Date: 2015-05-06
From: Manassas Shelter

To: Bear's Den Hostel
Miles today: 22.8
Weather: scattered clouds

It was quite strange to wake up completely alone in the shelter today, though I was glad to have survived my first solo shelter experience. In particular, I noticed the wonderful silence at night. Finally, I had escaped the snoring. I woke and left fairly promptly, once again drinking tea from my pot. I'm strongly weighing the merits of a real cup or tumbler. It's really nice to just stroll along in the early morning light and enjoy a cup of tea. I took it fairly easy compared to the day into Front Royal. The weather was extremely hot again, and I was absolutely streaming with sweat. I had to constantly keep wiping down my face. After lunchtime, the trail started on the infamous rollercoaster. The rollercoaster does not have any especially high climbs, but it does have a bunch of climbs and drops similar to a rollercoaster, hence the name. It was actually hard but only because I was sweating so much. I also ran out of water on one of the ascents, which was surprising as I had refilled at lunch. I drank an enormous amount of water today, and fully utilised the Sawyer's ability to filter water immediately.The rollercoaster combined with the heat today have shown me that I absolutely need to get a new shirt. My current one is dark and long sleeved, so it's no good when the weather is hitting 30 Celsius and climbing. The heat got so intense that I had to roll my shirt up just to get a bit more air. The one day hiker who saw me do this did not seem particularly impressed. It seemed today that the forest was alive with wildlife. Firstly I walked through a million spider webs, and I had to hold my pole in front of my face for a good portion of the morning because I was sick of nearly eating the webs. There were also many, many flying bugs and beetles. I saw a couple frogs at the creeks, a lizard on the rocks, and a thin green snake sunning itself on the trail. The snake froze and refused to move until I threw sticks at it, then it quickly slithered into the woods again. About a mile from the hostel, the sky got a little darker and then I could hear thunder in the distance. I wasn't particularly worried since the weather predictions for this week only said rain for yesterday. Besides, the thunder rumbled ominously for about 10 minutes without any signs of rain. Then, I was half a mile from the hostel and just before the last creek. The thunder rumbled again, but this time it was overhead. Then the skies opened and the rain poured. I knew immediately that this was not the kind of rain that I could just wait out underneath a tree. So, I quickly put my rain gear on. But already, I was wet and my pack was soaked in the time it took to do that. As I was gearing up, the heavy rain turned to hail and pelted me. The hail soon stopped but the heavy rain continued. I quickly crossed the creek, but the trail was an absolute wash out. The half a mile to the hostel was all uphill. Bald Eagle said that today he did not ride the rollercoaster, but the water slide. He was very accurate. It seemed like in mere minutes, the trail had become a torrent of water that was impossible to avoid. I trekked through it, accepting that my shoes and socks would be able to dry at the hostel. Even with the rain and the state of the trail, I wasn't especially uncomfortable- until I heard the thunder. The thunder was directly over head and I was walking up into it. The thunder was the loudest I have ever heard. And then the Lightning joined in. Again, I could not see individual strikes but just flashes. There were flashes every ten seconds for the entire time I was hiking up. It was like being surrounded by paparazzi constantly taking brightly lit photos. It was genuinely scary, especially thinking that my metal trekking poles probably make a great target for any potential lightning strikes. And indeed, I have heard of hikers being struck in the past. I finally arrived at the hostel about 5.30pm. Every inch of my outer layer was dripping, and my shoes squelching. I had to remove everything just to be able to enter the hostel without flooding it. The hostel is a castle shaped building, but is very cosy inside. I highly recommend the hostel, it's a not for profit place that is actually owned by the ATC. It's clean, comfortable, and a reasonable price. The hiker bunks are in the basement, with the usual amenities (shower, tv, laundry, fridge, outdated computer). The upstairs store and office is opened at 5pm and locked at 9am, which is check out time. The store has a very small resupply, but mostly snacks, pizza, soda and ice cream. The hostel does a hiker deal that includes the latter three. I didn't do the deal, but did buy a pizza and soda. After settling my stuff on my bunk and hanging up my wet things to dry, I proved once again my ability to eat an entire pizza by myself with extraordinary ease. Today I passed 1,000 miles. It was not marked on the trail, but I knew about when I had passed it. It didn't feel like I had done a thousand miles, it felt like all the other miles really (though definitely hotter). It is a little disheartening to recall that 1,000 miles is not even half way. And when I do finally reach half way, I will have to do everything all over again. It will be a little easier though, with my legs being so much stronger, and my feet so much harder (and practically disfigured). Not sure how many miles I will do tomorrow, but first I will definitely take advantage of the hostel's all-you-can-eat, self serve pancake breakfast.