Date: 2006-03-28
From: Bears Den

To: Keys Gap
Miles today: 14.1

Tuesday, March 28, 2006All night Mountain Goat has barely slept. Tylenol didn¢t make even a dent in her foot and ankle pain. She needs a zero day today to try to recover. Today she¢ll rest up in Harper¢s Ferry. But Amoeba is rarin¢ to hike. She feels strong and wants the workout. Mountain Goat, is it OK if I hike and leave you? Yes.Mountain Goat¢s zero means on this trip they'll end their joint hike at Blackburn Trail Center, 7.9 miles north of Bears Den. Today Amoeba will solo-hike that 7.9.On the way to set Amoeba¢s car at Blackburn, they stop at the Hiker Hostel at Keep Tryst Rd and talk to Lisa, the manager. This is where they'll stay tonight.4 deer on the driveway leading to Blackburn.They leave Amoeba¢s car and take Mountain Goat¢s to Bear's Den. 3 section hikers (Front Royal to Harper's Ferry) are there, all from Illinois. Joe, Roger and Lynn. They did a 20-miler yesterday and are feeling the effects. Today they¢ll start late and hike only to Blackburn.Mountain Goat and Lynn have the same kind of sleeping bag, very lightweight, very compressible. Both like it but find it cold when the temps drop.At Bear¢s Den, Amoeba misses seeing both Wisconsin Dave and Queen Diva. Mountain Goat and Amoeba walk to the Overlook. After she reaches Blackburn, Amoeba will call Mountain Goat to arrange an afternoon meeting time in Harper¢s Ferry.Amoeba starts hiking north. Her first day in a while hiking solo. Amoeba¢s mind is busy processing events of the last 3 weeks. That¢s one thing Amoeba loves about solo hiking: time alone to think and reflect, undistracted. She thinks about maladies, mechanical and medical, that drain positive energy. Taurosis, Mountain Goat¢s sore joints. Yesterday she and Mountain Goat had talked about hiking goals and the actions (and luck) needed to achieve them. Amoeba remembers the day in 2003 when it became mathematically impossible for her to finish an AT flipflop by the end of the year. That day she just changed her goal. She¢d do the AT south of Moosilauke in 2-3 years. The next year, after she¢d hiked the Whites with Truck, and had improved her hiking, she changed it again. She¢d section hike the entire AT in 3 years. Mountain Goat wants to hike as much of the AT as possible. Sometimes she toys with the idea of hiking the whole trail, but she hasn¢t drawn up a game plan for this yet. Hiking the whole AT could impinge too much on her family and work life, which are more important.At Rte 7, partly cloudy sky, no bright sun, temps in the 50¢s. Due to heavy traffic it¢s hard to cross Rte 7. Fortunately there¢s good visibility and a center strip.View from the first cliffy outcrop: 2 trophy homes each one on its own ridgetop.Just then, OH! -- the spring azure blue butterfly!It¢s a member of the Order Lepidoptera, that name derived from the Greek lepido (scale) and ptera (wings). Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) have scaly wings.It¢s in the Gossamer-wing Family, the Blues Subfamily.Its scientific name is Celestrina ladon. Its common name is spring azure butterfly.Like the New Zealand female scale insect that sucks sap from red beech trees and excretes honeydew, the spring azure caterpillar excretes a sweet liquid that¢s a food source for other creatures. In this case, a food source for ants. In exchange, the ants protect spring azure caterpillars from predators.Every year the spring azure is one of the first butterflies to emerge from its chrysalis. It will live only a week or 2, during which time males and females mate and females lay their eggs.The ones flying close to the ground are most likely males, who ingest moisture and nutrients from puddles.The dorsal side of the male wing is a lilac-blue, the ventral side a pale grayish white. Like trying to photograph New Zealand fantails, it¢s hard to photograph spring azure butterflies. They don¢t land that often. And when they do, only rarely do they open their wings to expose that beautiful purplish-blue.On tomorrow¢s hike the drying corpse of a dead male spring azure will be sprawled flat at the edge of the trail, its wings wide open, dorsal side up.A hawk in a treetop takes off and flies away in a wide circle.On an old log beside a river of rocks, Amoeba eats corn chips, almonds, fat ripe cherry tomatoes. Is that river of rocks what they call a devil¢s racecourse? There¢s a shelter in MD with that same name. Something to look up or ask about at the ATC HQ. Also those state line sections of the trail. Amoeba hasn¢t been able to figure out when she¢s officially in WV or VA, TN or NC.Hello to Joe out hiking on spring break from Bard College. Joe stayed last night at BTC. He says there are brand new caretakers there. Drilling of a woodpecker way off in the distance.Amoeba¢s cell phone beeps with a voicemail from Mountain Goat:      I¢m back in Thurmont and I¢m on my way home. My car is having serious electrical problems. I rolled the window down to take a picture and it won¢t roll back up again. It¢s very cold in the car and I can¢t secure the car at a hostel or motel. My cell phone is dead. I got a phone card. I¢m calling from a pay phone. I¢m terribly sorry about leaving you stranded but I don¢t want to wait until dark and then have to try to get this car back in the dark and cold, it¢s cold enough with the window down. When I get home, I¢ll call you. I¢m sorry.This message worries Amoeba. Poor Mountain Goat, one car catastrophe after another on top of a sleepless night and being in pain.   