Date: 2013-05-24
From: Front Royal Terrapin Station Hostel

To: Timber Ridge Camp
Miles today: 0.0

"If you walk south you'll get warmer." - GrandpaI wake up early with the rest of the hikers, get showered and pack up my laundry. Whiskers and Rocket are heading up to a trailhead near where I started yesterday and since I'm trending north today I volunteer to bring them along. However, I have plenty of stuff in my truck's cab and Mike would rather bring them than have them wait for me to move things from my cab to truckbed. He leaves with them and leaves me and Cleveland to our own devices. I process some photos but only stay briefly before deciding that I will try doing a small piece of the Trail before the dance weekend. I had considered a bit of hiking or a visit to a park en route, but there isn't anything immediately obvious en route to Capon Bridge, West Virginia. I thought the next section from Route 50/17 north was 14 miles, but in the guide I see a small road seven miles up.In addition to choosing a short section, I also take a roundabout route to get there. There are a few options that will get me up to the area, primarily whether I will drive east or west of the ridge. I take one of the eastern routes, and then choose a smaller northbound side road as I pass it. Either that road or the prior one would have made for potential fun driving up a narrow, windy road. However, I soon find out that the road I turned onto also has a turtle. Halfway up the road I pass a foot-long snapping turtle crossing the road. I fetch my camera and macro lens to shoot some close photos of the beast before moving it from the road. It hisses and complains loudly as I move it.I reach the Route 50/17 trailhead where I had parked for my early start yesterday, set up for a very light slackpack with only a bit of food, a change of clothes, and my camera with one lens. Then I set up on Route 601 to hitchhike up to the intersection with Route 605. I spend a long time trying to get a ride but have zero success. It may have been different if I started walking here and hitchhiked back to my truck, but at least I am glad to have no success here and now instead of there and then. I don't want to miss the beginning of the dance weekend. If I had failed to get a ride, it would be easy to walk seven miles back to my truck along the road. If I did that I would certainly miss the beginning of the dance weekend, and I don't want to do that.I throw my bag back in my truck and begin heading toward the dance weekend. At the hostel earlier, I picked up a section of book that Whiskers and Rocket had left. I planned to give this to them as I walked south toward them today, but since I am not walking I plan to find some other way of getting it to them. While I was trying to get a ride, they probably passed me by - the parking lot is a tenth of a mile uphill from the Trail. To deliver the book to them, I drive up to where I was trying to hitchhike to earlier. I plan to put the book in a plastic bag and tape it to a tree at the trailhead here. Instead I find a few southbound section hikers to pass the book off to, and also encounter Grandpa arriving at the trailhead on his way north. I sit and chat a while with these folks, and we watch a large and loud group of day hikers cause commotion and not really go anywhere. When they finally go to the trailhead to start hiking, Grandpa urges them to go the direction he isn't going. Unfortunately for him, they turn north instead.After the section hikers and Grandpa leave on foot, I leave in my truck. I work my way further north on back roads, driving along the Shenandoah River until I reach Virginia Route 7. This road will bring me west toward Almost Heaven, a dance weekend nearby in West Virginia. On the way there I pass through Winchester, Virginia. Shortly before I left for Georgia, I met a dancer who lives here. While approaching town I text her and ask about food options here. I settle on a diner at the western edge of town, by virtue of not having been in a diner in a while. Once I get there I find it is an incredibly tiny establishment and there is a line of folks waiting around. I don't wait to get food there, and move on into the hills of nearby West Virginia.When I arrive at Timber Ridge Camp there is some confusion on my part as to where I should be. I have arrived several hours before things start, and I don't see much activity here. Not having much else to do, I do some writing - I am very far behind now but I still hope to catch up, especially with my laptop on hand now! I also finally eat a late lunch, cooking a batch of ramen in my Jetboil. This is the first time I have used the stove, and it does work extremely well. With two cups of water and noodles in it, I have to be very careful to keep it from boiling over. After the ramen I make a batch of instant potatoes. I have seen many folks using these as trail food, and before I left I had considered them as an option, albeit not my first choice. I was surprsised