Date: 2007-10-19
From: Stealth Site 3 miles past ByrdÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Nest #4 picnic sh

To: Front Royale, VA
Miles today: 21.2
Weather: moderate rain

Went to bed with stars and a quarter moon. Beautiful nite and as I went to sleep I thought I heard a deer, but soon realized it was my growling stomach! LOL Geez¢¦.how much food does the thing NEED?It was a warm nite and I knew I had a very long day ahead of me, so I drifted to sleep easily. Set my alarm, and I shit you not, THE exact second my alarm went off this morning @ 6:10 a.m., the rain started falling¢¦.ugh.I was still in good spirits because I knew I¢d be out of it with my first shower soon by evening, so who cares what the weather does now right?It was 61 degrees when I woke and I was up and hiking by 7:38 a.m. after packing up in my rain procedure (everything packed up nice and dry under protection of my tarp). It was really foggy and windy, but the fog acted as a blanket and kept everything warm. Little did I know I only had a few miles before I hit my first (close enough to the trail that I¢d stop at it) wayside, Elkwallow Wayside. The Shenandoah Park has 4 of these (I think) and it¢s a gift shop, small resupply place, and SNACK BAR!! My stomach was excited. Despite having already eaten my Cliff Bar for breakfast, I decided a second breakfast was in store.Chicken tenders, french fries, Dr. Pepper (my favorite), and a chocolate milkshake! Mmmmmmm I met a group of Amish people from Ohio who I started talking to in the bathroom (the women that is¢¦hee hee), and after I went to the Wayside, next thing I know, a bunch of men and women were huddled around me asking questions about my hammock (oops¢¦did I let it slip that I used one again?). They were great people and I imagined many people don¢t give them the time of day simply because they look different. I loved talking with them and then one man told me all of the different trades the men worked in, carpenter, stone mason, all of them skilled craftsmen. I really enjoyed talking, and then they were off.A few other people talked to me as I sat outside and ate my shake. They come here all the time and like to be around at sunset because they said 100¢s of tiny bats live under the wood shingles of this Wayside and they all fly out @ dusk and almost run into you, but never do. Man, wish I could see that.Well, now it¢s 9:21 a.m. and I finally pulled myself away, but not before purchasing 2 Traffic Safety Sign Bingo Cards for Incessant and I to play on road trips. Hilarious¢¦I¢d never seen them before. It was up Hogback Mt., foggy, wet, icky. Lots of deer, but nothing else, so far. I read @ the wayside that in 1934 when SNP was created, they deer had been hunted to extinction in this area, so they populated the park with 13 deer and now, the TONS of deer in this park are believed to be descendents of these original 13. That¢s pretty cool if you ask me.Today I just tried to keep moving. The balls of my feet and my toes are really painful. I¢m using superfeet insoles, great for arch support, not great for impact cushioning. I need to find a happy medium. By the way, the Plantar Faciitis hasn¢t been bothering me at all, except for a twinge here and there on downhills. Hope that means it¢s healing. I was sort of glad it was foggy, that way I didn¢t feel like I¢d be missing out on any views.I ran into a few SOBOs Rambo (a girl and best friend of Dreamer who I ran into at Pinefield Hut) and her friend, can¢t remember his name. Really nice people.I took pictures of the wet leaves on the ground, in one section. The colors were great, brought out by the wetness, but it totally reminded me of my favorite breakfast cereal, Fruity Pebbles (yes¢¦I still LOVE kid¢s cereal!). I called Incessant to tell her I¢d be @ the road crossing between 7:00-7:45 p.m. She was driving up to get me and we are staying in Front Royale tonight and tomorrow. I will have hiked 59.2 miles in the past 3 days, and my body NEEDS a day off.The hiking day was just wet, wet, wet and I finally got to Compton Gap @ 4:15 p.m. with about 6 miles left to go. I had to take my shoes off and massage my SO painful feet and I discovered I had developed a blister the size of Manhattan on the right side of my right heel. YIKES!! My first ¢real¢ blister of my entire hike and it is a nasty one. I didn¢t even realize I¢d developed it because I¢m using New Balance 606¢s running shoes (just to see what these are like compared to my Garmont) and these shoes are so flexible I didn¢t realize (over the pain of the balls of my feet) that there was a real problem. Man¢¦now what. I knew I needed to get the last 6 miles, so I rubbed my feet and carefully slid my sock back on. I didn¢t want to pop it out here, but knew this may mean I¢d need to take a bit more time to let it heal. I¢d have to see. (yup, got pics of it of course). Of course, it started raining really hard now too.I got going and it was getting dark. I was modifying the way I was walking as not to pop this monster blister. I know I pushed myself pretty hard in the past few days (probably harder than I ¢should have¢). On the way down Compton Mt (the last mountain) I saw a beautiful long black snake chilling by a log. Now I¢m hiking by headlamp, and I see eyes in front of me. They aren¢t moving, as in running away, and they look like a good distance apart. Then I turn 360 degrees and shine into the dark woods and I swear there are eyes looking at me EVERYWHERE!!! AHHHH!!! I just want to get to US 522!! I¢m making all these loud noises, tapping my hiking poles together, talking to all the animals that have decided to watch me in the last miles of this insane marathon (I pretended they were like spectators cheering me on at the end of a race, but actually, I was freaked out by all the eyes that WEREN¢T moving!).Finally I could