Amoeba will have to rethink the next few days but not now. BTC is in view.At BTC, as she is about to sign the register, a familiar-looking fellow comes out onto the porch from the kitchen. It¢s Redwing from Michigan! Amoeba met Redwing at The Cabin last summer the day after she finished her first AT section hike. Redwing!!! Hopeful!!! They¢ve taken a 2-year stint here as caretakers. Trail Boss is their boss. They decided they wanted to contribute to the AT community in a positive way, to invite people into their home, living the lessons of sharing and giving they¢d learned on the trail!Redwing and Hopeful invite her to join them, Roger, Joe and Lynn for a supper of venison tacos.Yes! Amoeba makes new plans for the rest of the day. This afternoon she¢ll hike the 6.2 miles from Keys Gap back to BTC, share dinner with everyone and then spend her first night in the Element.Redwing and Hopeful shuttle her to Keys Gap. They tell her Wisconsin Dave is still at Bear's Den doing maintenance. Amoeba tells them the story about Wisconsin Dave and Earl Arnold (from Dutch Haus) running down The Priest, Wisconsin Dave winning. Wisconsin Dave is a phenomenal downhiller.Redwing says last summer Hopeful stayed 3 days at Dutch Haus due to severe poison ivy that was almost bad enough to land her in the hospital.Redwing and Hopeful are from the same area of Michigan as Circuit Rider and Sherlock, 2 famous hikers who Amoeba has yet to meet who are hiking the AT a sixth time this year. They know Queen Diva, the Manager at Bear¢s Den. Also 2 exuberant young women, who hiked the AT last year, Touk and Gypsy. Hopeful used to babysit for Cairo and Valentyne, who Amoeba met south of Waynesboro in 2004. What a cluster of AT hikers from a concentrated area in Michigan. Do other AT Michigan friends, Dead Horse, Epiphany and Sweet Sixteen, live anywhere near?Keys Gap to BTC is wide, easy and fast. A short way in, Amoeba meets The Monday Man. He volunteers at the ATC HQ every Monday, except this coming Monday he¢s not going to be there because he¢ll be out in Arizona hiking Sedona.Just before 4PM the trail to the David Lester Shelter. It¢s started sprinkling.Another hour of hiking fast and reflecting on personal things.Amoeba is angry about a recent event. How to deal with this constructively?The Lucille Ball School of Anger Management. What would Lucy do?First, name-calling. OK. Nothing too raw. Something with a vein of humor but still stinging. Galoot? Little galoot? Big galoot? Dirty rotten galoot? The name-calling is uttered under one¢s breath, or out loud to no one but oneself. It¢s never uttered to the name-callee.Second, a hare-brained scheme for revenge.Name-calling is enough. Amoeba doesn¢t need revenge. Amoeba¢s anger is not so much due to the actions of other people. She¢s brought a lot of the things upsetting her on herself. She calls herself a big galoot. Oops. The name-callee hears.Beautiful soft ridge after the first sign for the BTC. Daffodils planted there are blooming. Amoeba takes the second trail to BTC.Mountain Goat has left another message: she¢s safely home. Amoeba calls her back. Do you want to come back to finish MD on Thursday and Friday? No, Mountain Goat is still hurting. Amoeba calls Lisa at the Keep Tryst Rd Hiker Hostel. Yes, Lisa can shuttle her to Monument Road on Thursday morning. Amoeba decides tomorrow she¢ll in and out Keys Gap to Keep Tryst Rd and on Thursday she¢ll hike from Monument Rd to Keep Tryst Rd.Great supper of hiker-portion tacos, everyone making a taco for another person. First a prayer of thanks led by Redwing. Homemade brownies for dessert.Back in Michigan, Hopeful teaches high school Spanish. While she and Redwing are managing BTC, she'll be in VA. After her time at BTC finished, the high school wants her back on their staff. They¢ve asked her to take a leave of absence rather than terminating completely. The school is doing everything possible not to lose Hopeful.From the end of spring break until school lets out in June, Redwing and Hopeful will be apart. Redwing will be holding the fort at BTC and will be making the evening meal. He plans to serve spaghetti and brownies. Easy to prepare, cheap. No problem for him eating spaghetti every night, he loves the stuff. Another meal idea is a sort of stone soup, with all the hikers contributing whatever they have. Put it all in a pot. Hey, you got a pack of Ramen noodles? Toss it in. Mac and Cheese? Sure. (See 4-4-06 entry)!Good friends and hiking buddies Joe, Roger and Lynn met on the internet at backpackers.com. At first each was self-sufficient, but now they share stove, water filter and maps. Lots of fun talking to them and hearing their stories. Lynn teaches Special Ed grades 2 and 3 and sometimes brings in backpacking gear to demonstrate to the kids what he does in his free time.Thank you again, Hopeful and Redwing. You¢re what the AT is all about.Heal quick, Mountain Goat.Goodnight.