Virginia Part I

Day 123, Mile 1563

I’m here at the lovely Woodshole Hostel, a few miles down the trail from Pearisburg, Virginia. Although housed in an old homestead built over 100 years ago, it does manage to have electricity and internet. Lightweight is in the kitchen with the owner Neville cooking up a Halloween feast!

So, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged and thus there is a lot to cover here. I’ll try to let the pictures do most of the storytelling. Virginia has been really good so far, easily one of my favorite states. We’re starting to get back into real mountains again, and the leaves are changing, and the air is getting that crisp autumn feel to it–in short it’s everything that I had hoped October would be like on the Appalachian Trail.

After heading out from Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, we trekked across the Blue Ridge and headed south towards Shenandoah National Park. Walking through SNP has been one of the highlights of my trip so far. SNP was filled with lots of weekend warriors and day hikers as well, which translated into lots of trail magic for me, such as pizza, sodas, Clif Bars, and a few choice adult beverages. Most of all though, I really enjoyed being back in mountains again, after so many miles of low-elevation ridges that dominated Connecticut through Maryland. We finally got above 4000 feet also, the first time since Vermont. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that I saw a few bear cubs too!

View from Hawksbill Mountain, the highest point in Shenandoah NP

Sunset from Hightop

After finishing up through SNP, I headed into Waynesboro, where my brother was picking me up to take me into DC for the weekend. But before he did, I got to have dinner at the trail-famous Ming’s Chinese Garden Buffet, which was absolutely amazing. Although supposedly all-you-can-eat, I have found that Chinese buffets have a very passive-aggressive way of saying “You eat like a Orca whale, you are no longer welcome here!” After my third trip through the buffet, they brought me my check. After my fourth pass, they stopped refilling my drink. And finally, as the coup de grâce they took my fork! I walked out–nay, waddled out–a very happy hiker.

As mentioned above, my brother picked me up the next day and we headed into DC for a very relaxing weekend. After hiking for a month straight without any zero days, I was in desperate need for some time off. I definitely picked a good weekend to come in as well, because when I got back on the trail on Sunday, I found that it had been snowing while I was away!

Less than a week after I left DC, John and my cousin Andrew came back out to hike with me for a few days, which was really great. After leaving DC, I hiked by myself for five days, which can be really dispiriting. On top of the solitude, I was trying to make big miles, so I typically ended up night-hiking to make it into camp, which can be pretty spooky. I even spent the night in a supposedly haunted shelter. The story is that in the fall of 1890, four-year-old Ottie Powell went to gather firewood and never returned. His body was found five months later on top of Bluff Mountain. I read many a story in the shelter register about hearing the sound of crying off in the woods during the night. Although I didn’t hear anything, I did find a nice pile of firewood stowed underneath the shelter.

Fall Colors

The James River Valley

White Blaze in the Mist on the Blue Ridge

My brother and cousin met up with me at a crossing of the Blue Ridge Parkway. One of the best parts of having them out was being able to actually share some of my experiences with them, instead of just talking about it. And boy, did they get the full Appalachian Trail experience–rain, sun, long days, short days, awesome views, resupplies, campfires, stealth camping, homeless people in the shelter, trail names, hitch hiking, trail magic–they really got it all! John and Andrew both got trail names within their first few days, going by “Fungus Fang” and “Music Man,” respectively.

The day before my birthday was one of the best that I have had on the trail so far. The three of us summited Tinker Cliffs and McAfee Knob which had some of the best views I have had since New Hampshire. Plus that night, we had dinner at the Homeplace Restaurant. They serve homestyle southern vittles like fried chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and cobbler. I had been hearing about this place since all the way back in Maine, and it definitely surpassed my expectations, and I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday dinner!

Fungus Fang, Music Man, and Tex at McAfee Knob

Me at McAfee Knob

Alas, they had to leave and return to DC on Tuesday. While they were here though, Lightweight caught up to me, and we have been hiking together since then. We’ve both been feeling a little burned out, and having someone to hike with really helps keep up your spirit. We are well over two-thirds done now, just over 600 miles to go! The end is feeling closer and yet farther away every single day. I just hope I have the energy and spirit to make it! Right now I am shooting for December 5 as a finish date, but it all depends on how the weather holds up for me. I keep hearing that I should be expecting snow in the Smokies, so that might end up slowing me down alot. Onward!

Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia

Day 99, Mile 1185

I’m officially over halfway done! I’m here at the Bear Den Hostel, just across the border into Virginia. And what adventures I have had recently! Pennsylvania was bizarre, to say the least. I met so many strange people there–Petunia and Treehugger joke that I am a “yahoo magnet” and just attract them. There was the guy who ditched his food and was carrying quartz rocks instead, believing that they would give him energy. When I met him and asked how long he had been hiking the trail, he gave me a spaced out look and said, “What trail?” Or the very, uhm, immodest grandmother and her husband. I met the couple a few miles from that night’s shelter, and after making some small talk the husband says to me, “Well, we don’t want to keep you long, but my wife here lost a bet.” And next thing I know, her shirt is gone and she’s flashing me. She covers herself up after a few seconds, and her husband growls to her, “It was supposed to be for a minute.” And how could I forget the fella who was in between jobs and decided that an AT shelter was a good place to camp out for the week. He showed up at the shelter around 8:30 PM, carrying a duffle bag and a blanket, using his cell phone for a flashlight. Around ten o’clock that night her starts making very loud phone calls to his multiple lady friends—on speaker phone—in the shelter. After securing a ride from one of the girls, he ended up leaving around eleven. And that’s barely the half of them.

Deleware Water Gap

The trail in PA passes through some very beautiful places, like the Deleware Water Gap, and a few interesting spots as well, including a Superfund toxic waste cleanup site. Even though the polluting smokestacks were shut down decades ago, the devastation still remains and the mountain top looks like a wasteland. Although Pennsylvania is infamous for its rocky terrain—it’s nickname is “the place where boots go to die”—it was also blissfully flat. I was able to make killer miles each day, pushing out 20 to 25 without any problems. And after a 500 mile chase, I finally caught up to Lightweight, G-Fog, Treehugger, and Petunia, a few of the folks I was hiking with back towards the beginning of my hike. After bumping into so many crazies, it’s been really nice to have some companions around.

The Palmerton Superfund Toxic Waste Cleanup Site

Trail in Pennsylvania

The Pinnacle Viewpoint in Pennsylvania

Sand Spring

Sunrise from Rocky Mountain Shelter

As I said above, the halfway mark is in Pennsylvania, and there are a few traditions that go along with completing that first thousand miles. For instance, almost every thru-hiker spends at least one night at The Doyle Hotel in Duncannon. The Doyle is over 100-years old and completely decrepit. The main attraction is that it’s dirt cheap, very hiker-friendly, and has a bar where guests can get “Dun-cannonized.” Although we weren’t too rowdy, we did get to meet a wide collection of Duncannon’s colorful drunks and neer-do-wells, all of whom wanted to buy us beer, talk about hiking, and hit on Petunia, the one lady in our party (coincidently, it was Petunia’s 49th birthday).

The Doyle Hotel

The “Presidential Suite” at the Doyle

Another halfway-mark tradition is the “Half-Gallon Challenge,” where you try to eat an entire half-gallon of ice cream in one sitting. Lightweight, G-Fog, and I tried, but only G-Fog was successful. I did pretty well though and was able to make it about three-quarters the way through mine—and amount equivalent to three pints. It wasn’t that I got full, it was just that I was sick of eating ice cream, and I ended up eating a large Italian sub right after I gave up. Here’s a great video of the Lightweight (left), G-Fog (upper right), and myself attempting the challenge:

The halfway-mark itself was a little bit of a letdown. They used to have a really cool monument, but since the trail changes a little bit every year, the monument was about four miles off of the actual halfway point, so they are in the process of moving it. So, all we got was a dinky little temporary sign printed on a sheet of computer paper. I could barely even muster a “yee-haw.” But we had an awesome fire that night to celebrate anyways.

Me at the Halfway Mark

Maryland and West Virginia went by like a breeze. Those states are so short that some thru-hikers do the “Four-State Challenge,” where you hike from the Pennsylvania-Maryland border to the Virginia-West Virginia border in a 24-hour period, thus hiking in four states in one day. I wasn’t that crazy and took my time, but I still made it through the two states in three nights. West Virginia is home to Harper’s Ferry, the “psychological midpoint” of the AT and home to the official Appalachian Trail Visitor’s Center. It was really cool actually, because it is one of the few places on the trail at which every single thru-hiker stops. They have this really nifty photo album of all this year’s hikers, with their pictures in order of arrival. I am the 68th southbound hiker to pass through this year, out of 214 who started in Maine.

Black Rock Cliffs, Maryland

Crossing the Shenandoah at Harper’s Ferry

Crescent Rocks, Virginia

It feels SO good to be halfway done, into Virginia, and less than 1000 miles to go. Way back in July I could harldy imagine Georgia, it was just an abstract goal that I was blindly heading towards. But now, I feel like I can start to see it, and this whole ‘walking-across-America-thing’ feels tangible and achievable all of a sudden. It’s a neat sensation! Maine seems forever ago, and I can hardly believe that I walked all the way from Maine to here. But I am so excited to continue my journey, to see all the adventures this second half of my hike will bring!