Date: 2006-04-26
From: Beahms Gap Skyline Drive 28.6

To: Elkwallow Gap Wayside SD 23.9
Miles today: 11.1

Thornton Gap US 211 SD 31.5 to Beahms Gap Skyline Drive 28.6  S 3.1 MilesBeahms Gap Skyline Drive 28.6 to Elkwallow Gap Wayside SD 23.9  S 5.5 MilesElkwallow Gap Wayside SD 23.9 to  Hogback Overlook Parking SD 21.1 S 2.5 MilesToday is Wednesday April twenty six. We spent last night at Cardinal inn, order Domino's Pizza, ate two of them, we got the third one for lunch today. We got the room for another night, tonight. We left there about quarter to eight, went to Brookside restaurant had breakfast and coffee, and Cappuccino. It cost too much, 19 dollars with tips and everything, but it was good. And then we got on up into the park, checked on our rental car, at panorama gap. And came on up to  Beahms Gap. Terry talked to this guy from the Potomac Appalachian Trail club and he says they every Wednesday they meet, somewhere on the trail I guess, and they hike. They were going to do this Kind of a cross-country hike, going from Appalachian Trail , hitting another trail and coming back around and seeing some old settlements that aren't on any trails. Sounds like fun. We got going at 9:25. It was a cool morning, we had to have fleece on. But no threat of rain. And I don't know if it rained at all last night down in Laurie.  Got on the trail and went up Pass Mountain like a six hundred foot climb, we just basically charged up because we're feeling strong and it wasn't too bad of a climb. So then you get up on top, we did pass the two guys we call the Father and Son. I don't know what they really are. I don't know their names, they're not real talkative people, but they do say hi. And we are wondering where Hunter and Mark are. And finally we came to the trail to the Pass Mt hut, the side trail, and that was ten o'clock. And we said, well they must be outta here, we must have missed them already.  Then there was a sign, I guess a side trail, and it said we'd gone one point nine miles, and it was 10;25. We were there with one point two miles to go, but then and the trails all level and we made some good time. We must have, because 0.8 later we had another sign at a road and it said we only had four tenths to go to the gap, and that was at ten forty five. And then right after that we met this gal, and she said yes she was thru hiking, and her trail name was Dew rag. And she said she had camped like three miles past the Rock Spring shelter last night, but there was a whole group that were in the shelter, that were thru hiking. It was just a nice hike, and then we went down and crossed 211. You have to cross the road there, then come back up behind Panorama, and we crossed the road which I would call Thorton gap at eleven o'clock. And eleven o five we were coming back to our car. I called dad, Terry went to the bathroom. Then we came on up, switched out cars, came on up to the Elkwallow Wayside, and there sitting at a picnic table were hunter and Mark. So we went over and talked to them for a few minutes, had a nice talk with them. They were drinking a bottle of Arbor Mist wine, they offered some to us. And Campbell¢s pork and beans, but anyhow we finally got going on at twelve fifteen. We took this little o.1 side trail over to the Appalachian Trail and got on it going south. A sign says Thornton Gap 8.1 and we've already done 3.1. So five miles to our car. And we've done six tenths so it is more like five and a half. It¢s just a beautiful day; it's still not too warm, little overcast now, lot of blue sky left, so just having a good hiking day. It was 12:30 when we came to what I think might have been Jeremys run trail. And we had five miles to go. And 1:05pm we were basically up on top of this mountain, which we don¢t remember the name. And we're sitting there taking a water break and here comes Dew Rag. And she didn't really stop; she was all on a mission. But before that, coming up the hill, we ran into Wolfgang and his son Joe, who are the two guys that we ran into earlier today and for the past few days. They're from Michigan and they're hiking the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah. I kind of forgotten that, but I guess we'd talk to them before. But this time we got their names. At 1:20 we found a flat area up here on top of the mountain and stopped and had half of our pizza for lunch. And at one forty we¢re back on the trail. It is clouded up a lot. It¢s like there's no blue sky left. It¢s just totally overcast now. But that makes for cooler hiking, and we are all right with that. Well I'm trying to revise my journaling where I do more of these recordings. Its so hard to