Date: 2017-05-14
From: Front Royal Terrapin Station Hostel

To: Whiskey Hollow Shelter, VA
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: clear sky

5/14/17 Whiskey Hollow Shelter, VAMiles hiked: 667.0 Miles to go: 1522.8I observed a first on the trail today. As you can probably guess, 1st Sgt is a fairly level guy. Well, I watched him have a meltdown today, including a few cuss words and a possible threat of violence. It was quite hilarious. Fair skies have finally returned to the AT. We awoke to full sunshine coming in the windows of the hostel. 1st Sgt and I packed up and headed out by 7:30 AM. Ramsey is taking a zero day to rest his ankle and Bluebell was slow packing up, so we said our goodbyes and headed out. As usual for a town day, an uphill climb with a heavy pack and a stomach full of town food started the day. We cruised along under sunny skies enjoying the dry weather. Unfortunately, the trail is still pretty mucky, with running water in many places. So, our feet still ended up pretty wet. We saw a lot of day hikers out today. It appeared to be mostly families, so I suspect there were a number of Mother's Day hikes. We'd see smiling Moms, huffing and puffing Dads, and bored kids. I imagine the conversation went something like "what I'd really like for Mother's Day is for all of us to go on a family hike". Followed by "aw Mom! Can't we just take you to IHOP for breakfast?"At one point, we saw AT trail volunteer Tom out cutting weeds along the side of the trail. We thanked him profusely for his service to the trail. It is the huge number of hours of work by countless volunteers that provide such a great trail for us to hike on. We always thank the volunteers when we meet them. While we were talking to Tom another hiker came by with his family and asked us if we planned to stop for ice cream when we hit Va Rt 650. He told us the ice cream store was next to the barbecue place right where the trail crossed the road. That, of course got our attention. We had planned to eat lunch when we reached to Jim & Molly Denton shelter in another two miles; however, the prospect of barbecue and ice cream was well worth delaying lunch another 3 miles until we reached the road. We thanked him for the information and headed on our way. We still dropped in at the Jim & Molly Denton shelter because we'd heard so much about it. It is one of the nicest shelters on the trail, with a front porch with lounge chairs, horseshoe pit, picnic pavilion, and even a solar shower. It was too bad we hit the shelter in the middle of the day. It would've been a great place to spend the night. After checking out all the amenities and scanning the shelter register to figure out where all our friends are, we headed on our way with visions of pulled pork dancing in our heads. After hiking through miles of mud and muck and seeing several more families out hiking for Mother's Day, we arrived at the roadside. As we scanned the buildings that looked like houses, trying to decide which was the barbecue place and which was the ice cream place, I began to get a sick feeling in the pit of my empty and withered stomach. I looked at the AWOL guide and discovered that the restaurant was 1.2 miles to the west. For someone driving a car, 1.2 miles is "right on the trail". For someone walking, it's a half hour walk. This is the point that 1st Sgt melted down. It was a pretty impressive tirade. At first, I was as upset as him; but, I began to get tickled watching him and was soon laughing. We consoled ourselves with the fact that on Mother's Day the restaurant would've been too crowded to get service anyway. We ended up finding a picnic table right next to the trail and had a nice lunch eating the food we had carried, thus eliminating some weight from our packs. By the time we finished lunch, 1st Sgt had quit fuming and I was only occasionally chuckling. Still, we both agreed that a chocolate milkshake really would've hit the spot. After lunch, we settled into a long climb, followed by several more miles of muddy trail and hiking families. A warm, sunny afternoon and a full belly left me wanting a nap. At one point we came across a group of birders out for their annual Mother's Day birding hike. We entertained them for about 20 minutes with tales of thru hiking. We are developing quite the routine, complete with jokes and fun trail facts. I think talking with the birders improved both our moods and bolstered our spirits for the remainder of the hike. We arrived at the shelter around 5 pm. This spot actually has two shelters - an old, small shelter named Dick's Dome and a brand spanking new shelter called Whiskey Hollow. The old shelter had a couple staying in it and they had spread out, so we headed to the new shelter 50 yards up the hill. We are now set up at the new shelter, with me in my hammock and 1st Sgt sharing the shelter with two thru hikers and a section hiker. There is another section hiker tenting nearby. We had never met the thru hikers before; however, Echo and Kricket are both really nice young guys. We've noticed that the thru hikers are really thinning out. We are only seeing one or two others at the shelters, where we were seeing sometimes up to 20 other thru hikers at a time. We've also noticed that almost all the thru hikers we are now seeing are young men. All the women and older hikers seem to  have disappeared. We did spend the night with Bluebell at the Terrapin Station Hostel; however, she had just started her Flip Flop thru hike at Rockfish Gap. We also know that Lumber Jill, Winter, Oz, Legs, and Brie are still on the trail; but, they are all several days ahead. In general, though, its mostly young men. I guess attrition is taking its toll. Two more days to Harpers Ferry and the spiritual mid-point of the trail at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters.