Date: 2004-07-10
From: Range View Cabin

To: Hostel Bound
Miles today: 14.5

I heard something, or someone, walking close to the cabin last night. My tarp blocked the view, but it did not sound like a hoofed animal. Perhaps it was a bear. Sardine and I had briefly spotted one last evening while hiking (an observation I neglected to mention in my previous journal entry). It felt creepy, lying in my hammock as this presence moved by only a few feet away. In the morning, I asked Sardine if he had heard anything during the night and he said no.It was just after 7:00 a.m. when we prepared to depart. Sardine said he noticed a woman appear and then walk away on the fringe of the field where the spur trail is located. The woman might have been a day hiker getting her bearings, or maybe she was leery about seeing two men in this remote setting and turned back.I hiked behind Sardine as the hike continued in Shenandoah National Park. On several occasions, he waved his hand about as his face made contact with spider webs hanging over the trail. I offered to "break trail" but he told me the webs were not that big of a deal.My energy level was not the same as yesterday and I would gradually fall behind Sardine during the ascents, then catch up to him when the terrain leveled off.After hiking for twelve miles, we stopped to rest at a trail crossing of the Skyline Drive. The time was approximately 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.Sardine had a resupply package waiting for pickup at the post office in Front Royal, Virginia. The office would be closing at 1:00 p.m. He contemplated whether or not to attempt to hitch hike to the town, or finish our hike to a hostel. If he hiked on to the hostel, it would mean that he would have to spend an entire day, Sunday, hanging around the hostel because the post office would be closed on that day. He decided to hitch hike.I removed from my backpack the dry mount board that I use for identifying photos. With a magic marker, I wrote the words "Front Royal" on the board and handed it to him.Hikers, including myself, do not like arriving in, and resting, at trail towns on weekends. There is no access to the post office after a Saturday morning. On Sunday, libraries are closed so it is not possible to sit in front of a computer and check email. On this journey, my luck in this respect has been poor. Most of my layovers in trail towns have coincided with weekends. But there is one positive aspect to arriving on a weekend; it has enabled me to attend church services.I said goodbye to Sardine and hiked a few more miles until the Appalachian Trail intersected with a spur trail near Chester Gap, VA. There, I followed the spur trail until ended at a paved road in a residential neighborhood. One of the homes was a hostel for hikers.When I arrived, I was greeted by Mountain Goat, Peanut, Sardine, and Tombstone (formerly Skidmark, who changed his trail name). Sardine had been successful in obtaining a ride and reaching the post office.During the evening, a frantic hiker telephoned the hostel using a cell phone. He had apparently got lost and strayed off the trail. Sardine and I hopped into a van driven by the hostel owner and retrieved the errant hiker at someone's home a few miles away. After that, the hostel owner drove us to a supermarket where we purchased food for the next few days of hiking.The evening was spent relaxing and listening to music with other hikers. Tomorrow, we will hike out of Shenandoah Park.