Date: 2010-06-05
From: Harvey's Knob Overlook Blur Ridge Parkway

To: Gravel Springs Gap mile 17.7 Skyline Drive
Miles today: 246.1

This is my first chance to enter since we left the Daleville area. I am using my iPad so I will have to wait until I get WiFi to enter photos. We slacked 1 more day out of Daleville and then started with packs along the Blue Ridge Parkway until Rockfish Gap. We met up with Zephyr's friend Fig who is hiking with a group of about 6 hikers and they are having a great time. Fig shared a room with 3 female hikers in Waynesboro. Lucky guy! We started slack packing out of Waynesboro onto the AT as it goes along the Skyline drive in the Shenandoah National Park (SNP) Since the AT crosses the Skyline drive so often we have been able to slack the entire section through SNP. We slept in the bed in the van a few nights but have stayed at Skyland which is a beautiful resort on the Skyline Drive and drive back after we hike. We have been doing big miles, usually 20+ daily. Funk took off last night to visit a friend near DC so I am taking my first day off other than coming home to work and the day we had the GI virus. We are at mile 946. About 13 miles left in SNP and then 36 more in VA and we will have completed the 570 mile VA stretch!Lots of rattlesnake sightings. Usually they are sunning on rocks near the trail and are no problem. Funk stuck his hiking pole into a rattler in the tall grass next to the trail and the snake struck his pole! The snake rose up rattling but then decided to move on! Funk was a bit "rattled" but moved on to tell his adventure to all. Because we have cars and coolers we have been able to do lots of "trail magic" along the way. Magic is when people either hang out near trailheads to give food and drink to very hot and thirsty hikers or else leave coolers and bags of goodies for the hikers. Usually when Funk finishes he waits at the trailhead and gives out beer and assorted goodies. He is getting a reputation as the magic man!Lots of time to think as I go along. When I left my office the last time I was home to work the weekend I turned off the lights and I thought I really was not turning off the lights but was turning back on the lights for my dream which was still in process. Now at mile 946 Maine seems like a distinct possibility. I feel good and my body is holding up.I listen to my Nano as I walk at times. Todd Snyder has a song Statistician's Blues. One of the lyrics is "stuck between hope and doubt". Thinking about the lyrics it seems to me to summarize an AT hiker. At this point we are hopeful to make Maine as we have passed all the initial problems the Trail throws at you and we have survived it and we are now hiking machines! On the other hand we all know a little slip or fall could end our hike if we suffer a major injury. Two years age my friend Zephyr fell on his shoulder and tore his rotator cuff. Since he was in Maine he pushed through the pain and completed the hike. Eventually he had surgery on the shoulder. So for all of us the potential of injury lurks every day.Victor Frankl wrote the famous little book Man's Search for Meaning. I have been thinking about how he survived mentally the concentration camp in Germany. He defined meaning as finding the correct solutions to the problems that life constantly sets before you. Hiking the AT is very different than what he endured but the lesson in his definition of meaning resonates with thru-hikers. Every day the problems we encounter are food water and shelter. We hike our hike but we must have enough food, find and filter water and find a place to sleep. I cannot tell you the pleasure of stepping into a shelter just as the sky opens up with fierce driving rain!Two days ago I was in a open area on a ledge and the rain came in so fast and fierce that within 5 minutes the Trail was 6-8 inches deep in water and flooded over the top of my boots! Lightning kept striking about every 2-3 minutes for about an hour. As I walked along the open ledge with my metal hiking poles I figured if God wanted me this might be my moment! Once the rain ended my feet slide inside my boots with all the extra water and I ended up with a big blister on my heel which made hiking yesterday difficult as I could not do a full stride. I hope with today off I will do better tomorrow. Still living the dream.Spirit Walker