Date: 2003-05-25
From: Rock Fish Gap

To: Blackrock Hut
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: light rain

Wench called last night & set up a shuttle back to the trail for us, it comes at 9:30. These shuttlers are all volunteers, they do it because they like to, not for money. They are great people. After breakfast at the hotel, we got picked up & were on the trail by 9:45. It was misty, foggy at higher elevations, a seemingly nasty sort of day. But surprise, it turned out great. No rain, cool temps, and then some Sun. Glad we didn¢t get used to it, we didn¢t see it often¢¦ Wench seems to be feeling a little better today, she has had a bad cold for a week or so. Stuffed up head, scratchy throat, and tired. A day off in Waynesboro did her good (plus vitamins & cough meds). The trail seemed to fly by today, we took breaks, stopped for lunch, and still were averaging more than 2 miles per hour. The first shelter was 7.2 miles out (just before we entered Shenandoah National Park - SNP), the next shelter (called a Hut in SNP), was 20 miles out. As we went by the first shelter, we realized that we could do the 20 & get to the next hut without too much pain involved, so we went for it. I must note here, that it was easier for me, because I was now wearing my lighter New Balance 806 Trail runners & only carrying my summer gear. Lighter shoes, less weight¢¦ Ahhhh, perfection (or so I thought, until the rains came & my first blister crop was ready to harvest). It was still a long sore day, 20 milers always are. My feet still ache (less support in the 806¢s), my knees are sore (always were), but just not as much as usual. We were excited to be in SNP finally, home of the bears (they must have been on vacation!), a zillion Skyline drive crossings and campgrounds with stores & grills every 20-30 miles (and we ate at every one of them). This is a very cool.thing, we didn¢t have to carry as much food, we can resupply at the camp stores. I started with 3 days of food, and will see how it goes. Eating lunch every other day at a short order grill sounds good! The hiking in SNP is not easy, but the trails seem to be fairly well graded so far. I just remembered, I told my wife to come hike with me in SNP, but I will be out of it before she gets a chance to come up. The hike goes so fast at times and slow at other times. Right now, the time & miles are flying by. We are at 866.4 miles (total), and 86 days. Where has the time gone? I will be in Harpers Ferry in 10 days (psychological halfway point), and at Pine Grove Furnace state park soon after (real half way point). Sigh, but we have to do the miles the trail lets us do. Sometimes it is 10-15 miles, sometimes it is 15-20¢¦ So be it. Looking back, I realize how important this was. To do the miles the trail let us do & be happy with that. Not to try to beat the mountains & force miles. Today doing 20 miles was easy, there were no real views to stop & dawdle at, mostly fog in the morning & limited views in the afternoon. The Blue Ridge parkway was harder on sunny days¢¦ Hour long lunches at overlooks, lots of rest breaks at views. This week will be rainy, so we should do more miles (every cloud has a silver lining). I¢m looking forward to what SNP has to offer. Tomorrow it offers a camp store and grill. NOTE: Have I mentioned how much I appreciate all the people that have helped me out along the way? Support from home, mail & treats from friends, people going out of their way to help us. It means a lot to u! We couldn¢t do it without you! But enough for now.. Good night all. PS. Bear poles don¢t do much good if I can reach the stuff hanging on them with my hand¢¦. Hmmm¢¦. But there are no bears here anyway¢¦ At least not that I saw¢¦