when it dawned on me that I hadn't asked his name. I turned and called the question back to him. He responded, ¢RoadRunner¢. Wow, I ran back tossing my pack on the ground while telling him I had a message for him. It had been a week and I still knew where the message was. He read the message and thanked me. He asked where and when I had last seen his buddy. This made me feel pretty fulfilled. It was nice to do a good turn for some fellow thru-hikers.Now remember back on the 11th Buick and I had been charged with this message. We had asked lots of people their names. We had scoured shelter logs for RoadRunner's entries and found quite a few. We knew we were catching up. It looked like we might pass him at Waynesboro though. He had written that he wanted to go to this big thru-hiker event that Waynesboro was putting together. Whether he went or not we don't know. It just felt really great to give him the message.Blackrock was a fun summit. It was a pile of rock and boulders like the summits of the Presidential Range in New Hampshire only smaller. This was a perfect celebration after finding RoadRunner. The sky, a mix of nasty clouds and bits of blue, urged me on. It was also a bit on the hot side.Later on, Buick and I caught up to each other. He was just as excited about having made the RoadRunner connection. We talked about how if we didn't already have trail names this would be a good start. We started brainstorming names like: Federal Express, FedEx, Postman, Air Mail, UPS, Mailman, Pony Express and a bunch of others. This was fun and it kept us going for a while.One of the fun parts of hiking through the Shenandoah are the campgrounds. Moreover, it is the campground stores. About 20 miles into the day the trail came to Loft Mountain Campground. A short jaunt down the campground nature paths lead me to the camp store. This place was actually pretty well stocked for a thru-hiker. Not only did it have lots of good snacks but there was plenty for a resupply. There was a breeze way between the store and the restrooms, showers & laundry. Buick showed up a few minutes later and so did some other hikers. We all hung out at the back end of the breezeway on the steps and ate. It's pretty certain I made three trips into the store to get goodies including, of course, ice cream. It was less than six miles to the next shelter. Buick and I hauled this stretch together.Here in the Shenandoah, at every road crossing, trail intersection and other points of interest there would be a sign. But not a sign like any other place on the AT or any place I have ever hiked. The signs consisted of a 4¢x4¢ concrete post about three or four feet tall. A one inch galvanized steel band was wrapped around the post a few inches from the top. This band would have up to four lines of maybe 12 point text embossed on it including little arrows. The little embossed notes and directions might be found on any number or all four of the sides. A hiker had to go right up to the thing and kind of bend down to study these things. Don't forget to examine all four sides. It was sort of like uncovering secret clues on a scavenger hunt. I have to wonder how many I passed before realizing they were signs. It was a little annoying at first but then it became a bit addicting, like a game. They were fairly frequent and had a fair amount of info regarding distances. It was reassuring to see the distances to future mile posts getting shorter and shorter. Of course frequently the destination indicated was some obscure unmarked gap. The only way to know it had been passed was that it no longer appeared on the little steel bands.Despite all of the Skyline Drive crossings there were seldom views. Unlike the Blue Ridge Parkway, most of the Skyline Drive crossings were not at overlooks. This was a bit disappointing. The one exception was, however, something to write home about. Buick and I were together here and that was handy. There was a wonderful rainbow across the wide view. We got photos of each other with the rainbow in the background. It was great. Buick got a little freaked out when he noticed an army of ants climbing his leg after the photo shoot. I didn't blame him but had to laugh a little anyway. It was about 7:30pm, when we turned 500 feet down the blue blazes to Pinefield Hut. The trail crossed a little creek just before reaching the hut. that was handy. There were a bunch of folks there already but there was still room. Four of them were teenagers out for a few days. They had plenty of questions for the thru-hikers. That was fun. A trail maintainer guy around 40 and quite full of him self just wouldn't be quiet. He had to tell us all of everything he had done or knew. Fortunately there were enough others around that we could ignore him while he bothered others. Besides, we needed to eat and sleep and dark was coming soon. 26.2 miles made for a good hike today.It was almost dark when another hiker arrived. He looked to be about 20 and was carrying a tiny pack. We asked if he was thru-hiking which he was and that opened the conversation. Eventually Buick asked the inevitable, ¢When did you start?¢ He replied, ¢May 21st.¢ Now it was our turn for the stunned dropped jaw look. We had never met any one who had started after us. I asked, ¢From where?¢ thinking he must be a section hiker. He said with a note of disdain, ¢Springer.¢ I felt a bit foolish. Buick and I both responded with excited congratulations. You could see the tension in his body melt away. He was among friends. We asked him about gear, food and town stops. We asked his name and he told us it was Will. He was obviously hiking too fast to get a trail name. We explained explained our take on this phenomenon to him. He concurred. He told us he thought his name might relate to the messages people keep asking him to carry ahead to disconnected friends. Buick and I looked at each other and smiled. Then we deluged him with all the names we had come up with earlier today. It was like fate. He considered a few of them and then said, ¢Maybe Pony Express.¢ We agreed.We had a good time talking with the one person we had met who was out hiking us. He explained his hesitance about telling us when he had started. He told us how some people actually got angry when they heard how fast he was going. They would expound about how he was missing the trail. How he was doing it wrong. We told him we had heard it all but that he must get it even worse. He was doing between 30 and 36 miles a day. That was incredible. He was able to keep his pack weight to 20 pounds by not carrying a tent and seldom carrying more than two days of food. He could do that because at that speed he got to trail towns much more frequently. That made sense. We could tell he appreciated talking to folks who could truly appreciate his mode of operation. That probably hadn't happened much if at all before for any of us.He was a cross country runner in college some where. He had hiked the Pacific Crest Trail last summer, 2003, in very short order too. When Buick asked if he thought he might set a record he told us that he had to take 10 days off to watch his cat while his parents were away. It didn't bother him though. He liked his cat and breaking records wasn't why he was out here. Like us he hiked fast because he liked it. There's nothing to prove.