Hi folks!
I am here in Waynesboro, VA, where I’ll be entering the Shenandoah national park this morning! While I was gone, it did not get any cooler, as temperatures have still been hanging around 95°F highs. However, that looks like it may shift soon down to more bearable low to mid eighties, with some rain. I can’t wait!
My return to trail had me dropped off just about a mile away from the Priest Mountain shelter. This was a pretty treacherous journey, as my shuttle driver picked me up from Charlottesville airport in a Prius, and we had a mighty long, pothole riddled, deeply rutted, mountainous dirt road to traverse to get to the trail head. We paid little heed to the sign strongly advising we have a four-wheel drive vehicle. I’m surprised we made it. I got dropped off late at night in the middle of the woods and hiked one mile up to the shelter.
At the Priest, I met two other thru hikers: King Julian and CJ. So far, they’re the only thru hikers I’ve met in the two days since I’ve been back! Most folks are hundreds of miles north at this point; probably in New York or New Jersey territory, if not farther. I am definitely dropping back in ‘behind the bubble,’ so to speak. The trail is much emptier, which gives a whole different flavor and feel to the adventure. I can’t say I’m displeased, as it’s been neat, I think, to have seen not only to have gotten to experience the hyper-social nature of the bubble, but also the more mellow late season feel of the trail.
Some may wonder, “Alpine, do you think you’ll finish the trail before winter hits up north?” Great question, for which I have a well-reasoned response befitting my engineering approach to dilemmas. I sat down and calculated out that I need to maintain a 17.8 mile per day average for six days per week, affording myself one zero day on the seventh. If I maintain that pace, I’ll make it to Katahdin by the drop dead date of October 15th (when the park typically closes for the winter). I have even made a to-scale graphical representation of that pace that I’ll carry with me and update as I go along. Worry not, folks, I’ll make it!
Back to the Priest Mountain shelter. One fun and unique thing about that particular shelter is that hikers have turned the shelter log book into a confessional; one in which they confess their trail sins to the Priest. It made for a very hilarious read during breakfast. Hikers seem to have gravitated towards confessing trail sins centered around violating Leave No Trace principles, pooping in the woods, trail fornication, cheating the trail (skipping sections), and judging others. I’ve included some photos of folks’ sins as examples. Good stuff!
Since restarting, I hiked 14 miles on day 1, and 20.5 miles on day 2. The 20.5 miles I did yesterday were great, although I’m now hyper vigilant about poison ivy and Virginia creeper, which lurked almost constantly on the trail’s periphery. Like playing a game of Operation, don’t-touch-the-sides was the name of the game. They’re not getting me again! Waynesboro is a super hiker-friendly town, too. At Rockfish gap, I got some gourmet kettle corn from a food cart before getting a free shuttle ride into town from a local trail angel (hiker slang for a kind, generous person that helps out hikers). She dropped me off at Ming Garden Chinese buffet, where I ate a disgusting amount of some of the best Chinese buffet food I’ve had in a long while. After resupplying at the Kroger, a guy named Cherokee Mike gave me a lift to my AirBnB on his way to play horseshoes. I’m splitting the AirBnB with CJ, who I met two days earlier, and is a very nice person. The AirBnB is great, with super comfortable beds, plenty of amenities, and, most enticing of all, a carpeted bathroom!
That’s it for now, folks! I’ll check in a bit later in the Shenandoahs! Oh, and if any of y’all are Snapchat-inclined, I’ve redownloaded it, and have been posting some hiking stuff there, too! Feel free to search me out for more content there!
See ya!
Tingo Hikes! 