VA (3)

Virginia (Part 3)

5 May 2015: 20 miles to Calf Mountain Hut (because Shenandoah calls shelters "huts" for some odd reason, we never found or got a straight answer as to why this is... it is just the way of things I guess)

• Passed out of the Blue Ridge Parkway today and entered Shenandoah National Park

Stopped for fancy popcorn and lunch just before hitting Rockfish Gap

Water break. As of right now (13 June 2015) this was still one of our hottest days to date around 91 degrees (according to the cheap thermometer we carry) with high humidity 

Also another oddity of the blue ridge mountains, biting gnats. Above is my retaliation to the onslaught in one of the log books... it didn't help our situation at all

6-7 May 2015: 56 miles to Big Meadows Wayside

24-hour Challenge: Ok, the 24-hour challenge is one of three well known A.T. challenge some thru-hikers try to complete (the other two challenges are the 4-State and the Half Gallon, more to come on those later). The 24-hour is unique because it is the only challenge that doesn't have a specific location it has to be completed, the hiker can pick when they are fool enough to attempt this. The only real rule is that hikers have to keep hiking for 24 hours WITHOUT SLEEPING, a hiker can still take breaks like usual, but napping is strictly forbidden... also Poppins and I instated the rule that a hiker has to walk over 40 miles for the challenge to count, because that is just under a 2 mile per hour pace (which is slow in general) and it proves the hiker was not taking a copious amount of breaks.

Anyway, Poppins and I had not planned on doing the 24-hour this particular day. However, the day turned out to be excruciatingly hot and humid and we were on a time crunch to meet people at Big Meadows Ways side 30 miles up the road the next day. 30 miles in the heat awaiting us did not sound like fun so we came up with the brilliant plan to night hike a LITTLE BIT (about 10 miles) to beat the heat and make the next day shorter so we wouldn't end up melting... Poppins and I are not very good at sticking to a plan and we tend to heckle each other into doing stupid things... this is one of those times. 

At dinner we joked that we could just go for it and walk ALL of the 30 miles in the night and complete the 24-hour challenge... and that we were in the Shenandoah after all and the terrain was only going to get harder the further north we hiked... and we were both already familiar with the Shenandoah, since we had both hiked it before, so we wouldn't be missing any views.... and we could just nap by a wayside all day and eat food while we waited on Poppins friends to show up... There was a pause, a moment of silence contemplating our rash impulses. "Lets go for it"

So that is how we started our trek into the night, slogging out ANOTHER 30 miles. We started hiking at 6am on the morning of 6th and hobbled up to Big Meadows Wayside at 6:14am on the 7th. Just in time to catch the sunrise down skyline drive. We were delirious from the lack of sleep and exertion. We ended up walking a total of 56 miles. Poppins thought a post sticking out of the ground was a deer... we curled up in a ball on the grass next to the wayside and waited for it to open so we could go eat the food we had promised ourselves. Poppins was shaking a little (apparently her body just does that after marathons too... and we just walked close to two marathons in 24-hours) I thought I was going to have to call 911 a few times. But it never happened.  At 8am sharp, our feet screaming, we hobbled in and received our reward of a hot breakfast and hot chocolate (that we had to pay for of course). 

After we were functioning human beings again we started checking our text messages. Apparently Poppins friends came a day earlier and missed us... we rushed for no real reason. We were in pain, could hardly move, and might have still been a little delirious... and now we were kind of stranded at the wayside. Fortunately if there was ANY place for us to get stranded on the A.T. it was the Big Meadows Wayside near Swift Run Gap... because Swift Run Gap is only about 30 minutes from Culpeper, VA- our hometown. A phone call later it was Papa Poppins to the rescue!!! He whisked us back to society for some much needed rest and recovery. 

Rock Star does NOT give you more energy it just makes you alert... so you are now alert to ALL the pain you are feeling at 2:30 in the morning, 48 miles into your self-imposed death march

I'm not leaning on the trekking pole to strike an epic pose... I'm leaning on the trekking pole because I lost feeling in my legs about 6 miles back. Still a pretty sweet finish.

8 May 2015: Zero

• Poppins text me on our day off after the 24-hour challenge explaining she went to the doctor for a terrible blister on her foot and she will be out of commission for a day or two. 
• Since she had hiked all of the park already this year (a thru-hike is completing the entire trail in a year, so technically Poppins still hasn't missed any miles) there was no point in waiting. I still had 24 miles of the park to complete so we decided I would carry on alone for 2 days and we would meet back up in Front Royal, VA.

