Date: 2017-06-27
From: Beahms Gap, Skyline 28.5

To: Compton Gap, Skyline 10.4
Miles today: 18.1

Today was another lovely day to hike - cool, sunny, breezy, with a bright blue sky and low humidity.  We were again hiking along a ridge with occasional rock outcroppings (see photo) and spectacular views.  I always take a lot of pictures from the top of the mountain, but I rarely use them for my journal: no photograph could convey the actual beauty of the real life view.  Yesterday the park ranger named all the valleys and the four mountain ranges we could see.  The farthest range in the distance was in West Virginia.  Today there was a place where we saw several more mountains in front of them.  We have seen so many beautiful places that we sometimes are blas© about what we're walking through.  This morning Arlene and I were walking through a section of woods that was blanketed with ferns as far as we could see, with trees interspersed among them.  The morning light was backlighting the bright green of the ferns.  It was truly lovely.  But we were just cruising along forgetting to pay attention to where we were.  Had I seen it this place before the hike I would have told all my friends what a spectacular place I had seen.  Today I was just making time.  Arlene stopped to take a picture, but I didn't.  I had already photographed a similar place.  About five miles into today's hike we reached a store that had a grill.  We got there at 8:30 and had to wait till 9:00 for it to open.  We waited though because the prospect of real food was irresistible.  My sister/editor Diane says that my early journal entries were all about how cold I was and all my current entries are about how hungry I am.  I think that's the way of a hiker's life.  By this time in the hike, 965 miles in, we have all lost weight and are continually hungry.  Bill, Arlene, and I can all pull our shorts and pants down without unzipping them.  (See the picture several days ago of Bill holding his pants up with twine.)We had some bad news today.  Our member Scott, who went home to Iowa because of atrial fibrillation, will not be rejoining the group.  (We had been expecting him to arrive tomorrow.). He has had more incidences of fibrillation since the medical procedure.  Although the doctor said he could come, it's now too late for him to complete a thru hike.  And he has family considerations as well.  We're all disappointed that he won't be back, but we completely understand why he would make such a choice.  Tomorrow is a town day.  We'll pick up mail and packages in Linden, VA and will get groceries and do our laundry in Front Royal.  What we hear in the woods: - our feet hitting the trail,- our hiking sticks hitting the dirt, rocks, or roots of the trail,- the songs and calls of songbirds,- the loud crack a tree makes before it falls, - the crash a tree makes when it hits the ground,- airplanes (including low-flying military aircraft),- trains (occasionally), - cars and trucks (often), - motorcycles (lots of them in Shenandoah National Park),- the crashing of bears in the underbrush, - the chattering of squirrels and chipmunks, - the song of the whippoorwill at night,- the hooting of owls (mostly barred owls), -the sound of other hikers talking, and- utter silence.One thing I like about hiking the AT: it has cured my caffeine addiction.  The second day of the hike I had a caffeine withdrawal headache, but after that I was free.  One think I dislike about hiking on the AT: No coffee!  I love the taste, smell, and everything else about coffee.  I especially like the little lift in mind and body that a cup of hot coffee gives me in the morning.  Bill says my trail name should be Caffeine.  *Editor's note: At times the photo of the day will appear rotated on mobile devices but not computers.  This is a Trail Journals issue and cannot be helped...yet.