Date: 2008-10-24
To: SOBO 2007 reunion tour trip report
Miles today: 0.0

SOBO 07 reunion tour/hike, Shenandoah National Park (SNP), October 14-22, 2008photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/keeganajohnson/sets/72157608290297237/BooBoo, MusicMan, Hedgehog, Sugarblade,and TenguMet 2008 SOBOs D-Wreck and the Vermont Mafia (VM), Honey & Duster, Creeture, Monster, RedfoxTUES ¢ Trail magiked the VM + MusicMan at Compton Gap just inside the Northern border of SNP. Drove to Front Royal, VA and met D-Wreck with his friends from home, and Honey & Duster. I had mentored D-Wreck a bit virtually prior to his SOBO thruhike this year. So nice to get to meet him in person! We totally hit it off from the get go. I gave him a ride to the trailhead from town then drove to Charlottsville, VA.WED ¢ In Charlottsville (C-Ville), VA touring University of Virginia with classmate from University of Washington.THURS ¢ Breakfast in C-Ville with Blissful (NOBO 07) whom I met at the Pico Camp shelter in Vermont during my thruhike. She had thruhiked with her teenage son Paul Bunyon. The family next to us overheard us talking about the AT, and it turned out that 357-Magnum (NOBO 07) was eating next to us and had hiked with Blissful last year (he lives in North Carolina, soooooo random that we were all there at the same time). I trail magiked D-Wreck + friends and Honey & Duster, then slacked them the last 4 miles of the day. The plan was to get a big cabin at Skyland, but everything was booked solid due to peak leaf season. So I drove to Big Meadows to reserve a tentsite, drove back and picked everyone up. Dinner at the Big Meadows Lodge complete with live music. Cold night.FRI - Swift Run Gap South to Hightop Hut ¢ Very yummy breakfast at the Lodge, then I shuttled D-wreck, friends, and Honey & Duster back to Skyland, where they had finished yesterday. MusicMan was still hiking with VM (he flew in early and hiked out of Harper¢s Ferry with them) and would meet us at the hut that night. That afternoon, Tengu arrived with Hedgehog and Sugarblade, we shuttled cars around then finally got to hiking around 4pm. A taxing 3.4 mile hike. Tengu dropped his bottle of denatured alcohol in the first mile and could not find it and I forgot to give Hedgehog his fuel canister, making 2 fuel sources for 5 people within the first part of our hike, oh well. Fed Vermont Mafia at the shelter with a roaring fire, hot dogs (even buns ketchup and mustard), marshmallows, Trader Joe¢s chocolates and box red wine. Hedgehog and BooBoo tented in their own separate Hubba tents, everyone else slept in the shelter. Lows just above freezing at night, slightly cloudy, good spring near the shelter.SAT - Hightop Hut South to Loft Mountain Campground ¢ 14 miles. The VM hiked ahead to rendezvous with a friend for an off-trail nero. Lunch at Pinefield Hut. Peak fall colors, sunny and cool all day. Arrived at a full pay campground around 4pm. I went to try to get a site, and come to find the park ranger was a trail maintainer that Hedgehog and I had met almost exactly one year ago to the day near the Partnership Shelter at Mt Rogers. Last year he had picked us up at the shelter, drove us to a maintainer¢s potluck and drove us back afterwards. Anyways, said park ranger allowed to camp at a site that had been reserved for the weekend only the folks had not shown up yet. It was touch and go until the park closed at 10pm, but it worked out in the end. The magic of the trail. Dinner at the Loft Mountain Wayside, complete with Blackberry shakes. To bed at 8:30pm. Shortly thereafter I heard noises along with a light shining from within our campsite, and I got worried that the people had shown up and we would have to move at that point. I poked my head out and turns out it was D-Wreck who hiked 26 miles to catch up to us! Phew, crisis averted.SUN ¢ ZERO day in Harrisonburg, VA. We all awoke with frost on our tents and very reluctant to get out of our warm sleeping bags. With a 19 mile day planned, we somehow decided that a late start after breakfast at the Wayside was a really good idea (plus we were really cold and Sugar and Tengu had minimal warm clothes). We treated D-Wreck to breakfast and eventually started walking back to the campsite to pack up. Enroute, somehow talk started about taking a zero day, it then snowballed into figuring how we would get the cars and how we would spend the day in town eating yummy food and watching movies. Minutes later, Tengu was off to find a hitch to his car, and that was that. Our hike was over which was fine, although I really wanted to keep hiking (cool weather, dry, good company and wonderful fall colors). But a town day was nice too. We decided that we needed to experience all the different kind of hiker days (nero, zero, full day, etc.). MON ¢ Hedgehog and MusicMan were flying home, so Tengu dropped D-Wreck and myself back at Loft Mountain Campsite and took the rest of the boys back to DC. We started at 11am and hiked 19 miles South to Calf Mountain Shelter, arriving just after dark. The VM + 2 friends, and 3 section hikers were at the shelter already. Great spring 0.1 mile from the shelter on the blue blaze from the AT enroute to the shelter. Near freezing at night and windy all night.TUES ¢ 7 mile hike South to Rockfish Gap. Passed by the tractor seats randomly placed on top of Bear Den Mountain. Helped shuttle the VM and friends to Waynsboro, VA for a resupply, post office action, outfitter gear buying frenzy and lunch at a nice caf© in town. Still a very sad, dying town though. Drove to C-Ville for the night. Dinner at a nice steakhouse with both of us in hiker garb. Amazing that they served us at all, bonus points to the waiter for allowing us in from the get go.WED ¢ Zero day in C-Ville with D-Wreck. Played tourist in town, toured Jefferson¢s Monticello, dinner downtown near ¢The Corner¢ and walked a bit on UVA campus.THURS ¢ Dropped D-Wreck at the trailhead and I drove back to DC to fly home. TO CONCLUDE: The AT is an magical trail with amazing people. I am so glad and so humbled that I am able to be a part of it. Thanks for an amazing vacation, it will be hard to top.