Date: 2016-06-17
From: Seeley-Woodworth Shelter

To: Maine?
Miles today: 40.0

Don't count me out!!! I entered the Shenandoahs yesterday morning and hiked 20 miles. The day before I zeroed in Waynesboro. Since I have not updated in a while, I will touch off in highlights of the last several days....6/17 - Pouring rain most of the day. To add to the tough day, we hiked The Priest Wildnerness and Three Ridges. What is Three Ridges? A brutal 10 miles of the AT which starts with a 3,000 foot steep decent followed immediately by a 3,000 climb. Think ass kicker. Think my defining AT moment. At the near top of the climb it was wet, cold and I seemed to be in the rain clouds. It was one I was happy to be done with. The evening at the shelter made up for the bitch of the day. We chatted with section hikers Mike and Shaft. Mike is a partner with Ernst and Young and I promised not to reveal his trail name or else his staff would give him shit. Shaft completed half of the trail many years ago and was knocking out some more miles. Good guys. When we turned in to go to sleep it was cold and I was glad I had not sent home my heavy bag yet.6/18 - A much different day. It started with trail magic at Reeds Gap having only walked two miles!!! A former thru hiker (who I can not recall his name) was offering cold drinks, bananas, sausage biscuits and oranges. He even had beer, but at 9:30 am I elected to go with an ice cold Gatorade.The trail was much kinder than the previous day and I made some big miles early. Being that it was Saturday there were many weekenders about. As a thru hiker we have noticed we are a source of wonderment to many. I chatted with a family group who were all lounging in hammocks and they gave me a big bag of cherries!!!Later in the day I walked with Lewis and Clark (a couple). One of their dad's was walking with them that day. At the last shelter before Waynesboro we all decided to push on another 5 miles and enjoy the town on Saturday night. The shelter was empty (most people already moved on). I blasted out ahead of Lewis and Clark and in about ten minutes I looked up from the trail and there was a little bear poking his head out from around a tree. I knew right away this was a small bear and my limbs would remain attached to my body throughout the encounter. The bear just went doing what bears do and I waited for Lewis and Clark so I could point it out to them. The remainder of the hike was easy and I ended up in Waynesboro walking with Time Warp. Our first stop was the bar.At the bar I met Umpi and Monarch and they offered me a spot in their room. They were heading back so I told them I would join them later. I walked down to the sports bar and saw Lumberjack and we had a beer or two in the sports bar.6/19 - I zeroed. The Quality inn had a breakfast. Umpi was kind enough to wake me up before it was over. We went down and it seemed as if the entire AT was eating breakfast. I was surprised and happy to see my old friends Trout, Voodoo and Blister (aka the Apple Dumpling Gang). 6/20 - After a good zero which included resupply for the Shenandoahs and two trips to Mings "all you can eat" buffet, I was ready to get back on the trail.I needed a few more things and stopped at Kroger. After getting the items I struck up a conversation with Rocky. Rocky was kind enough to give me a ride to the heady (which was several miles from Kroger).Rocky dropped me of in the parking lot by the trail head. There was about 40 young girls preparing to hike. The "leader" saw me and asked about my hike. He said he takes the group yearly and they were headed south. I was so glad to hear the tribe of 40 teenage girls would not be heading north as navigating past them would have been a pain. Despite my zero I was feeling lethargic.I hiked away from the group. They went south and I went north. I did not go far when I arrived at the Shenandoah sign in station and there was Texas Hippie, Thumper and Sunset. I like these guys. I had hiked with Sunset, but never had hiked with Texas Hippie and Thumper (having only met them in towns and hostels before).We would end up hiking on and off the rest of the day. Bringing up the rear behind us was the Apple Dumpling gand who had emerged from a double zero in Waynesboro hungry to eat miles.Miday Sunset happened upon a big rattle snake in the trail. We moved out of the snakes way and sunset gently poked him with his hiking stick to get him to coil and buzz. Texas Hippie and Thumper seemed genuinely afraid of the snake which is weird because Hippie is from Abilene (lots of rattlers) and Thumper deals with water moccasins in his native Lake Charles.So after the snake was good and angry Sunset said let's go. I suggested to Sunset that leaving a pissed off rattler in the middle of the AT was unwise (especially when it was you pissing it off)! I knew the Apple Dumpling Gang was coming around the corner and I did not want the guy walking point for the ADG to take a viper strike to the leg. So Sunset flicked the snake off the trail with his stick. The snake was so big the hiking stick almost broke.We hiked on into the heat. It was hot and I was lethargic. I decided to take it slow. In the Shenadoahs the AT crosses Skyline Drive back and forth 28 times. By 6:30 I found myself sitting at a crossing with the ADG and Sunset and his crew. After chatting and realizing Sunset, Hippie and Thumper were sleeping against the rock wall and the ADG had some other strange late night plan, I hiked on. It turned out I hiked until 11:30 finally getting to a shelter. Along the way I did some miles along Skyline Drive and enjoyed one of the coolest full moons I have ever enjoyed. Long day. Total miles walked was 20.