Date: 2007-10-17
From: Stealth site .4 past South River Picnic Area, VA

To: Stealth site .6 miles past Rockspring Hut, VA
Miles today: 18.0

Last nite was a warm nite, took my beenie off and woke to 58 degrees this morning. I¢m obviously tired at nite, because I keep sleeping through my alarms, but the slightest glint of light and a bird or 2 always wakes me up. Seems at home, my kitten Hank is on this same sunrise schedule, because he rarely lets me sleep past 6:30 a.m., when he annoyingly decides to pounce my (completely motionless) feet as if they were some household-threatening wild animal. Gosh¢¦can¢t a girl get some decent sleep anywhere? LOLIt was a completely quiet nite, an occasional acorn falling from the trees, a distant distant owl and that¢s it. I was still up @ 7:00 a.m., and when I went to get my food, the sun was finally peeking over the ridge. WOW!!! The color was almost indecscribeable, but it was this burnt orange/red/fusia color and was amazing. I sat on my hammock and ate breakfast, and at one point, the sun shined right thru some thick trees right at me..a small perfectly round dot. I swear it was like looking into the center of the universe for a moment. It is these small moments, sometimes only seconds long, of my day out here that mean so much to me. When do we ever take the time in our busy get ready for work routines to sit and watch the sunrise. Better yet, how many of us can actually SEE the sunrise over all of the buildings and powerlines and shopping centers we¢ve built everywhere? Anyway¢¦.I was hiking by 8:00 a.m. and the smell of Fall is so strong, you know, the smell of dead leaves that reminds you of hay ride and halloween. I love it, and I remember last year at this time, as I was working my desk-slave job, I made note of it in a prep entry. Wildlife today was the normal ¢don¢t care that you are hiking towards me¢ deer, chipmunks, and squirrels. Plenty of beare scat, but no bear. So, a milestone today, I hit 900 MILES!!! Today @ 9:52 a.m., I hit it and I made my monument with rocks (I think even Persistent would have approved of ALL of these rocks..hee hee), and I took a pic as always. I think about the other 100 mile milestones and what was going on with me on those days. I am so excited to hit the 1000 mile mark though, that to me is something that seemed almost impossible at one point. I remember it taking us like a month or maybe even longer to hike our first 100 miles, I couldn¢t fathom 1000 at that time. There¢s still plenty of stuff between me and that next 100 miles, so we¢ll see what happens.I met some people today, Buck and Betty from Hampton, VA. They were hilarious, and after telling them where I¢d begun, they jokingly said, ¢Oh, well we¢ve hiked the Appalachian Trail too¢¦.about 12 mile that way and not back.¢ We were all laughing, but it was cool talking to them.I also ran into the Charlottesville Senior Hiking group, and when I found out they are from my town, I asked if you had to be a senior to hike with them. They all laughed (but I was serious), and they said no. I might just join them some day soon!I had a late lunch @ a cemetary today, the trail goes right by it. It was a small one, and I walked around for a bit and found the headstone of Ernest G. Thomas, 1883-1964 (I tried to find the oldest one, not sure if this was it though). Couldn¢t help but wonder what kind of life he had, what kind of person he was, what he looked like, I mean wow, being born in 1883, what a most amazing life he had to live into the 1960¢s. His grave looked abandoned, so I (ahem) put a flower cross on Ernest¢s grave that was fallen over and not being properly displayed. Yes, it was ¢sort of¢ in front of another grave, but that grave had so much decoration it wasn¢t going to miss this one cross that was laying on the side. Not even sure if I should write about this, it¢s probably illegal or something, but I just wanted Ernest to know that some crazy gal in the year 2007 actually still cared that his life had happened and that his death mattered.So, I was moving swiftly today, at some points averaging 3 mph, so I was able to take more breaks. Amazing my body is still retty conditioned even after my time off. I actually felt like all the other hikers who would pass me constantly¢¦but then again, this IS the Shenandoah¢s, so I¢m probably fooling myself! JI ate dinner @ Big Meadows Campground. Again, picnic tables, bathroom, running water, it was great! I watched some people drive up, get out of their SUV, head down to the AT, and about 10 minutes later, they both appeared again, and the lady goes, ¢Whoo!,¢ like you do when you¢re tired. They then climbed back into their SUV and drove away. It actually made me laugh out loud. Not in a patronizing way, but it strikes me as ironic that we have these incredible natural spaces like the SNP, and most people ¢enjoy¢ it from their vehicles while driving 35 mph down Skyline Drive. There¢s so much being missed like that, but I am glad we have that type of access for people who wouldn¢t otherwise be able to experience it at all. Seriously people, if you¢re able-bodied, get out and walk in nature¢¦..alone. It¢s a truly spiritual thing.I am also surprised how the routine of hiking/setting up camp finds you so quickly again out here. I¢d never actually timed how long I take to set up and tear down camp, but I notcied today, and both take right about an hour each, which I¢m happy with. I¢d bet in the beginning, it was taking me twice that everyday. So I decided to head for Rock Spring Hut, and when I got there, I was feeling pretty strong, so I decided to go a little further and do a little nite hiking. Where th ehut was had plenty of great trees to hang, but as I got about 10 minutes away, it turned into sheer mountain side on both sides of me, and that didn¢t make me too happy. I thought I¢d hike till 8:00 p.m., but thought better of it when I came around a curve and found this perfect little notch in the mountain side with 2 trees exactly spaced for my hammock. So, I decided to call it quits at 7:10 p.m. It¢s not the ¢ideal¢ spot because the wind is blowing right up the mountain side, so to prevent me from getting cold, I built up duff around the bottom of my tarp to seal myself off. I¢m toasty warm right now.Stoked I pulled an 18 miler today too, but there was a lot of easy trail today, so I figured I could do it.I also met a SOBO named Dr. Dooma and his buddy as well as another SOBO¢s mom, Cavemom. Nice woman who was truly excited about her son¢s hike. Well, looking to be in Front Royale by Friday evening. Incessant is driving up to bring me supplies and I might zero there on Saturday. It was a good day today, oh, and in the mid 70¢s with about 10 min. of light rain. Really beautiful. It¢s pitch dark now and I¢m looking down on the town of Luray, VA. Clear nite sky with stars and breezy. Time to get some zzzzz¢s.~Certain