Date: 2013-05-23
From: Front Royal parking lot

To: Front Royal Terrapin Station Hostel
Miles today: 20.2
Weather: light rain

(In which I my knee becomes problematic)It proves nigh impossible to sleep in the parking lot. I could fall asleep in my truck if I had any measure of quiet, but for a small town the commotion is surprisingly great. In the late night hours I awaken to a strange sound. I think it is coming from one of the buildings, maybe a generator or some other machinery gone awry and making tremendous noise. When I finally look about, I see it is a street sweeper making a circuit of the parking lot. I never considered that parking lots may be cleaned in the same manner as roads, and this is not a great way to learn that. After the parking lot is entirely cleaned some time much later, the driver switches to cleaning the sidewalks of the shopping center using a leaf blower. This is no quieter than the street sweeper, and sporadic instead of constant droning.Like many if not all hikers, part of my waking so early in the morning is brought on by my bladder. I am parked right next to a tree but I am loath to get out and mark it with the cleaner active nearby. I wait until he is on the far side of the parking lot and when it looks like I have my opening, someone walks up to the vending machines outside the Food Lion. Who needs a can of overpriced soda at three in the morning? Someone, apparently. After this intrusion, when I think the coast is clear, there is another pedestrian to arrive in the parking lot. This one is more puzzling than the last was - he walks across the parking lot toward the Food Lion but turns around and walks back from whence he came.I never get a chance to relieve myself here. At the same time as this individual's arrival, two cars park across the lot, alternately revving engines and blasting a flavour of music for which I have no taste. At this point I have given up on relieving myself or getting back to sleep. The idea surfaces in my questionably coherent mind that I will just get on the Trail and get hiking very early. This early, in fact - as the two cars are noisily departing the scene, I make my own departure. I don't get very far at first, stopping at the 7-Eleven for coffee. There is a bathroom in here too, so I hope I can find some relief there. It turns out I still cannot do anything about that. The door is not opening, the employee on hand tells me it is reluctant, I try to force the door harder, and an unpleasant voice confronts me from the other side. I get my coffee and leave before they are finished with their business.Since it is so early, I decide to start out further north than I originally planned. First I think about going to a parking lot 16 miles up from where I left off, but that is on a quiet back road and may be difficult to hitch back to. Instead I aim for the Route 50/17 crossing four miles further north. According to Google, my best route to get here involves taking a couple minor state routes to cut off a large corner I would have if I stayed on large highways. Driving tired at night on unfamiliar roads is nothing new to me, so this is the route I take. On the way down the first of these back roads I make a wrong turn - rather, I fail to make a right turn and cross the Shenadoah River on the smallest, most questionably-sound bridge I have seen that was intended for automotive traffic.In the dim light, the bridge feels like it has some potential for a photo. I park my truck at the edge of the road on the far side of the bridge, finally get around to relieving my bladder, and set up for a photo. I would like to do it quickly using some part of my truck to prop up my camera but the light is too low to frame and focus a shot with my 24-70mm lens. Instead I break out the tripod and my 50mm lens - I need the extra light this lens lets in to frame anything through the viewfinder, and this lens is easier to manually focus under such dark conditions. While I am setting up a truck passes by and asks me if help is on the way. I thank them for their concern but point out that I am just stopping to shoot a photo. Then I get to playing with the very low light. Eventually I settle on a two-minute exposure, far and away the longest-exposed photo I have taken on this trip.Once I am done playing with my camera I pack it away and carefully turn my truck around on the narrow road. I make the turn I was supposed to make on the other side of the bridge and spend a while driving up a winding road that closely follows the Shenandoah River. This brings me to Route 50/17 near the trailhead, although I had failed to notice there was no parking lot here. The parking area is just north of the highway on a side road - a small gravel lot that is sharply downhill and probably easy to miss in daylight. Here I repack my bag, removing the hammock since I know I will be back to my truck within the day. I don't have a wayside en route today so I bring more water than yesterday. I also change up my camera kit, bringing 20mm, 50mm, and 100mm lenses and my speedlight. It will be a change of pace, if I see much to photograph on the way. There are not great promises of views in this section of the Trail, with only one view indicated that is 0.4 mile down a side trail.After packing I eat a breakfast I am certain many thru-hikers would be envious of - pizza, a cinnamon danish, a cup of coffee, and a crisp apple. I depart my truck south, first walking downhill to the Trail and then further downhill toward nearby Route 50/17. Briefly the Trail runs through Sky Meadows State Park, where the only view for the day is to be. While the light is increasing the visibility is still low, and I am walking in pretty dense fog. When I reach the side trail I keep moving south, surprised at how slow my progress is. By 0730 I reach the side trail to Dicks Dome Shelter, and head there to eat more breakfast and rest my legs. My knee has started complaining early in the day, and that is not thrilling. Fortunately I am not rushed for time, having started walking earlier than on any other day.A couple older hikers are moving up the side trail to the shelter while I am heading down, and when I get there I find Ocean Spray and the two he was hiking with, as well as finding Grandpa again. There are a couple other hikers here that I have not seen before, Splash and Star Child. I find out the women walking with Ocean Spray are twins - triplets actually, but their brother did not join them on the Trail. I offer around some pizza so I can get rid of some pack weight even more quickly than if I ate it, and Grandpa makes