Date: 2016-06-29
From: Mountain Home Log Cabin Hostel

To: Rod Hollow Shelter
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up at Mountain Home at around 7am. Scott said he would have the coffee on at 7:30am and would make breakfast at 8am. He's a fantastic guy who Thru hiked southbound in 2012. Him and his wife Lisa bought the property in 2012 and opened the hostel a year later. The main house they are turning into a Bed and Breakfast and are slowly renovating. They hope to be open by 2018. Scott headed up to the main house at 8:30 to begin his work day. He works remotely. I thanked him and went upstairs to pack and was on trail by 9:15. I had a total of 5 climbs today and none of them had names. Just hills I guess at this point. About 6 miles in I stopped at the Jim and Molly Denton shelter for a snack. It is probably one of the nicest shelter I've been to on the trail. They had chairs out front similar to Adirondack but not exactly. The shelter even has a solar powered shower. Wow talk about luxury. I pushed on and climbed into a meadow which had a bench at the top of the hill. This would be the only view I had for the day. After the meadow the climb down to Manassas Gap begin. The trail was steep and rocky such that I kept tripping. At the gap the trail crosses over railroad tracks and then crosses onto tucker lane passing under I-66. There was a man talking to a woman with a backpack on. She didn't look like a hiker and he said when the trail turns you will see a blue canopy and three tents. No one is there but help yourself to soda and snacks. Yes please and thank you. Unexpected trail magic on a Tuesday, wohoo. There were two other hikers there when I arrived. These were the same 2 hikers I had met at the Denton shelter. We sat and chatted while drinking cold drinks and eating oatmeal cream pies. They left before I did and while they were leaving I noticed that it appeared there had been a bad storm as lots of branches were down coming down from the ridge and now it looked like whole trees had been felled. The trail crossed over a bridge over a stream and it then climbed up to a ridge. Most of the way up there were uprooted trees, branches down, trees snapped and twisted. I first thought it might have been straight line winds but the damage and the direction that the trees fell did not indicate that. Then I thought later maybe a microburst but again the damage didn't indicate that either. Trees higher up on the fudge had just the tips snapped off as you went lower down the ridge the trunks were twisted and while trees uprooted. It looked like EF-0 tornado damage to me. I took some pictures. I pushed on stopping at Manassas Gap shelter for a snack. I continued on and the trail is rather easy in this section. Yes lots of ups and downs but more gradual so it's not as tough on the body. I arrived at dicks dome shelter and ate a late lunch. The two other hikers from earlier were there and calling it a day. It was 3:30 and I was pushing on for another 8.6 miles to the next shelter. After leaving the shelter I had a climb up to sky meadows state park. Lots of open fields and nice scenery. Not really any views but it was a plateau on top of the hill. I climbed down from sky meadows to route 55 which was a 2 lane divided highway which I had to cross. That was a challenge as the traffic was nuts and people drive way too fast for the road. Once across I had more climbs albeit smaller I was spent and walking almost in a coma. I only had 3.6 miles to the shelter. I told myself I would stop at the first available campsite. Of coarse there were no place to camp at all so I kept going. Finally making it to the shelter at 8:10. There was no one in the shelter but three people tenting nearby. Ireie was there from two nights ago. Put down my pad and rolled out my bag. Made dinner and am now laying down ready to crash. As I am writing this apparently the shelter is directly under the approach for Reagan airport. Plane after plane coming in for a landing. It's actually lulling me to sleep.