Date: 2005-06-21
From: Montebello, Va

To: Waynesboro
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Greetings from ¢The Boro¢! (Officially known as Waynesboro, Virginia!)Well, Once again I sit in another random library in another trail town with too much to write about in too little time to write it all so everything is totally normal, well, normal for me anyways, in the sense that nothing is actually normal!I rolled into Waynesboro after a tough week and was really glad to finally take some zeros and possibly take a little time off on a canoe trip. The past week coming into Waynesboro contained some of the toughest terrain in Virginia and mentally the past few days were hard as the trail was getting harder to handle logistically, as there were no good resupply points which meant crappy food, and the same crappy food everyday, as the stores all carry the same same dismal and bleak selections of horrid, bits of culinary monotony, like mac and cheese and ramen noodles, and maybe if you are lucky, a special flavor of pop tarts.I haven¢t really spoken much of the details of daily life lately and so I will talk a little about the Alfred Hitchcock- style bugs that eat us hikers alive day and night, and how not only are they eating our flesh and our bodies but they are attempting to eat our spirits as well. They inhibit the ability for any really decent sleep to be had, since the nights are spent slapping and itching, but wait! Once again as the trail throws an obstacle, we have the ability to overcome it! When the bugs are really bad, we have always had the ability to set up a tent and sleep in it for protection, but since the weather in the daytime is now in the mid nineties and the humidity is nearly 95%, it is a sauna inside of a tent with a rainfly on it, but if a hiker can find their niche and hike outside a bubble, (A bubble is a large group if hikers), then there is always enough room to set up a tent inside a shelter with total bug protection and then great sleep awaits, because the rain fly isn¢t needed!Anyways, bugs are only bad when you aren¢t hiking, and fortunately all of my time is spent hiking or sleeping so it really isn¢t that bad once you find out how to overcome the small obstacle, and hey, it is motivation to not stop hiking!The past week also held many interesting town visits for Sunflower and I in our quest for the truly perfect food supply consisting of Gourmet delights each night, since we became accustomed to eating high on the hog after weeks of eating great food from real grocery stores, like pesto garlic and cheese tortellini in extra virgin olive oil, and spinach, pesto wraps with tuna rice and garlic butter, and especially after a hiker named Story gave us her awesome freeze dried meals like chicken enchiladas to share that we greatly appreciated . This week started off pretty poorly in the quest for this flawless food resupply¢¦We went to Glasgow, Va for a planned resupply, and the food wasn¢t that diverse in the grocery store, mostly lipton dinners, and the likes¢¦ And so we had planned a resupply in the next town as well, and that meant that we only carry a few days of food which was an added bonus, since that means less weight¢¦Well, we stopped at our next resupply point in Buena-Vista in hopes of finding good food, POINTLESS, they don¢t even have a grocery store in that town anywhere nearby! Then it was on to Montebello, Va, for another fruitless resupply point. But I lucked out in Montebello, because Sunflower had a mail drop waiting in Montebello with homemade food in it made by Chronic, who is an excellent cook I must say, and luckily for me, Sunflower was willing to share, so once again, all is well, and our bellies our full of great food.I hiked into ¢The Boro¢ on Friday and stayed at a really nice hotel that was great. We truly got our money¢s worth because I never left the room once, making sure I took full advantage of the air conditioning and the radio, and nice beds with cotton sheets that I miss terribly¢¦ Then the Injury¢¦. Me and Sunflower constantly joke about getting hurt by doing something stupid in town like falling off of a sidewalk or getting hurt by doing something totally random after hiking nearly one thousand miles here shortly¢¦And then it actually happened¢¦Well, after a day of playing baseball, me and Sunflower were playing field hockey against each other and being extremely competitive like we both are, we kept playing more and more aggressively. We were having a blast and she was definitely proving herself to be a good player,even though we were playing with our trekking poles and a ball made a duct tape! Then I popped my lateral ligament on my leg that I had broken right before I left for my hike. It is pretty swollen and tight, but I should be OK in a little while, but I am taking off a few days here in town to make sure I don¢t injur it any more¢¦ Oh well... At least I¢m having fun¢¦Anyways¢¦ I am totally stoked, (yes, I just said Stoked, and I have no idea where that came from), to get into the Shenandoah National Park here in a few days because every day is almost an opportunity to eat real food at a restaurant and there are also a few bars near the trail too that are in the national park at the lodges¢¦I am having a blast, taking it easy, and really enjoying myself out here, everyday is a new learning experience and I am loving every minute¢¦Take it easy everyone and enjoy yourselves¢¦There is so much to write about butI am getting tossed off the computer!