Date: 2021-04-27
From: Random Ridge, Va

To: Gravel Springs Hut
Miles today: 19.77
Weather: clear sky

Well, the cold did hold off, but the wind announced it¢s presence with authority about 9:30. It blew hard enough coming up the ridge that I was really concerned my stakes and guylines would come loose. Then I started to wonder if I had sufficiently battened down all my ancillary gear and tchotchkes attached to my pack. Lastly I schemed on and off through the night about how I¢d manage to pack up in the morning without having something of mine fly off the mountain and end up in Maryland.  As with most worries, all were unfounded and I survived the night and packed up just fine, though a bit wind battered. I got an early start partly due to the wind and partly to wanting to get some miles in before it heated up into the upper 70¢s. First climb of the day was up to Mary¢s Rock. There was a .2 mile side trail to the summit that I elected to take on the off chance a fellow Papist named the mountain and I¢d get a chit to play with St Peter when I have to face him and account for myself. ¢Well, yes, I know I took the lord¢s name in vain 52,972 times...but I did climb Mary¢s Rock! And those miles didn¢t even count!!¢I spent the first hour or so really nursing my right foot along. I must¢ve looked like Fred Sanford stumbling around about to have the big one. (The great thing about making references to TV shows that aired 40 years ago is that some people get it, some watched them in reruns 20 years ago and get it, and the youngsters can Google it. Everyone wins). But by and by I loosened up and as long as I wasn¢t going downhill, everything was copacetic. I took a short break about two hours in when the trail went by a rest area off the Skyline. I spent 10 minutes just repeatedly flushing a toilet for the shear joy of it, tears silently coursing down my face. Then I washed my hands for a good five minutes and rounded out my revelry by dunking my head under the faucet. Bum shower!Hopscotched around a hiker named Larry who is out sectioning, I pretty much knew that if I caught him it was because he had cell reception and was taking a phone break. Big happy happenstance today was getting to the Elk Wallow wayside about 1 pm and seeing four familiar faces. Easy, who I¢ve hiked around for a few days. Trail Mix, who I had met my first day on the trail at a shelter and whom I hadn¢t seen since. Slippers, with whom (yeah, I just whomed y¢all twice) I shared my first shuttle ride into Glasgow. And Polka Dot, who was at the Glasgow hostel the second night I stayed. It¢s been two weeks since I saw someone I recognized from earlier on the trail and then saw three at once.  I splurged on bought an unsweetened black tee and a 12 oz Diet Coke- no rules!!  The others were sitting at a picnic table eating chips, cookies, and ice cream bars. They wondered if I didn¢t see that they sold ¢trail food¢.  I answered that you don¢t get a body like mine by eating junk food. You get it by eating stress!30 minutes later and I started the last major climb of the day l, a two miler that went up roughly 1100 feet. It was hot, but I actually got into a nice plod plod plod (with a little moseying tossed in) up to the summit. It was the long downhill that reacquainted me with my pains and led to me calling it a day about 4:45. I¢m at Gravel Springs Hut waaaaay up on a hill (in order to find hammockable trees). Nice group of 6 or 7 people here tonight including Easy, who ends his section hike tomorrow. Also here is Songbird who is a flip-flopper and is hiking towards Maine while her husband drives their van-life home along the trail, staying at national parks and the like. There is such a wide variety of people out here, it¢s amazing. There¢s an equally wide variety of reasons that they are hiking. The great equalizer is the trail, we are all walking it.Tomorrow I will hopefully be getting my replacement pack which has arrived at the Stumble Inn Hostel in Front Royal. I¢ll have the option of hiking 13 miles to get picked up or hiking 21 miles for pick up. I¢ll let how I feel and the heat dictate what happens. I wouldn¢t have guessed I¢d hike the Shenandoah National Park in 6 days, but the steps just take me where they will. I can begin to see the end of Virginia, I don¢t plan to zero in Front Royal, just handle my pack business, do a light food resupply, and move on towards Harpers Ferry. Be well!