9  May 2015: 19 miles to Pinefield Hut

• Solo Stoat
• Met up with my friend Bruce! from my old, past life (work) and had lunch in Luray, VA. 
• Hitchhiked for the first time into Luray because I was running ahead of schedule... and because I make poor decisions when Poppins isn't around. But calm down, I was safe about it... well as safe as you can be. Took a picture of the license plate and sent it to someone, kept my trekking poles with me, and sized up the guy when he got out of his car to introduce himself, I could have taken him... I'm sure I'm going to get scolded for this. 
• The Arkansas twins showed up!
• Little did I know this would be the last time I would get to hang out with them :(
• Saw a flying squirrel in the shelter in the middle of the night!!!

The log book entry explaining what happened to Poppins

Poppins dropped me off that morning and then left me little snacks along the trail... because I forget to eat unless she reminds me... like I said I make poor decisions when she isn't around

Proof I remembered to eat for Poppins

Got to Luray, VA two hours early, walked a mile into downtown.... AND THERE IS A STREE FESTIVAL going on... Street Festival= Food

Also Street Festivals= Something fun for me to do while I waited for Bruce (He was on time, I was just early. He even was able to find me in the huge crowd... I guess he just looked for the smelly little girl with the huge backpack)

 10 May 2015: 31 miles to Molly's Ridge Shelter

• Solo Stoat: Hiked through a cloud most of the day, it was strange
• Met Back up with Poppins that evening in Front Royal

Saw this interesting sign in one of the parks....

I guess I'm doing it wrong. I should be enjoying a "short" hike

Unbeknownst to me... this was going to be one of the last good views for the next few weeks

11  May 2015: 18.4 miles to the spider shelter

• Brown Recluse Story: Basically (without going into too much detail) we saw a spider, it was super fast and looked like a Brown Recluse. It was on the wood pile, we freaked out and spent a good 20 minutes trying to kill it without getting bitten. I wielded a broom while Poppins tried to smash it with various objects from around the shelter, it moved very fast and was very smart. It knew we were trying to kill it, and it knew it was poisonous. Eventually Poppins just put on a shoe and I distracted the spider with the broom on the other side while she jumped on it and squished it into oblivion. We then looked up brown recluses on the internet to put our conscience at ease that we didn't just kill an innocent spider. We found a picture and video of one that looked VERY similar. 
• I sleep easy at night and have no guilt for our actions. 

 12 May 2015: 10 miles to Bear's Den Hostel

• Roller Coaster : a series of 10 steep hills all in a row, not that bad
• 1000 mile mark!

Hit mile 1000!!!

We had originally planned on stopping at Bear's Den for just a snack... but then we saw it and had to stay...

IT WAS A FREAKEN CASTLE owned by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

Trying to be cute and romantic while chugging a soda... don't think it worked

Climber (a nice section hiker we met) and Poppins lounging 

Another view of the castle. BUT the hikers were subjugated to the peasants quarters in the left corner, we didn't have full rain of the castle. Which was sad. I wanted to go up into the ramparts and re-enact the seen from "Monty Python and The Holy Grail" by shouting down at Poppins "your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." (I know quite a bit more of that monolog, trust me, it would have been epic)

Ok, I'm quite proud of this. Although you can't see it in all of it's majesty unfortunately, there was a lot more on the inside I had to work on, I just covered the tip so no dirt would get into my handy-work. The tip of my trekking pole broke and I fixed it with a soda can and super glue. The best part it the fix is STILL holding up after 500+ miles, over rocks... I should have been an engineer *sigh

 13 May 2015: 22 miles to Harper's Ferry West Virginia (left tent on the VA boarder to prep for 4-state challenge)

Saying goodbye to Climber. He was technically a trail angle too because he paid for our laundry at the Bear's Den.

Made it!!!

Fun part about this picture. See the bottom sign "Key Gap 4 miles" at this exact moment Papa Poppins was back at Key Gap waiting for us to cross the road so he could surprise us. It wasn't until we were having dinner in Harper's Ferry, WV that we found out he was in town and headed our way (and we didn't have to hike back up the hill to our tent at the boarder)!

Officially NoBo Thru-Hikers #132 and #133 in the ATC headquarters log book for 2015.
NoBo are marked in red
FlipFloppers are marked in Brown
SoBo are marked in Green
Section Hikers are marked in Blue

 14 May 2015: -2 miles to VA boarder, spent the day in Harper's Ferry WV to prep for the 4-State Challenge but then walked south on the trail to get to our tent

Start date is in the upper left. Hiker number is in the upper middle. Current date (date when you entered Harper's Ferry) is the upper right. Under the picture it goes: Real name, Trail name, Section (in our case Georgia to Maine... so the whole thing), Where you are from, and contact information