Date: 2005-04-27
From: front royal, va.

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

APRIL 27, WED. DAY 20 CAMPING TONIGHT AT A SPOT ALONG THE POTOMAC RIVER. BEAUTIFUL SITE.         had denny and bob in hostel with me last nite. they are section hikers from n.h. ones trail name was global warfare on terror? whatever in the hell that is supposed to represent. and the other was ranger rick. they are retired from service. one of them hot shots. so i said i suppose i don't dare ask what you did in the military because if you told you would have to kill me?   left bear dens hostel at 6:45 this morning. supposed to rain today. tough 3 miles of hiking this morn. discovered i had a loose strap on pack. so tightened it and made a hell of a difference. made 23 miles today   in my last entry i was telling about dave from wis. the hike he was planning was wind river in wy. just remembered that. in aug. they take llamas out and then hike. also as i am listening to my recording i am talking about the bears den hostel again. they had 475 hikers there last month thats counting groups like boy scouts etc. it is a 3 story place. in the basement is ref. stove etc. and bunks for hikers. showers. upstairs is dining room. fireplace. nice place. great experience.    just crossed a 4 lane highway at 7 a.m. pretty hairy. suppose everyone is headed up to wash. d.c. to work. e just passed me. says he hikes 3 miles per hour. he was the one with the blistered feet that i met at waynesboro. met lone wolf from pines grove pa. sobo headed for ga. juiski from n.j.passed me met a guy named blisters a flipflopper. and robin from virginia beach. got in to harpers ferry and stopped at the atc office. not impressed at all. went down town and got a cheeseburger and a shake. wasn't very good and hiway robbery. !! $11.00 very expensive town. was going to hostel but too expensive. so the hell with it .headed out of town. there are signs up along the canal (the old b and o tow path)here that say no camping. met a guy hunting mushrooms and he had just found a whole mess of them as i came by. i promised myself just now that i would not hike more than 15 miles a day from now on. mainly cause when i over do my attitude gets shitty. like it is today. when i step on these rocks the ball of my right foot is painful as hell. and there a lot of rocks here and will be clear up to where i get off at port clinton. so have to take it easy and stop for the day earlier. found a nice camp spot by the potomac river. hope i don't get run out of here. went to bed at 7 listened to radio and did crossword puzzles. APRIL 28 THURS. DAY 21   at pine knob shelter tonight.   made 20 miles again. broke my promise to myself to cut back on miles.    broke camp about 7:00 nice day. pretty sunrise today. had to dig a cathole again this morn. and just as i was about to do my business i heard voices. thought oh no someones is coming right in here. but it was bicyclists and they went right on by on the bike trail. there is train track about 100 ft. away from trail and last nite one of those passenger trains came roaring thru, woke me up and scared the hell out of me. didn't know where i was for a sec. thought it was a tornado. lol.    stopped at ed garvey shelter for a break and treated my blisters. they are really getting bad. but i know how to treat them. lot of experience. the shelter here is two story and overlooks a nice valley. has showers here also. met michael from brooklyn n.y. who is headed for duncannon and older man named julius from st. louis. old julius don't know whether he is going north or south . kind of confusing. met rising star a section hiker heading for damascus really moving. am now just passing over interstate 70 and i can hear all the noise on my recorder. got in to pine knob shelter at 4:30. is a ridgerunner here tonight named woody. also robin, eric, juicekey, e, and robin.also michael dodson from n.y. originally from atlanta, ga. but now living in brooklyn, who is just out for a couple weeks. he had gotten fired from his job on the n.y. stock exchange for losing a bunch of money. so he is out here trying to get his mind straight about what he wants to do next. he is heading for duncannon where his girl will pick him up. she is a reporter for a financial magazine. think i had better stick with him. he seems depressed and needs some help. his feet are hurting also. blisters. and of course he is not used to hiking. APRIL 29 FRI. DAY 22   left shelter at 7 made 18 miles today. michael stuck right in there on my tail all day. stealth camping at pen-mar park. it is right on the pa. md. state line.         got my poncho on today cause it is raining. love that poncho. listening to npr this morn and they are talking about a drummer roy haines who is 80 yrs. old. very interesting story. he played drums for sarah vaughn, cole train, etc. started playing in 1944. had an album come out in 1962 called (out of the afternoon). now plays for fountain of youth band. going to ask my soninlaw rick about him. rick is a drummer and if he would stop listening to that damn communist station fox news he might learn something and get a little culture. lol. the two guys at the shelter, e and juicekey are doing 25 and 30 miles a day. and thats all they can talk about is how many miles they can go tomorrow. they are caught up in it and i have seen it so many time out here. i understand it completely. it gets me too. all you really look forward to is the next shelter, meal, resupply,hostel etc. and of course the terrain after while all looks the same. it is the same drudgery day after day. your job is to walk all day, get to a shelter or campsite, eat and then get in your bag for the night. oh there are times when you meet someone who is fun to talk to but most of the time it is just mindless walking. people who live out here are fortunate that they can hike a couple weeks at a time and don't have to worry about the logistics of getting to and from the trail.    met section hiker called new knees from boston. going to front royal. has hike 900 miles on a 15 year plan. juicekey has a mouse trap with him . has caught as high as 3 mice in a shelter at nite. old dirty deeds would have something to say about that. he said the mice have just as much right to be there as we do. lol.   i did camp on the stage under the roof of the pavilion. was a little nervous about it cause there was a sign here that says no camping. and could be a $500 fine. if caught. i figured that maybe it did not apply this early in the season. but i could see why they would not want a bunch of hikers camping here during the summer. anyway there were only two of us. michael from n.y. who by the way has camped with me the last couple days, pitched his tent instead of staying under the roof here. and it is raining. guess he was scared he was going to get caught and fined. a coupe of kids came by on skateboards. asked them if any body ever got fined for staying here and he said there were always some one camping here. restrooms are not open so took a sponge bath.