Date: 2008-04-19
From: Va 522 Front Royal

To: Manassas Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Well the time is hear for my 6 day section hike to start. I drove down from NY the other night and met up with Doggiebag at the Harpers Ferry Hostel. From here were shuttled cars and then hit the road. I had to make a stop at the outfitters in Front Royal because at midnight last night I recalled that I had left my headlamp at home. Well at least I figured this out while there was still time to get a new one and not night one out on the trail.We hit the trail head at 11:00 and began the northward march to I-70. The plan is to get to I-70 in Md by Thursday afternoon allowing me time to make the 5 to 6 hr drive back home and all the real world stuff that will be awaiting my return. When I think of all the logistics of car shuttles and drives to trail heads and then the ever pressing short term schedules that section hikers have I understand why a thru is so enticing to people, myself included.Ok back to it. We started hiking north from Va 522. After the first and the highest climb of the trip we stopped for a bit of lunch and to get more water. The day could not be better, a bit warm perhaps but the sun was out and Spring is much more advanced down here than back in NY. The first climb was long but nothing overly tough just a steady trudge up the hill. We had lunch at Mosby camp.Sometimes it is the small things that are out of place that can tell you a great deal. I know from all my years wrangling out in Wyoming sometimes it is a hint of a color that doesn¢t belong somewhere that tell of the presence of an animal or the way that grass is all bent in one direction that can tell you where something bedded down. Today it was the fact that there were daffodils growing not in clumps but in straight lines that betrayed the presence of an old home site. I later learned that Mosby Camp once the home site of one of Col. Mosby¢s men who once lived here. And the Spring still carries his name. Mosby who was known as the ¢Gray Ghost¢ controlled most of the area below Harpers Ferry to Front Royal and it was sometimes referred to as Mosby¢s Confederacy. After a quick lunch in the pleasant sun we moved on. I was just so happy to know that I would be out for the next six days I never felt any great need to push on or hurry up. We stopped a bit further on so that I could see the Jim and Molly Denton shelter and get some more water. After we crossed Va 638 we had the pleasant but at times steep climb up to what was a once abandon farm. Now all that remains is like a mini bald just before the descent into Manassas Gap. A short break up top was great as there was just enough of a breeze to cool you down from the climb. On the way down to the gap we met the section hiker ¢Barkeater¢. He told us of the Boy Scout troop that was camped at the shelter.The climb to Manassas gap shelter was not as high as the first climb of the day but it was longer at over 2 miles of steady upward progress. It topped out just about 1700 ft. I am trying to use my watch and altimeter more so you will see more status in this part. The shelter was nice but we set up the hammocks out by the trail. The piped spring was great meaning that I did not have to filter and there was plenty of water. Little did I know just how much water there was to be. By the time I got settled for the night and the moon was just climbing in the east it began to rain. Through the night I heard some thunder as the rain came down. Today¢s figures We ascended 1880 feet and descended 1800 ft in 6:43 hrs.Today¢s Mileage 10.7 Grand Total 318.1