coffee. Grandpa has a different food strategy than anybody else I have encountered on the Trail. He cooks but he doesn't carry a stove, instead making a fire every day and cooking there. Some people would be surprised at how unusual this is. As a hiker it is more surprising that he takes the time and effort - and in some cases, extra exposure to bad weather - to cook every day.Ocean Spray and the twins leave heading north, and I leave while the other three are still lingering. I am surprised to overtake the older men that were leaving the shelter as I arrived, not expecting them to be walking south. It is raining gently now, though it is not readily getting through the leaves. Either way, I take a break to rest my knee at Manassas Gap Shelter. I meet two more new-to-me hikers here, the Augusta, Maine hiker Fiddle and one other who leaves before I can inquire on his trail name. Fiddle takes his name from one of the instruments he plays, but sadly he is not carrying that instrument on the Trail. While I am sitting at the shelter I spot a small red-spotted newt crawling under the picnic table. I'm glad I have my macro lens with me today, as small critters are my favourite use for that lens. Soon I am on my elbows in the dirt, collecting photos of the small newt.Fiddle leaves before I do, but I find him at the top of the shelter's side trail talking to the two older hikers. I move south before the rest move on, and the southbound hikers do not reach me again. My knee is giving me clear signals, and those are probably visible to the hikers I pass by. I see two of the hikers I saw yesterday as I approach Virginia Route 55 and barely stop to greet them as I pass by. The Trail moves onto a sleepy residential road to cross I-66 and reach Route 55. I am surprised to see Tracker here, joined now by his father. Tracker offers me a ride into Front Royal, but gettng into Front Royal will make for a very roundabout way of getting back to my truck. I thank them for the offer but keep moving.I finish up my day by hitchhiking back to my truck. In spite of visibly limping toward the end, I still hold a good pace thanks to my long legs. I move onto the road to hitchhike. The first car to pass me returns in the opposite direction, having turned around to offer me a ride. It turns out the older gentleman is passing right by where I have my truck parked, and he even takes me up the side road to the trailhead parking lot. Along the way he fills me in about the local flavours. There is a strawberry festival in Sky Meadows State Park this weekend, which I will not see since I am going to a dance weekend nearby. Apparently Sky Meadows was formed by the efforts of a philanthropist, who did not want to see power lines run through the area. He bought a major share of the power company's stock, attended a shareholder meeting, and threatened to buy the company and fire everybody if they went through with their plan. He then bought the land that is now Sky Meadows and gave it to the state for preservation.When I get to my truck I find Splash and Star Child breaking in the parking lot. I am surprised to see them here but am glad to see them. Back at Dicks Dome Shelter I overheard them planning on how they would make their food last until their next resupply. Here I have my truck and the almost untouched stores of food I secured before leaving home. I suggest to Splash that I might have heard her say she was low on food. She confirms this and I bring the tremendous box of food out of my truck to make room in the cab for my drive to wherever I will sleep tonight. I tell them to take what they need to get through to the next resupply, and they gratefully oblige. They give me their trash to pack out as well, and I head out for a return to Front Royal.In Front Royal I stop at the Burger King, mostly for free refills of lemonade and free wifi. I have been in touch with Dumbledore and was hoping to meet up with her in town before she leaves the Trail at Harpers Ferry. She has run low on funds and cannot finish the Trail with what she has left. Hopefully she gets back to it some time. I will not find her in town today - apparently there is a convention this weekend and all the hotels are booked full. She is staying with her cousin much farther north. I planned to meet up with them and go with the flow as far as lodging was concerned, but now I think I will go check out the local hostel. The Front Royal Terrapin Station Hostel is a bit south of town, seven miles away by road but a half mile from the Trail near the border of Shenandoah National Park. I am a thru-hiker planning to drive to the hostel, so I call first to confirm that there is space for me and that a drive-in would be allowed. Everything is clear, so I drive over.When I arrive at the hostel I find the two hikers I passed near Virginia Route 55. They must have been slackpacking out of the hostel - the owner, Mike, offers free slackpacking for folks staying more than one night. I finally get around to asking their names - the guy goes by Whiskers and the gal by Rocket. Cleveland is also staying here tonight. I get my laundry started and begin charging my laptop and camera batteries while I process some photos. There is frozen food for sale here and provisions to cook my own food here. Cleveland is interested in eating in town, and I offer to drive him in and maybe eat there, where Mike has suggested a couple places to eat. If the fare doesn't look to interesting I will just prepare some of my own food back at the hostel.We stop at the first candidate Mike has offered, the Lucky Star Lounge. There is live music here tonight, a few older guys on guitars and electric bass and vocals. The menu looks interesting enough and doesn't look terribly expensive, so I decide to have a go at the food here. Beside, I can get a breakfast burger and I haven't had one of those in at least three months. While I am eating, the band plays something to freeze me in my tracks. It is a Neil Young song, maybe called Old Man, and while I have heard that song many times before I have never heard it the way I hear it now after walking a thousand miles. It moves me unexpectedly and deeply, and I am glad I chose to be here and find this experience.Cleveland and I get back to the hostel after the others are asleep and all is dark. Instead of sleeping in the bunk room, which uses air mattresses, I realize that one of the couches in the adjacent room is long enough to accommodate me and probably more comfortable. I move my sleeping bag and laptop in there, but don't wind up using the laptop before getting to sleep.Peace,