Date: 2007-04-04
From: Elk Garden

To: Jenny Knob Shelter
Miles today: 108.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Osprey and I bailed outta Damascus on fire-with one thing in mind-to catch Woodstock. It'll be tough to catch him but we're gonna go for it. Specificly I even started "talking" big stuff in my trail register entries at the shelters...(as though he could read it being a week ahead of us)...."Buckle up Woodstock, cuz we're coming for ya!" Guthook stayed behind for another zero or two, then he too was gonna break away from the group to start making time to stay on schedule to get done by the end of June, like me. But we probably won't see him again either unless he catches us sliding outta town somewhere as he's comin in. We won't be slowing down from here to Maine!details of 5 days intense hiking with Osprey coming outta Damascus to follow;checkout www.ospreysjourneys.com for his version of our mega week.suffice for now to say, he's fast & can maintain 3-4mph for long days normally.He definitely drove the hi mileage for this leg. At times previously I've been able to stay with him for prolonged periods. Sometimes previously he'd lose his zip, usually late in the day and I could crush him on hills, mostly. But this was a big week. 19 miles a day was our shortest 2 days. And many were very long days that seemed to go on forever. But we cranked big miles!Intense heat wave made afternoons tough to hike.At the end of April 4th I probably still could've gone 5 more to the campsite as planned, (making today a 30 instead of tomorrow) but I wasn't too gung ho on the plan to get into Pearisburg (by blue blazin around a ledge climb, saving about 7 miles). Or the future hiking thereafter.Plus it seems we can't coordinate our energy levels. Either I'm on fire (early afternoons in the week)and he lags behind, or he's on fire (later, all week). I can crank 3.5-4 mph on shorter days or for a few hours over moderate terrain, but he can maintain it for hours, especially with his new ULA pack now that he dropped down to ~22lbs. (I'm still ~25 full, down to ?low 20's just prior to ressuply). Makes it hard to stay hikin together.So I encouraged Osprey to bail without me, and go even further tonite to the 2nd campsite ~7+ miles. He could possibly make that by dark without me if he cranked. That would set him up to get into town pretty early if he got up early and cranked. He needed to get a maildrop before they close. Plus he was still tryin to catch Woodstock who according to shelter registers was still doin 20's and 30's with no problemo. PLUS Woodstock dropped 5 lbs of gear by borrowing from a friend David Horton who until recently held the AT supported record of 51 days!!!Woodstock was still 5 days ahead of us. Technically since he started 4 days ahead of me (March 25th) he's only 1 day "ahead" of me. But after this mega week of hikin we made no progress catchin him, and the gap's likely to get bigger cuz he aint gettin any slower and I'm not sure I'm willin to maintain this intensity, though it's been fun. grueling at times, but hey, even if I don't make the 30 tomorrow, I could split in into 2 days. 162 miles even in 8 days is pretty impressive in my book.Via email, Woodstock says he's taking 2 days off the trail. So if Osprey bails now, THIS is Osprey's only chance to crank mega miles and MAYBE catch Woodstock before he gets back on. And it's a slim chance.As soon as Osprey bailed I sat solo in the shelter thinking about the last thing he said. We've been crankin for several weeks (separately) and together really crankin this week, and have caught lots of thru hikers. But there are very few ahead of us that are even remotely close. The chances of catchin them is slim.Kinda changes the whole routine I'd gotten used to. Might get pretty lonely out here. Readin the southbound guys' entries all winter, it sounded pretty unappealling. Seeing 6 people in weeks.Even Tito remarked back in Damascus that he hadn't seen ANY thru-hikers in 3 days. He was hikin in one of those gaps between groups of thru-hikes. And only a very few section hikers hike weekdays. Mostly weekenders we see. Guess it's gonna get pretty quiet out here.FedEx