Date: 2003-06-28
From: Waynesboro, VA

To: Blackrock Hut
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Back out on the Trail! After two days of being treated very well by Blip's parents...shuttled where we needed to go: post office, library, grocery store, restaurants...then a tour of Monticello...it was difficult to get going again. Blip and her parents dropped me off at the trailhead, took a last photo of the two of us, and I set off...on my own. It feels strange to be hiking by myself. Blip and I have hiked together since Damascus...over a month. There is a certain amount of freedom that exists when hiking alone...the only pace you need to think about is your own, you can stop (or not!) whenever you want or need to...but there's noone to share any of the views, deer sightings and other stuff with. I'm not sure which, if either, I like better. I had set an ambitious course for myself...20 miles. I got the first .8 of a mile out of the way, and was at the self-registration for Shenendoah National Park (for the rest of the time in the park, I will abbreviate to SNP). ! There was a similar setup in the Smokies. There was another hiker registering there, and I asked if he was a thru-hiker. He said yes...his name was Brown Bess. I had wanted to meet him, so I could tell him how much I loved his journal on trailjournals.com, but he had started on the 11th of March...way ahead of me. It turns out that he had gotten sick and took some time off the Trail, he was starting back today. We wished each other good hiking, and I set off again. My trek today was pretty uneventful, other than seeing (and scaring, due to my squeaky boots!) many deer. I stopped at the first shelter and found Deacon Blues. He had started an hour or so before me and was finishing up a break as I was starting one. At a road crossing (8 crossings of Skyline Drive today...I'm looking for Trail Magic!) I met a weekender and a man who had finished the Trail in sections in the 90's, and talked with them till the bugs were eating me alive. Another hiker flew by us as we !were sitting there. At the next road crossing, I saw him with severalpeople, having something to drink. I was envious (all day long out here, I CRAVE soda!), so I decided to see what was up. He introduced himself as Kung Fu, and told me, when I gave him my name, that he enjoyed my journal. I discovered that the people he was with were his parents...and they had a cooler full of beer and margaritas! I took a margarita, when it was offered, and we spent some time talking about the Trail. He had started on the first of May...yikes! Sometimes I feel so slow out here! I know I'm doing the miles I need to, though, and I'm enjoying meeting so many people...even if they're passing me by. His parents were very nice, and his mother showed me the scrapbook she's put together of the Trail and Kung Fu's website. They offered me another drink, but I chose to take it with me...another and I wouldn't be able to hike, and I still had 8 miles to do! I said my goodbyes and hurried off...I now had less than 4 hours to do the remaining miles and needed! to fly! I managed to put in a 3 mile hour, so that I was where I needed to be time-wise, and caught up to Deacon Blues again. I took a short break and started on my last 3.5 miles...I was really hurting at this point! My feet and legs hate me. I could see, as I arrived at the shelter, that it was a pretty full house...not only was Deacon Blues here, but Martin as well! There were also a few section hikers...and then Blue Stool and Halfway came back from viewing the sunset with Blue Stool's dad (both of the guys have their dads with them for the week). I guess that SNP is THE place where parents join their kids on the Trail! I set up my tent in the dark, ate a late dinner and hit the tent for the night. I was cleaning up to get ready to type this, then go to sleep, when I heard a great crashing through the woods...oh no! Had a bear smelled my foot massage oil, and was he coming to get me?? I shut off my headlamp and laid down, straining to hear what was going on o!utside my tent. I could hear whatever it was walking around through the brush...for hours, it seemed. I finally got over my terror and had drifted off to sleep...after twenty miles, I could ignore anything, even a bear. I suddenly heard a great snorting sound...and knew I was being visited by...more deer. They (at least two of them) went crashing back through the woods, the one snorting all the way. I could sleep soundly now...and did...