see US 522 way down this mountain and I was pretty excited. Just before the road crossing, they are building a boardwalk because it¢s very marshy, muddy, and wet here. I was so mentally exhausted by now, I scaled the frame of the boardwalk (boards weren¢t layed across the thing yet). I felt like something was trying real hard to keep me from getting to my destination¢¦ugh.So at 7:41 p.m., I emerge from the woods and see 3 vehicles, none of which belong to Incessant. At that very moment, the skies totally opened up and a cold blowing rain drenched me in seconds, so I frantically dropped my pack and grabbed for my rain jacket, because I knew hypothermia could be an issue since my body is cooling rapidly¢¦.I was already soaked though.It was pitch dark, pouring rain, blowing rain, cold, and I¢m flashing my headlamp at all the cars zooming by hoping Incessant would pull up soon. 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 25 minutes pass¢¦not only am I getting really cold, I¢m concerned because it is not like her at all to not show up. Of course, no cell service either, so I couldn¢t call her.At 8:15 p.m., a car pulls over and this woman asks if I need a ride. I wasn¢t sure what to do, because I knew I needed to get out of the rain but if Incessant showed up and I wasn¢t there, she was likely to activate the National Guard or something¢¦LOL. I asked the woman if she¢d mind driving me the few miles into Front Royale to see if Incessant was pulled over at a different location by mistake, so Elizabeth agreed. We went all the way into town¢¦nothing and by now I did have cell service, but Incessant¢s voicemail picked up telling me she didn¢t have cell service. Now I¢m really worried about her and I asked Elizabeth (who lived in the area) if she could take me back to the trail head. She did and no Incessant, so Elizabeth (who is this great Polish woman) slams her hands on the steering wheel and goes, ¢That¢s it¢¦you¢re coming home with me.¢ (in a great accent that is). So we go back to her house and I meet her husband Janusz. I changed into my dry camp clothes and Elizabeth made me the best cup of frothy hot coffee in the world! I had cell service so I called Incessant again to let her know I was at Elizabeth¢s house¢¦voicemail again, and by now it¢s almost 9:00 p.m. Imagine my concern at this point.My next plan was to start calling the hotels in Front Royale. I knew Incessant made a reservation at one of them and there weren¢t more than probably 20 or so. I¢m going down the list¢¦nope¢¦nope¢¦.nope¢¦AHHHH!!!! How frustrating. In the meantime, Elizabeth and Janusz made me feel so welcome in their home. They had migrated to the U.S. about 15 years ago and he is a pianist and makes a living playing music. He was thrilled to find out I too am a musician. I¢m on the phone with motel #7 and my phone rings¢¦.it¢s Incessant calling from a payphone. WHEW!!!!She had made it to town and asked several people (just to make sure) where the AT crossed and EVERY SINGLE PERSON told her to go to the 4-H camp, which was like 3 miles from the real place!!! Yes, there is a blue-blaze that leads to the 4-H camp, but the actual AT crosses a few miles down the road at US 522. Oh man¢¦.did I learn a big lesson on that one.Incessant was at this camp and there were some women there quilting (don¢t ask me) and in another section she could hear boyscouts. She said she was about to mobilize the boyscouts and that she had actually hiked down the trail (with a blaze on it, but in the dark she couldn¢t tell what color it was by light of her cell phone), called my name out, and was in a panic because it was pouring, it was now lightning out, and she knew I was pushing myself pretty hard and started thinking the worst like maybe I¢d slipped and fell and broke my leg or something. Man what a mess. She was given (repeatedly) the wrong directions, we didn¢t have cell service, and I¢m sitting in these people¢s wonderful house so relieved I¢m about to cry. She talked to Elizabeth and they agreed to take me back to town and meet at the KFC. So that¢s what we did. When we got there, there were hugs all around. Elizabeth and Janusz were true trail angels if there have ever been any, and I thank you both from the bottom of my heart!!! I¢ve got Janusz¢s card and we¢re going to come up sometime and hear him play.So some lessons learned on this one huh folks? If you are having someone pick you up, FIND A WAY to explain to them exactly where to go, don¢t assume the town people will know. Have a plan B just in case plan A doesn¢t work out. We decided to include a 3rd person in the loop in the future¢¦my mom is the lucky winner on this one. That way if we can¢t reach each other, we can call her and communicate that way. I also should have asked Incessant what motel we were staying at, and didn¢t. Yes, it all worked out, I¢m now dry, clean, warm, sitting in bed eating Guacamole, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, my pack of wet gear is exploded everywhere and Incessant and I are just totally relieved the other one is safe.I¢m absolutely exhausted and am needing that zero tomorrow. My feet are boycotting walking right now and this blister¢¦well¢¦it¢s nasty. I¢m going to see how I feel with a day off, buy some blister care stuff and see how I feel Sunday morning. In my mind, I am fixated on Harper¢s Ferry, but the practical side of my brain tells me that if I¢m out here to enjoy my journey and this wicked blister is making hiking painful (not to mention you risk infection), then I may need to consider taking a week off and coming back for the last 52 miles into Harper¢s Ferry. We¢ll see though¢¦right now I think I¢m going to eat¢¦eat¢¦and eat some more, then sleep¢¦sleep¢¦and sleep some more. Crazy end to an intense 3 days of hiking. It¢s nice to be inside and hear the rain OUTSIDE. ~Certain