Date: 2010-10-16
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Trail happiness=10What a day.  Blue skies, nice trail and the crunching sound of leaves along with a steady wind howling thru the trees providing the soundtrack of Autmn.  We left Tom Wayside shelter early this morning to crunch 24 miles to Pass Mountain hut.  Well some of us left early, Stoker and Wolfman don't believe in early.  The trail in the Shenendoah is nicely maintained, and although there are alot of 500 foot ups and downs, it's nicely graded so you don't feel it as bad.  There are a whole lot of weekend hikers out here, and who could blame them!  This section of trail is gorgeous.  I don't think I went more than 20 minutes without coming to a magnificant view of the valley.  I'll get back to that in a minute, I have to rewind a couple of weeks and tell some stories I've yet to include.In Duncannon PA......after my brother and I closed the pub I wasn't quite ready for bed.  I've already established previously that I'm not a big drinker, I just get buzzed now and again.  Well that night I wanted to get more buzzed.  I went to another place and found a home at the end of the bar.  There were two men having a conversation that caught my attention.  The one guy was pointing out some bites he got from bed bugs a couple of weeks ago.  A couple of weeks ago?  These things looked like fresh from an hour ago.  My inner nurse knew an intervention was needed.  "your diabetic aren't you" I said.  He looked at me a little bewildered and said "well yeah how did you know that"?  "well you got those bites two weeks ago and they haven't healed.  You don't check your blood sugar often do you"?.  His eyes lowered and he said "well sometimes I do".  I told him that "sometimes was gonna buy him an early trip to the grave".  I had made two new friends, and we spent the next three hours together.  I gave them trail names.  Bedbugs and soontobefrer. Turns out soontobefree is non compliant with his blood pressure medication so he was lectured as well.  Soontobefree gets his name because he was filing for divorce the next day.  In all fairness I have to say that he did not want the divorce and was still wearing his wedding ring.  I think the rest of our legnthy conversation on that matter will stay between us.  He was a bald teddybear of a guy, who struck me as the kind that would do anything for anybody, and I'm sure some lady is gonna pick up where his wife left off and be very happy.  He worked for the state and was president of a motorcycle club. He has promised to teach me to ride if i want.  Bed bugs lost his wife several years ago and was recently retired.  I enjoyed their company as they bought rounds and we all got a little too buzzed laughing the night away.Mikeys uncle Jim picked us up from Harpers Ferry last week and drove us 45 minutes to their home outside of Washington.  He had cold Sodas and beer waiting in the truck for us.....sweet!  Jim is one of those big nice guys who obviously has alot of friends. He smokes good cigars (he gave me a Churchill) and drinks good beer.  He had called mike to get our beer preferences and when we opened the fridge there was Yuengling, Coors light, miller light and Red Stripe.  Furthermore, the pizza delivery guy pulled up to the house as we did....more sweet.  His aunt Maureen had a very nice disposition, and was so nice and accomodating.  Definately the perfect compliment for Jim, who would sneak in a quick dirty joke when she left the room.  We showered, ate, and watched football.  It was so much fun!  As if that wasn't enough, they slack packed us the next day!  Maureen drove us all the way back to the trail and picked us up again after 20 miles.  That night Jim cooked us Steak on the grill and I got to watch the phillies.  They had a bed made up for each of us and we slept so soundly. Maureen and Jim....Your awesome.  Thank-you!Speaking of the Phillies, I'm going out of my mind right now.  You see, Roy Halladay is facing Tim Lincecum of the Giants.  A pitching dual for the ages and I don't have cell phone service to get updates.  I realized I can update my journal by writing in this notebook on my Iphone.  When I get service I simply email it to myself, than copy and paste it to my trail journal.  I am way too old fashioned for all this technology.I was merrily hiking along under the blue skies today.  I met a fellow that was section hiking, trail named Haiku like the poem.  He was in his early 60's I imagine and I was taken back by his firm hand shake and genuine smile.  When I asked if he was a poet he promptly dismissed the notion with an impromtu poem about not being a poet.  He than gave me his Haiku of the day.  Forgive me for probably un-haikuing this poem with my faulty memory but it was something like....The wind blowing thru the treesHiking by myselfThis is the real lifeIt was neat.  Feeling rather chippery after that meeting I decided it was time to indulge......oh yeah I did it.  I put on some John Denver.  I was glowing with happiness.  I recently learned that the song "country roads"  is actually about western Virginia and not the state West Virginia.  Thus the references to the Shenendoah river and blue ridge mountains.  Hiking along singing at the top of my lungs, I startled the heck out of some day hikers.  "HI, IM LISTENING TO JOHN DENVER, LOVELY DAY ISNT IT" spoken in my blaring ear phone voice the same as when I did with those North Bounders in Maine.  I have a live CD on my iPod that I enjoy.  He was so cordial with the audience always inviting them to sing along, and "don't limit youself to the chorus" he says.  Listening to John Denver and having a vivid imagination led to the next part of the day.....I imagined I was hiking with John Denver.  I really did!  Until the cliffs, but I'll get to that in a minute.  I figure John would be wearing  jeans and a flanel vest or shirt.  He would probally have a big old homemade walking stick and a grin from cheek to cheek being in mountains he wrote a song about.  I imagine he's a down to earth guy and you would never know he was rich because he draws pleasure from simple things.  And if there were a campfire with people around it he would gladly pull up a log seat with his guitar and entertain the bunch.  So John and I hiked along merrily until the cliffs.  I came upon these cliffs with a spectacular view of the valley.  I couldn't help it, I started to have a daydream within a daydream.  I imagined I was taking off on a hang glider from those cliffs.  Twirling around far above the trees doing circles and figure eights before landing safely down at a distant farm.  