to see how popular they were with hikers, and the cheesy potatoes I have on hand are pretty decent.As the time approaches 1600 I finally get my act together and start attending to the dance weekend. I figure out where registration is, take care of that, and am assigned a cabin. Instead of unpacking into the cabin, though, I find a nice pair of trees nearby and pitch my hammock. This is my first time setting up the hammock with the new "typhoon" rain fly. This rain fly is larger than the old one, and has six shock cords to anchor it where the original rain fly had two flimsy cords. This one also has a cord attached to either end, so I can tie it to the tree instead of just clipping it to the hammock. A frustration with the old rain fly was attempting to get it taut and centered over the hammock and instead having it slip where it attached to the hammock. I won't have that problem with this rain fly. Additionally, there are two attachable end pieces to keep out wind and spray moving down the length of the hammock. I thought I would need extra tent stakes to attach these, but then I realize I can just wrap the shock cords around the trees and clip them to themselves. This won't work when the trees are farther apart, but I had bought extra stakes thinking I would always need eight to secure the hammock with this rain fly.I get the hammock secured just before 1700 and return to the dining hall. I am defraying some of the cost of this weekend by volunteering, and opted to volunteer in the kitchen. I thought this might mean extra opportunities for food, but it turns out we are washing the dishes and not having anything to do with the food. This is also probably less work than doing everything else with the food ourselves - the camp has folks on staff for cooking and serving. I start meeting a few of the folks who I will be dancing with this weekend. Warren Doyle cautioned me a while back that I would not see many young folks at a dance weekend with the price tag of this one, but that is fortunately not the case. I am not on to wash dishes after dinner tonight, so when the meal starts I join some folks I know from up north. I have just seen some of these folks at Glenside about a week ago, but it is still nice to see folks I'm accustomed to seeing every week.After dinner there is a short break for folks to move in and get ready for the dancing to begin. I am already moved in, if pitching a hammock counts as moving in, and need only change my shoes to be ready for dancing. I use the downtime and readily accessible electricity to work on photos. Sitting at table working on photos with my laptop also gives me easy opportunities for story time. Since I am starting my processing from the beginning in March and in the snow, it makes for some exciting conditions and difficulties to relate to whoever happens to be curious. I also enjoy viewing and working on the photos from what feels like a lifetime ago. Everything was new and unfamiliar and challenging back then, and I can feel some of that old wonder coming back to me as I relive my own experience of a couple months ago.I don't spend too long working on photos, as there is dancing to be done. The bands playing at this weekend are Swallowtail and Elixir. Swallowtail has been around for many years - I'm not sure if they have been playing for thirty years, but they've been around longer than I've been alive. I've only danced to Swallowtail twice but that is enough to know they are a great group. Elixir hasn't been around as long but they are a very lively group, uncommon for a contra dance band in that they have a brass section. No group that I have heard has a sound anything like theirs, and they are one of my top three groups to dance to. In addition to the excellent quality of the music these groups are providing, the dancers have plenty of energy to provide and respond with. For the most part it is dedicated, experienced dancers that travel to weekends such as this one. This is certainly the case here. More than any other dance so far on this trip, I feel free to respond fully to the music.After the dance ends I return to my hammock. Most of the accommodations are on the opposite side of the camp from the dance hall, and well uphill. On the way up, I pass by the secondary dance hall, where workshops and other weekend activities are to happen. There is plenty of activity here, and when I poke inside I find there are snacks to be had. I almost eat all the grapes, a common occurrence when there are grapes to be had. After lingering here briefly, I move uphill to my hammock but I don't sleep in it. There is a full moon and a clear sky tonight - I will sleep outside. I wonder how many other folks here would consider such a thing, or how many are equipped properly. It has been a cold day and it will be a cold night, and many folks have mentioned they are not prepared for this weather. I have a mattress pad and a 15-degree sleeping bag. I set up camp on top of a picnic table in a field.Peace,