Date: 2014-05-20
From: Front Royal

To: Dick's Dome Shelter
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: broken clouds

Day 69- May 20, Front Royal to Dick's Dome Shelter, 15.2 miles.After a pretty good night's sleep and an adequate breakfast we walked about a half mile to the road that went back to the AT. It took me 6 minutes to hitch a ride and a guy named John picked us up on his way home from work. We were hiking by 7:25 AM. These recent Virginia miles have been very pleasant walking because of the good trail conditions, small elevation changes and cool clear weather. Three shelters divided up our 15 miles into fairly equal sections so we always had a nice spot to stop for a break. When we got to the trail this morning another thru-hiker, Rambo, was at the road crossing having just walked north 4 miles from the previous shelter. He said his plan was to walk all the way to Harper's Ferry today, about 52 more miles! We were a bit astounded but wished him luck and let him go ahead of us, thinking he had to walk faster than us to get all those miles in. We've seen him at each shelter since and I think he has modified his plans! Ahh, youth!We've seen a couple of hikers who got off the trail to go back to Damascus, VA for Trail Days. We were most happy to see Simba again and surprised to see that he got his head shaved while he was gone. He doesn't remember all the details but seems to think it will work for a summer haircut!My feet felt better today than they have for the past 3-4 days. I may try to soak them in the creek that is flowing right by this shelter area. Some of our friends have asked about how to meet up with us. Well, we enter PA at the beginning of next week and that may be the closest we get to Rochester. It would probably be about a 4.5 hour drive to meet up with us. We can work with you on timing but please understand that we don't always have cell service. You may want to look at a good map and see how the trail moves diagonally west to east across southern PA and see where the trail comes near a town. We can meet people where the trail crosses a road and then jump in your car and you can take us to the nearest town where we can have a meal together and/or spend the night. We will be in Vermont later in the summer and that could be another potential meet up spot. So email us or leave a comment on the guest book section of our trail journal and we'll see what we can set up. All the logistics for the next couple of weeks have still left me without a zero day. I'm not sure where there is a good place to do this but I'd sure like to figure it out. I guess I just have to trust the trail, and it will all work out. This shelter we are at tonight, Dick's Dome, is the smallest shelter we've seen yet. It is a geodesic dome and I believe it was a Boy Scout project a few years back. When I say that we stay at shelters, I usually mean we set up our tent near the shelter so we can take advantage of some of the shelter amenities such as the picnic table and privy. We sleep in the shelters when we have to (Smoky Mtns) or when the weather is very bad. Our tent site tonight is on quite a slant so we'll probably end up in a heap at the bottom of the tent! Tomorrow we hike a 13 mile section of the trail called The Rollercpaster! Stay tuned!All is well.