Date: 2005-06-27
From: Rockfish gap

To: Tom Floyd wayside
Miles today: 96.0
Weather: broken clouds

DAY 33 (27 June 2005)The goal for the day is to hike about a dozen miles along the southern section of the AT in SNP and then hitch through the rest of Shenandoah NP, as i section-hiked all 112 miles of it last summer, and since I¢ll be taking some days off, I¢d like to catch back up with the same people I¢ve been hiking with this last month. I met lots of wonderful and interesting people in Waynesboro - about 40 of us camped out in the back of the Y - an especially warm ¢hello¢ to Marshmallow (& Colorado), in case they happen to be reading this. For some reason Mr. Gimp (who is now Packstock), decided not to show up (or not to stay) in town, so I¢m stuck with his sleeping bag, which I had washed for him in town, and a bag of food for him, and I¢m not sure how far I should carry it all. Waynesboro claims to be ¢the friendliest town on the trail¢ with a whole list of trail angels, and I called about every one of them, but only got a busy signal or an answering machine. Oh, yeah, it¢s Monday morning... they probably have things called ¢jobs¢ that we, hikers, forgot about on the trail. I was eventually luck to hitch a ride to Rockfish Gap with an older lady who hiked the AT with her husband in the 80's. She told me all about how she'd take a bird bath every evening, and wash the armpits of her shirt and the crotch of her pants every night. I said I do the same. To that, she leaned over and sniffed in my direction and pronounced, "Obviously, not enough." I just showered in town!After she dropped me off at Rockfish gap, Ibegan the long trek uphill. Later on in the day, i got picked up by a couple that took me some 10 miles in and invited me to have a picnic with them, after which they loaded me up with fruits and cookies - thank you for the trail magic!!! I spent about an hour hiking along the road NOBO while trying to hitch farther north; much better luck being picked up if I¢m actually walking, versus just sitting on the side of the road. Two retired nurses from Michigan picked me up next. They¢ve been traveling around the country, and were excited to have a young spirit with them, especially one that knew the Shennies well. I was their personal tour guide through the afternoon, since i know the Shenandoahs pretty well, and have most of the best lookout names down pat. And then, the coolest thing happened - we saw Packstock walking along the road!!! I was so glad to see him - could finally return his stuff and not have to carry it anymore! We pulled off the road, and I gave him his gear and all the yogied food and all my extra food, and the nurses gave him their extra food (doughnuts!), too. I think this probably made his day. Funny how hiking with someone for a month on the trail is almost equivalent to being a close friend with someone in civilization for a year. Not only do you see each other 24-7 and learn all about each other¢s lives, but you end up going through those fragile moments together, like when one of you overcomes an emotional barrier, or lets go of prior judgements or grudges. We went through many of those, and between the two of us we had more scars than all the people we knew combined, so that just shows that we had plenty of tid bits to get over and let go of. After seeing Packstock, who continued walking along the road through SNP, since it has better views than the trail, the nurses and I stopped at Loft Mtn for a blackberry milkshake, which the park is so well-known for, and they took me all the way to Big Meadows, before loading me up with more food and letting me go. Hitching and walking along the road, a car pulled over and caught me off guard - there was a ranger in it! She was very nice and took me all the way to Thornton Gap, from where I hiked till my 4th ride pulled up - a small car containing a pale, 6'5" frankenstein by the name of Gabriel. Many drivers say they¢re weary of picking up hitchhikers, but I¢m not so sure they consider the flip side of the story - just how does a rinky dinky little girl (albeit with pepper spray and a serious gerber) feel about getting into a car with a giant!? But one becomes a better judge of character, I think, because I knew right away that Gabriel wasn't dangerous, he was just being nice. On our way to Compton Gap we saw a few bears and told a few tales, and when he stood full-height to say good-bye, I was about waist-height to him!I hiked on only a couple more miles to Tom Floyd Wayside for an evening with Sparrow (a female section hiker... again, I¢m fascinated at how many girls are hiking this year, and you certainly can¢t tell who¢s a girl from just a trail name in a shelter register!) & Magic Touch (who claimed to be surrounded by girls that night, since there were us two girls and just him in that shelter). It was great to see Magic Touch - I hadn¢t seen him since Partnership shelter (the one where pizza and beer are delivered to the trail), which was waaay in southern VA! He tried very hard to convince me to go waaay downhill to the spring to get him water in exchange for a PB cookie, but one cookie wasn¢t enough of a deal.