Date: 2012-06-10
From: Front Royal, VA

To: Front Royal, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Only one trail week is covered in this update, 5 days and 4 nights to walk the trail in Shenandoah National Park (SNP). Cindy is coming next Saturday and will be here for a week. I wanted to put these thoughts down while still fresh in my mind. While Cindy is here we plan to spend some time in DC and she may help me "slack pack" a few days. Slack packing is basically just day hiking. Cindy would drop me at the trail in the morning and pick me up at a road crossing further up the trail later in the day. SNP is mostly an auto park. The main attraction is a road, the Sky Line Drive, which has many pull-outs to view the adjacent ridges and valleys. The park has several developed picnic areas, campgrounds and lodges where we hikers could get access to drinking water, flush toilets and trash cans. I made full use of these amenities. Prior to SNP we were really in mountainous terrain with deep woods, the forest floor being more open, providing regular opportunities for making a camp. In SNP there was quite a bit of scrub land with deep brush, weeds and grass. Through some long sections it was not really possible to get off the trail. Finding places to make camp away from the established shelters was a challenge. The mountains have been getting lower. In the park we did not get above 4000 feet. Further south in Virginia at Mt Rogers the elevation was well over 5000 feet. These lower elevations could also be part of the reason for the more brushy terrain. I started the week at the south end of SNP in Waynesboro and walked 107 miles to the north end of the park in Front Royal where I'm typing this update. In the five days out I walked 16, 21, 18, 25.5 and 26.5 miles each day. The last day being a marathon - trail lingo for doing more than 26 miles in a day. I setup the tent all four nights. The first three nights I was able to find sites along the trail. The fourth night I tented at the Pass Mountain Shelter with many of my trail buddies. This week we crossed the 900 mile mark and are at mile 963 here in Front Royal. The first day out started cloudy with rain threatening. A mere three hours into the week the skies opened up and it poured. I stepped to the side of the trail, under an old apple tree, dropped the pack on the ground and stood over it with umbrella in hand. This kept me and my feet and the pack fairly dry, while many others were getting soaked. The hard rain lasted only about 10 minutes and I waited another 10 minutes for the water to drain from the trail bed before continuing. It continued to drizzle well into the afternoon. I got the tent setup and was under cover before a light rain started up and continued into the evening. The next day was overcast with drizzle through most of the morning. That night the skies cleared and the final three days in the park the weather was great with warm sun, cool breezes and low humidity. I expected the trails to be flat and friendly in the park and this was true through large areas. However, on the fourth day, about mid-morning we came into a rocky area, the rocks getting worse and worse through the afternoon. We were also in steep terrain, passing over the highest elevations in the park. Towards the end of the afternoon, when I wanted to start looking for a tent site, I observed 3 or 4 piles of bear scat, over a distance of 3 or 4 miles, so kept going. When the rocks are bad, I just want to keep going, until I get back into friendlier terrain. Early in the evening, while descending 1500 feet from Pinnacle Mountain to Thornton Gap the rocks were insane, it's not walking, it's rock scrambling. I crossed the highway in Thornton Gap and found a place very near the road to setup my tent. I figured bears would stay away from this noisy area. I was just starting to setup my tent, when I heard a noise. I looked up and there were two young bears about 50 feet away. The smaller one looked like a yearling, still very much a fat, round cub. Very quickly it turned tail and ran. The other just stood there, sniffing and watching me. It was twice as large as the cub, so did not seem to be a litter mate. I decided to continue to the next shelter and setup my tent there. I packed up and circled around, but by then the bears were gone. The next day, while marching up a hillside just north of the Elkwallow Wayside I saw my third bear, about 12 feet away tearing into a rotted, downed log. It just looked at me. This unnerved me a bit. So, instead of getting my camera out, I just marched on. Yesterday I was going to camp only three miles from town and come into town this morning. Since there was still enough daylight and I was feeling OK, I kept going. I called Cindy who googled and found Sharon Johnson Shuttle. I called Sharon and she picked me up at the road about 7:30PM. Four miles down the road I was here at the Quality Inn. This allowed me to have a full day in town. While waiting for Sharon I glanced down at my feet and noticed that the front end of one shoe was partially separated, finally wearing out. I got a cab to Walmart this morning and now have a new pair of boots. Tomorrow I'll find out what they're going to do to my feet. Cindy is bringing me replacement boots I bought before coming on the trail. I should of had her mail them here. I left two boxes at the front desk, which Cindy will help me retrieve when she is here, next weekend. Memorial Day weekend I found my first ticks. They all seemed to be wood ticks. Last night, here at the hotel, I found a wood tick, on my right hip, under my shorts. There was also another small tick, possibly a deer tick, low on the middle of my back, also under my shorts. I'm being very careful, checking constantly throughout the day. I don't know how I'm picking them up. It's supposed to be a bad tick year, due to the mild winter just passed. So it was a busy "zero" day here in Front Royal, VA. This morning the hotel provided a nice breakfast: eggs, bacon, cinnamon buns, yogurt, orange juice and milk. After breakfast got a local taxi over to Walmart. Got my new boots, TV dinners and sundry other items. Taxi retrieved me for ride back to hotel. Ate a TV dinner and had a nap. I updated my email list and sent this update out to my group on the hotel lobby computer. Saved pictures off of my cell phone via the PC onto a flash drive. Left two boxes at the front desk, which Cindy will help me retrieve when she is here, next weekend. Ate another TV dinner. Called Cindy. Showered. Hit the sack.