Today is National Trails Day. Had we stayed at Mountain Home Cabbin another day, we could have gotten free hamburgers at the trailhead parking lot. Believe me, I considered staying, just for that. Being male, logic prevailed: $20 worth of free food vs. $60 for another night just didn’t make economic sense. If we have any road crossings today, we might just run into some magic.
Not even a mile after we left the shelter, we saw a sign on a side trail—“magic ahead.” I like free stuff…a lot, but I’m also very conservative with my legs these days since we still have almost 1200 miles to go. I tried to talk Bunny into walking down the trail to see how far it was and then decide if it was worth it. She didn’t buy into the idea like I had hoped. Instead, I started walking down the trail until I could hear talking. I decided it was close enough to go for it and called back to Bunny to come on.
Lady Bling hiked the trail last year. She’s a traveling nurse and just finished a contract, so she bought an airplane ticket, tons of food, and headed to the AT. She actually lives in Texas, so she outlayed a lot of $ to give us trail magic. Breakfast had been light since Bunny insisted on having some as well. I had two turkey and avocado sandwiches, a coke, two bags of chips, some candy, 4 chewy chocolate chip cookies, and a Gatorade. I thought this might be enough to carry me through to lunch in another hour or two. More importantly, I had run out of toilet paper last night and she gave me a new roll. Lady Bling is my hero du jour.
The walk the rest of the morning wasn’t bad at all—other than a little bit of rain. We spent a few miles in Sky Meadows State Park. State Parks can be counted on to be tame and easy, even in Virginia. After the park, we crossed a fairly busy highway and then stopped for a break and water. It had stopped raining and was just hot. Four overnighters passed us just as we sat down. They were doing just a 14 mile section tonight and tomorrow.
We passed the group on the way to Rod Hollow Shelter where we stopped for lunch. I love weekend hikers and section hikers just starting out. Most thru-hikers don’t like them because they tend to crowd shelters, be noisy, and smell clean; the trifecta of annoyances. I like them because we can usually walk faster than they do, so we get to experience passing people which is a rarity for us. In spite of hiking with someone named Bunny, we have been passed by two tortoises, three turtles, and a tortuga (Spanish for turtle). Bugs Bunny is rolling over in his grave.
Not a mile after the shelter, we entered the roller coaster. In spite of the name, it’s not really bad at all unless you buy into the hype. Bunny bought the hype—hook, line, and sinker. We have been climbing up to 3000’ up and down in a 7 miles section pretty regularly. With the roller coaster, the average climb is around 500’ with approximately 6 climbs per 7 mile section. This is actually easier on us than normal if you don’t psyche yourself out. Bunny averaged about 1 mph when we have been averaging twice that through most of VA.
To add to Bunny’s mental woes, it started to storm and pour. The trail became a stream that we were walking in. If you were walking in the direction of water flow, you knew you were headed downhill. If you were walking opposite of water flow, you were climbing. If the water wasn’t moving relative to you, one of two possibilities were theoretically possible: 1) you were on a level section of trail (not at all likely), or 2) you have fallen and are traveling very fast downhill. To be sure which case it is, you must lift your eyes from the trail and see if the trees are stationary or moving.
A major milestone occurred today, we passed the 1000 mile mark in heavy rain. We were afraid that with the water flowing so quickly down the trail it might have washed the mark away. To be safe, we walked the final few tenths of a mile with the Guthook App open. The stone marker was far enough above the wash to survive. About a mile later, we came up to a sign on a tree that was from a few years ago. The trail length changes every year, so all the milestones do as well.
We came to the turn for Sam Moore Shelter but passed it up to head to Bears Den Hostel. The hostel was only another 3 miles ahead, but it was already getting a little dark. We’ve have steady rain all afternoon with a couple of very heavy bursts. I guess we’ve gotten well over 3-4” of rain today. Every stream has been a creek and every creek has been a river and every river has become a death sentence if there isn’t a bridge.
So far this season, there have been 5 deaths on the AT. One poor guy had a heart attack on top of Springer Mountain on his first day. There was another heart attack further north. With all the blizzards in March and April, two people died from hypothermia. Most recently, on May 8, a young sobo hiker in Maine came to the Kennebec River where the ATC provides a canoe to carry hikers across. The canoe stops at 6 every night. The kid didn’t want to wait until morning so he decided to swim. They found his body almost 3 weeks later.
We came to an extremely swollen creek that I would call a raging river. The water was flowing so loud and strong that we couldn’t even talk to each other near it. It was easily 6’ deep and raging. There was a fallen tree downstream that I headed for. As I was climbing on, I slipped. Much to her family’s dismay, Bunny refused to allow me to become #6 for this year. We ended up turning around and hiking the 700’ up and down over a mile and a half back to the Sam Moore Shelter.
By the time we rolled in, it was pitch black. I wouldn’t do anything to set up camp until we ate. I checked the shelter and it looked full so we would have to set up our tent in the dark. After eating, we got lucky and had a lull in the rain to set up camp. When we got all settled in, we were talking and said the creek might drop enough over night to cross it in the morning if it stops raining. That was when the third major downpour of the day started. Looks like we’ll get to sleep in.
EFG