Date: 2007-07-15
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I think I have enough time to write another short entry now... I'm still in Maine, the cliffhanger will be resolved soon enough (BP!).The next day Anu & Jesung hitched a ride to the Big Meadow Lodge and got a spot at the campground there for the night. They just bummed around all day while I hiked the 23 miles to the campground. It felt great to really get moving again and the park is pretty easy and well graded - and bear filled. I'm up to #16 after hiking through the Shenendoahs (7 in the park) and now I'm at 3 rattlesnake sightings. I also saw a massive family of Turkeys in the middle of the trail, there were 2 adults and I counted 10 little ones, they were sooo slow and dumb, I was practically kicking them to get them out of the trail! I got back to the campground and my buddies were recovering from severe boredom all day so we hit up the lodge and got some great (and expensive!) food and watched some live music in the taproom downstairs. Jesung's ankle was very swollen and bruised so they had to cut their vacation early. They found a ride to Fairfax, VA from a volunteer EMT at the park. From there they were able to catch a train to D.C. and then make their way to NYC. Next day we bummed around the lodge until 2:00 when their ride left and then I decided to take a dayhike on some blueblaze trails in order for my hiking friend, Barbarossa, and his buddy, Pat, to catch up. They were about 50 miles behind and I didn't expect to see them for a couple days, I was actually planning on backtracking about 15 miles on some blueblazes the next day to meet up with them at Bearfence Hut. So, I moseyed along a nice 7 mile loop them took me along a river with several waterfalls and swimming holes. I hopped in one of the swimming holes and took a hiker bath (it had been a few days since a shower!) and just thouroughly enjoyed myself that afternoon. Funny thing, the trail links immediately into Big Meadows Campground and, unknowingly, Barbarossa and Pat happened to have the exact spot that the trail wound up in. So I'm hiking, hiking, whistling to myself, and then, BAM, they're there 2 days early, it was amazing They ended up running into ridgerunner Mike who told them of my adventures and location, they helped him out with some work, and he ended up driving them up to the campground. He camped with us that night and we all just had some beer, played some disc, checked out the music in the taproom, and just jollied around. Next day was extremely uneventful. Laziness set in and Barbarossa, Pat, & I just sat around the lodge reading and being generally sedate. I actually finished a 1000 piece puzzle of raccoons attempting to paint and making a mess everywhere... it was ridiculous and addicting! We finally got out of there late afternoon and simply hiked 3.5 miles to the next hut. Once we started watching Spongebob Squarepants in the television room we knew it was time to get out of there!We made it 14 miles next day and it was just a wonderful day for hiking. The temperature was comfortable and the terrain was pretty nice. There were also some great overlooks. Barbarossa and Pat bought silly kites at K-Mart of Spongebob and the Carebears. We had some excellent kitewars on top of one of the mountains... sometimes you just gotta find entertainment in the simplest of games out here! We also took our time and did some rock scrambling around some of the boulders up top. By now this was Tuesday and Barbarossa had the brilliant idea of hitching a ride to Mike's place and slackpacking the 23 miles back to finish up the park next day. We got a ride into Front Royal from a very nice couple who were out for a couple days because their son was at summer camp. Alright, my ride's here, Barbarossa and I are heading to my park ranger buddies apartment for the next couple days. The cliffhanger will be resolved soon enough, I promise!