Date: 2007-10-14
From: Blackrock Gap, VA

To: Stealth Site near Doyles River Cabin, VA
Miles today: 6.0

Well well well..back at it again out here, and mand does it feel good and a little weird after having been off the trail for about 3 months.Today¢s weather reminded me of when I started this hike back in March. A crispness in the air, high of 76, blue skies, and brown leaves with some turning red. It¢s a beautiful time to be in the Shenandoah¢s for sure.I had company today, Karen is hiking the first 16 miles with me over the course of the next few days. Yup, she¢s a new hanger, who just yelled over at me (as I¢m typing this at 9:58 p.m.) ¢I just can¢t imagine doing this without a hammock!¢So we didn¢t get started till almost 3:00 p.m., mainly because we had to do some car arranging so Karen would utlimately hike to her car and can drive home in a few days. It was a very easy hike considering I haven¢t had a full pack on for so long, but I will proudly say I¢ve maintained my post-hike weight and have been running or walking on a regular basis, so I think I¢ve maintained much of my conditioning. Oh yes¢¦I now eat tons of vegetables and fruit now too! Hee heeWe ran into several day hikes and kids as we crossed Skyline Drive about 3 times. There were some beautiful views of the rolling Virginian mountains just as green as can be with a few hints of Fall arriving.I had a smile on my face most of the day. It felt great to be back, and for my goal of making it to Harper¢s Ferry, I am excited that I have the chance to make that happen.We were warned by the park rangers that water is down to a trickle, which sort of sucks, but we¢ve been in drought conditions for months now, so it didn¢t surprise me.Around 4:00 p.m., we ran into a day hiker that had just seen a momma bear and 2 cubs (mind you cubs aren¢t tiny little things anymore). Man was I excited about that, I was really hoping Karen would get to see a bear, but no such luck¢¦only tons of fat fat squirrles.We weren¢t 100% sure where we were headed tonight, but water was more than likely going to determine that. We thought we might get to Loft Mtn., but around 6:00 p.m., we were at a blueblaze for Doyle Cabin, and it said water was .3, so we decided to go down the blue blaze, get water, and stealth camp. We started dow and down and down, it seemed WAY further than .3 (it always does when the miles don¢t officially ¢count¢), and I finally found a spring that was running quite nicely. YIPPY! Tomorrow I get to use my new Steri-pen for the first time!Finding a place to hang was a little challenging for a few reasons. First, there¢s tons of underbrush everywhere in the SNP, and second, I needed to find a place for 2 hammocks to hang. I was about to just hang across the trail when Karen suggested we go back up a bit to a claring we¢d seen, so we did, and I found a great place where we could both hang.Can¢t say I missed Ramen AT ALL! Gosh..I hate the stuff, and wouldn¢t you know it, I threw my bear bag rope perfect the FIRST time! This was after I¢d promised Karen tons of comedy relief with my ¢Certain 180 degree throw around¢ technique. After it got dard, the owls started hooting..it was so awesome. Karen had never heard them before, so I wa so glad they were present. There were 2 of them and it was as if they were welcoming me home.Then, just as we were about to turn in, I was messing around, Karen was blabbing at me and I look up and say, ¢Shhh¢¦..there are eyes looking at me!¢ She walked over and at first we thought it was a fox. I knew the eyes were too close to be a bear, and it looked at us, we looked at it forever, its head bobbing up and down trying to figure out what we were as we tried to figure out what IT was. Finally, it was about 30 feet away and it turned sideways. It was standing down a hill and I could see it was a large deer¢¦cool as can be. I¢d not had a deer be so bold at nite, and here in the SNP, both deer and bears can be bold, but again, I took it as the deeer welcoming me back home in a sense.Well, it¢s now 10:18 p.m., and in my hammock it¢s 54 degrees with a forecasted low of 44. I didn¢t brin my sleeping pad, but have it in Karen¢s car so I can get it if I need it in a few days. I¢m all bundled up as usual, and am pretty pooped. 196 miles to Harper¢s Ferry!. Karen is already sawing logs over there (big ones too¢¦hee hee) and I think I¢ll follow that example. Good nite all.~Certain