Date: 2005-06-05
From: Skyline Drive 17.7 mile post

To: Manassas Gap Shelter
Miles today: 23.9
Weather: scattered clouds

I officially waslked out of Shenandoah National Park at about 10:10. OC1 decided to stop into Tom Floyd Wayside. I elected to walk past that shelter. The reason I kept going is, I think when I get to the Jim and Molly Denton Shelter, I'm going to take my down with me and go ahead and keep going to the next shelter and get 25 miles in today.I don't know if OC1 and Easy Goer are going to follow me but, they will catch up with me in the next day or 2. Something I have not yet mentioned, in the last 2 weeks, especially in Shenandoah and even moreso north of Front Royal, we are walking through the famous Green Tunnels of Virginia, which means that the only thing that isn't green is the Trail itself. The sides of the Trail are way overgrown with weeds and plants. Everything is just totally green. The ground is covered. In Shenandoah Park, they did a great job of Trail maintenence, in terms of running a weed eater along the sides of the Trail to cut it down. It was very evident right after the park stopped because the section to get to the road at Front Royal was chest high in grass and overgrown over the Trail and you had to walk through it. It was a little damp so I got pretty wet going through there. Of course, the Trail is just covered in mud right now. It rained the last couple of days. I remember going through this section the last time, not only was it muddy, but there was water up to my mid-calf in some places. It was awful. In Virginia in general, the Trail has been extremely well maintained this time. There's a big difference between this year and 2003. They have done a superb job. Just before hitting the road to Front Royal, there was a cooler with Trail Magic in it. It was excellent! Full of ice, so I packed my water full of ice. I grabbed one of the Cokes and a Little Debbie oatmeal cakes. I'm breathing hard on the uphill, hauling ass, but I want to make the 5 miles to the Jim and Molly Denton Shelter in 90 minutes. I want to give myself plenty of time to beef up on food. I want to resupply and get a move on. We got moving pretty early this morning, walking at 6:05, and I want to take advantage of it. I got down to Jim and Molly Denton Shelter at 12:45 and I signed in. 3 Feathers was there, I talked to him for a minute and dashed out again. I hauled ass down to the convenience store in Linden. I got in there and basically pigged out. I ate about 4 different things and had a couple of Hershey's Milkshakes. I also resupplied for the next day or two. I was expecting to leave there at about 2:30, but then OC1 and Easy Goer showed up. I took my pack off again and sat with them for a few more minutes before I started moving again and walked back up the hill to get back on the AT.   The walk out of Linden is uphill again for a good way. I had to walk through more chest high, itchy grass. The temperature is reading 91, so it's hot as hell. It's got to be 7 MILLION percent humidity! I think I dropped 5 pounds just walking across the field. It takes 4 miles of road to get back to the AT from the store that's only a mile away. This is what they do to you on the AT. They take you the longest possible way over the hardest possible obstacles to get somewhere. It's 2 more miles to the Manassas Gap Shelter. I think I'm going to call it a day there.I forgot to mention that this morning I finally saw my first bear. Everyone else has been seeing bears. Since I'm the one at the back of the line walking, I hardly ever see anything. I was the first one out of the shelter this morning, I was walking down the Trail and I saw, with my crappy vision, what I thought was a hiker going around the bend. I was thinking, " Wow, someone's up earlier than I am, walking down the Trail!" I was also wondering why they were wearing such dark clothing in this kind of weather. When I got up around the bend, the figure was going straight up the hill, so I realized it wasn't a person. I just ran into Trail Magic on the road! I'm going to grab a candy bar. There's all kinds of goodies in this box. By the way, we are now up to 71.3 Extra Trail-estrial Miles. At sometime today, I was too busy paying attention to an arrow someone had painted on a rock and I missed a switchback and went down a deer trail and got myself lost. When I finally realized I was on a deer trail and not on the A.T., I thought I saw a dropoff to the A.T. down further. In fact, it was a freaking CLIFF!I had to climb back up, and by that time, I had lost the deer trail, so I had to walk diagonally through the brush and bush-whack to try to find the Trail again. It took me about a half hour.I was feeling really fat and slow and low on energy coming out of Linden. Probably because I had eaten 5 times there. I kept going back in, I got a hot dog, then a corn dog, a pizza, ice cream, and milkshakes. The lady was probably getting tired of seeing me. In addition to that, I packed out about 5 more pounds of food, a 12 ounce can of corned beef and a 24 ounce Foster's.   Way too much weight. It took me a while to get to the Manassas Gap Shelter. I got here at about 5 o'clock. The very first thing I did was get the soap out and wash all of the clothes I was wearing. It was the first time I have done this on the Trail. I also got the bag out on a tree and gave myself a full bath because I was smelling RIPE in a big way!Today was the first really hot day coming out of the tall grass. It was about 91 degrees and humid and I was sweating up a storm. OC1 and Easy Goer wandered in at about 5:30. There are a whole new bunch of Through Hikers and Section Hikers I have never met before. I have forgotten most of their names already. One that did stick in my head was Vision Quest, a really nice black lady that's Through Hiking. Also, I met Sasquatch /Tinkerbell. This guy is like 6'6". I haven't seen him since Hot Springs. I also met this guy, who I thought was a bit of a weirdo, named Rambler. He insists that he met me back on the Trail. I don't recall him. He says he hiked in 2004. He was giving me some kind of attitude for a while that I almost went across the table to adjust for him. Oh well, that's just the way things go.It's going to be interesting because I tented well away from the shelter and he elected to tent within 10 feet of me.I think he's going to be disappointed when I start to snore, then again when I start packing at 5 AM. Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully to the Sam Moore Shelter. That leaves me with about 14 more miles to get to Mark Z's house to take a break and eat, shower and do laundry. I think all 3 of us are getting excited about taking a break. The break is getting closer. Maybe 9 days away from Boiling Springs and OC1's house, maybe sooner if we walk a little faster.