At this point I saw John Denver up ahead waiting for me with a solemn look on his face.  Oops....I knew what I had done.  First, I essentially cheated on John by having another daydream during his daydream.  Than, as if that wasn't bad enough, I was day dreaming about flying which is the very thing that killed him.  All the while I was landing safely on a farm while cheating on his daydream with another daydream.  John faded away and I hiked alone for the rest of the day.  I hope he forgives me and comes back tommorow because I really do enjoy hiking with him.  So I hiked another 5 miles alone until I got to the barbecue.  Barbecue?  Oh yeah, I'll get to that in a minute.Yesterday morning as we were getting ready to leave Addisons parents something really strange happened.  A red Toyota pulled up to our camp ground.  A lady asked Addisons mom if she knew a Churchill.  She pointed to me about 15 feet away as I thought "what the heck is this"?.  They pulled up and introduced themselves as Brian Roberts friends.  Brian Roberts is a good friend from my hospital.  He is a Physicians assistant and works with the heart surgeons.  When we are recovering a heart surgery patient he is our go to guy since the doctors are in the operating room.  Anyway, Brian also works at our sister hospital which is where they work.  Their names were Terry, Cathy and Christine.  Two are critical care nurses and one a nurse anesthetist.  Apperently Brian had given Terry my journal page and she had been following all along.  They got out of the car and gave me a hug.  They had been up here hiking for a few days and happened to see in my journal that I was here as well.  They were staying at Skylands which was about 10 miles away and woke up early enough to come find me at 7:30 in the morning!  The only bummer was timing.  We were getting ready to leave and they were only staying until Saturday.  Even worse is that they originally had reservations for Big meadows that somehow got cancelled.  If they had been staying there, certainly they would have recognized a bunch of thru-hikers in the lodge and we could have talked over some Pumkin spiced ale or a hot chocolate and I could have dazzeled them with war stories of snakes I've yet to encounter.  Either way, I was humbled by the fact that they came to find me.  It was one of the highlights of this whole trip.....a ten minute early morning introduction.  Terry, Cathy and Christine......  You made my day....thank you, and I hope you'll take a rain check on a fire side gathering where I'll dazzle you with stories......about snakes.....that I haven't seen.  I ate three cheese burgers and a hot dog at the Barbecue.  It took place a few hours ago at a overview on skyline drive.  There was also beer, fruit, sausages, muffins, and more.  My cousin Karen from Virginia Beach had been following my journal, and told her friend Paul about it, who has been following for a while.  Paul volunteers doing trail maintenence up here, or at least he used to.  Paul had left a message in my guest book that he would like to come out and meet us.  I left my phone number in an e-mail, and he called yesterday.  I spoke to him last night trying to figure a good place to meet.  There really weren't any, but it seemed important to him and so it was important to me.  If a stranger following my journal wants to go out of their way to meet us and provide trail magic, you better believe I'll find a way.  There was a side trail about 22 miles into our 24 mile day.  I told him the place and that I figured I could be there by 5 if I got an early start.  He told me he had a Grey ford escape and looked Amish.  Amish don't drive Grey Ford escapes so mentally I would be looking for a mennonite.  He was a big guy with suspenders, a big grey beard and a Mennonite hat.  His wife Arlene came along as well, but she had red hair and was not Mennonite.  Paul drove FIVE hours after working this morning!  When we got to the overview he had a grill fired up, a cooler of drinks and an abundance of goodies.  We sat around and talked like new friends do, ate ourselves full and enjoyed some good ole' trail magic.  FIVE hours he drove.  We took our sweet time enjoying their warmth and hospitality already having submitted to the fact that we would be night hiking the last two miles.  And they were a rough two miles considering we were lugging a big box of muffins, sausages, buns and ten pounds of fruit!!!  The whole walk here, and all night we kept talking about how amazing it was.....how nice......how blessed.  I imagine when we get up we'll still be talking about it, and for days and weeks to come.  Paul and Arlene.....than you so much!Frank from Holland....if your reading this I'll be expecting you to hop a plane and come provide trail magic somewhere in the next 900 miles!  They drove 5 hours, it's only an 8 hour flight.....you can do it.  I'm certain it would be the first trans atlantic trail magic!I bring up Frank to make a point.  He is from Holland, but we have never met.  He follows my journal from across the ocean.  I truly cherish all of you.  Even more now that I have randomly met some of you.  I love all of your entries, and believe me, you are hiking with me. This is officially the longest entry in history.  Yay me!  I'm about ready to go to sleep.  Stoker has woken twice to pee in the time it took to write this.  When he gets back in his bag he wrestles the zipper on his bag and curses the person who designed it.  Wolfman has peed once and offered a Jersey spoken "dude" with nothing following.  I think it was in referance to the cold.  There are a bunch of weekend hikers in tents.  They leave their stuff at the shelter but go sleep in tents.  I think this makes them feel more hikerish. But only weekend hikerish because they smell like dove soap and deodorant.  We smell like, well, not dove soap and deodorant.  Not us, if we can avoid putting up a tent, or smelling good,  we do.  Lean too's make us happy, and right now I'm at a 10.I'll now be getting up for my third pee since starting this....maybe my fourth I don't know.  Nevermind....my headlamp just caught a big pair of eyes in the woods.  Probably a bear wanting the food that is foolishly not hanging on the bear pole but rather over top our heads.  Well, stokers head....I planned it that way.  Man I gotta pee, if this is a bear it could greatly reduce my hiker happiness scale.  But if it eats only Stoker, well, I could live with that.  I'd miss him, but I'd get over it.  Goodnight everybody.....goodnight John Denver.  I'm sorry I landed safely on that farm, and that.....well......you didn't.