summarize all the hikes at the end of the day. Two thirty we were at, I think, the Thornton River trail. At 2:45 there was a blue blaze trail going on Skyline Drive, didn't say how far but I think it was Jeremy Run overlook. We're going back up another hill. Shouldn't be as bad as the first one. Been overcast but the sun is trying to come out. I can't think of anything else. You can¢t think going up hill. It tried to drizzle right after I said the sun was trying to come out. It drizzled a little bit. Sun came out a little bit, went away, and drizzle some more. We never had to put our rain coats on. At two fifty five we hit the trail called the Neighbor Mt, actually went up on top of this mountain. On top at 3:00. We kind of skirted around it on a bunch of rocks, it was just a terrible trail through there. Didn¢t look like they¢d made much effort To Make it anything but just a rugged trail. And three twenty five we came to a spring and back to where you can see the Appalachian Trail used to go up right by Bird's Nest number four. But anyhow 3:40 pm we come out to the road at Beahms Gap Skyline Drive.  On to next hike. Well we left one car at Elkwallow Wayside and drove up to Hogback overlook parking lot next to the Overlook. Well first, we drove out to the Hogback overlook and that was just fantastic, looking out to the west the north and all the mountains and the ridges. Then we went on up to the overlook looking east. Terry got his G.P.S. out and we checked to see where Washington D.C. was. And I thought I could see the building through my binoculars. And hopefully tomorrow will be a beautiful day and we'll go up there again and check it out. And so we got back to the parking lot, got on the trail at 5:00 pm, and it's just a great trail. It's just Easy, Gentle, you know, I call it just a beautiful evening. Oh they did take us up on this little knob of rock, even that wasn't bad. We came on out after a mile at 5:27 to cross the Skyline Drive. Went back into the woods. And still just a very nice hike, and saw some buildings, looked like some homes on an old road. There's also intersecting trails all through here, but finally came to a couple of trails on like a little loop going to one of the cabins. This Lady and her son came walking up, and we talked for a couple minutes . They talked us into going down to see the Range View cabin. They had let us know that they had a car down at Panorama, and this is like six o'clock at night. And we said, "you've got ten miles to go, you are not going to make it before dark". And so then we went down and looked at the cabin, it was nice, was all locked up, came back up out on the trail and started talking. We could give those people a ride because we're going to be going right back to Panorama, to get on back to Luray,Va. The trail was nice and then it started going down and that was hurting my feet. I started complaining a little bit, down down down down, and finally like 6:15 you could see the road. Finally went across the road and then the side trail to the parking at Elkwallow Wayside. We get to the car 6:20 pm and the mother and son were still there. We said we¢ll give you a ride. We said we first must go up and get the rental car. We did that because Terry didn't want them in our car because it¢s a total mess. Guy came up while we are still at Elkwallow, with bare feet of all things, and said," I have a question. What is the deal with all these dead trees? What are  people doing to the environment, because what else could cause trees to die. " He hasn't seen fire evidence at all in the park. Gypsy moth, Well that's been around for a while. Cold weather and snow, I thought that broke branches but did not kill trees". The barefoot guy said," it¢s getting dark I have to get hiking", and of course he was still sitting in his car when we left. So anyhow it was all a little strange but we got them to their car. I ended up driving them in the rental car back to Panorama, and turned out their names Maggie and Jesse Rogers, from Sperryville , which is a town just east on 211. That they own and operate a coffee shop called Central coffee, I think it's called, Central coffee.com. We exchanged email addresses and. Talked to them for a while. But now it's seven so were heading down into Luray. We got the evening ahead of us. Oh one other thing driving back towards Elkwallow from Hogback, I saw the back part of the big bear go down off the side of the road and I walkie-talkie and told Terry. So he stops right there in his car, which is what I should have done, and he looks over the side. He says I see him, and he just took off running and finally Terry got a good bear show.