Date: 2013-10-04
From: Days Inn in Chambersburg

To: Caledonia State Park
Miles today: 2.2

(Written 4-2-14)Since I have just scheduled my summer hike for this year, I think it¢s high time I finished my journal entry for last year¢¦.and what a year it was.If you remember, I started out on March 1st for my 10 year anniversary thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. That went to hell in a hand basket the end of April when I was told in the ER in Erwin, Tennessee that I had re-torn the peroneal tendon in the ankle that I had had surgery on 15 months before. I had a great 2 months on the trail before heading home and made lifelong friends in both Beerdra and DixieGrits (also dubbed Grits, Gritzy, and Glitzy. Truly, I don¢t know how he put up with us sometimes, but we sure did share a lot of laughs together!).Once home, I discovered that I had NOT re-torn the tendon, but I did have a talus and fibula contusion in my same ankle that took 2 months from which to heal. At that point, my window of opportunity was long gone, so I planned 2 separate hikes; one with my niece Trifold and Gritzy in July (journal starts on July 27th) in PA, and a 144 mile hike from Mt Washington, NH to Stratton, Maine for August. The first hike confirmed that my ankle was good to go and the three of us had a great time hiking together. The second hike went (again) to hell in a hand basket on day one as referenced in my journal entry of August 14th. What was supposed to be a 3 week hike, turned into a 2 week vacation (of course after the initial pain and agony of getting hurt and having to get off the trail) of finding old trail friends and being a trail angel¢¦.which is the next best thing to hiking.In September, I joined my good friend Knee Hi on her section hike in Pennsylvania. PA Pap, who we had met at Trail Days several years before, joined us. We call him Stays with Women, or Stays for short. That hike is also chronicled in my journal starting on September 26th, but I never wrote the last several days¢ entries. I tried many times, but just couldn't get it down on paper. So now that my 2014 hiking schedule is coming to fruition, it¢s time to finally write those last several days¢ entries:We parked the car back in the long distance parking lot at Caledonia State Park. It was a beautiful day; we were full of energy from our day off, and ready to get back on the trail for our last leg into Boiling Springs.The first climb comes right out of the park, but it wasn't challenging and the next two miles were easy and the rhododendron tunnels always delightful. The rhododendrons open onto the front yard of Quarry Gap Shelter, a wonderful place to take a rest and enjoy a bite to eat. There are 2 shelters, joined in the middle by a covered area that sports a large picnic table. A fire pit sits in front and a winding path takes you to the privy. There are hanging baskets of flowers and solar lights to help make the experience there homey. As we walked up to the shelter, we called out, ¢Hi¢ to the 3 fellows that were already there, but something felt off. The two twenty-something guys were in the shelter to the left and had obviously spent the night. The third fellow was pacing back and forth in front of the shelter to the right and his wolf hybrid dog was sleeping in the fire pit. The next half hour was something out of the Twilight Zone as we heard stories from the dog-fellow about how he was implicated in a murder in Glasgow, VA (with which he had nothing to do, of course), helicopters following him, bullets being shot on the trail¢¦¢¦and it went on and on. He, like us was going to Boiling Springs. We ate, he talked. I felt so sorry for his old dog. She was the sweetest thing¢¦and being forced to live on the trail¢¦.and winter was coming.After about a half hour or so, dog-fellow and his pup headed north on the trail. As soon as he left, the two twenty somethings recounted their time with the dog-fellow. They were afraid to go to sleep, for fear of being killed. Loooong story short, we decided to get off the trail then and there. I called Jack, told him we were getting off due to the government shut down (I would fill him in when I got home). The trail really was closed for the next few hundred miles due to being purchased with federal funds. There was no one to stop us from hiking it, but there was no one to help us either if we got into trouble. I desperately hope that the fellow was able to get the help he needed. The state police knew of him and had helped him get off the trail and into a Vet¢s home several years before. They were going to try to do the same again. So we turned south and started hiking back to Caledonia State Park and my waiting Mini¢¦..4 days early.