Week Ten – Leaving Shenandoah and Stopping to Smell the Roses

Hey everyone, Victory here! We’ve had an amazing and crazy week of milestones this week. Here’s what’s been going on:

Day 64, Monday May 22: We hit the trail around 7:30am. Nick decided to hike with us, which was great! He did get some pretty huge blisters on the bottoms of his feet by the end of the day, but he still finished the almost 20-mike day without any major issues. We hiked through the Long Green Tunnel for most of the day, enjoying the leaf cover and rare Vista views when we got the chance. Late into the morning we passed another milestone marker, this time in the form of sticks in the rough shape of a ‘900.’ We just walked 900 miles!

In the early afternoon at a small rocky outcrop, Nick had already drank all of his water. Meadow handed her Smartwater bottle to Nick to drink from, and he dropped the cap…it bounced one, two, three times and then disappeared over the edge of a cliff. We all stared at the little cap as it flew away and out of sight and reach forever, our mouths hanging open for several seconds, before all breaking into laughter at the same time. Nick felt bad that Meadow was down a water bottle since we can’t carry water in a bottle with no lid, but we assured him it was easily replaceable. As the afternoon wore on we passed a few patches of garlic mustard with a foul-smelling blue liquid on them. The garlic mustard definitely appeared to be in the final stages of dying, so I was pretty sure the blue stuff was a pesticide, but couldn’t discern any other information. I made a mental note to ask anyone who might know if I ran into them what was going on with the garlic mustard, but nobody appeared for me to interrogate about it. As we neared the end of our planned mileage for the day, we came upon a tent set up with a few plastic totes of food, tables, and chairs. A man with the call sign of Caveman was doing trail magic, and he had homemade chili with cheese, bags of chips, soda, cookies, and–what Providence!–Smartwater bottles. Meadow grabbed a bottle of water to replace the one that Nick had “decapitated” and balance was restored to the universe. Although Caveman had just started to pack up his station when we arrived, he instantly put his food back on the tables, saying “When hikers roll in as I’m packing up, I ALWAYS stop packing!” We chatted with Caveman about the trail and why he was doing trail magic. He said his son Thru-Hiked the AT in 2014, and Caveman has been doing trail magic two to three times a week during peak hiker season ever since. For 9 years! “My wife asked me how long I was planning on doing trail magic since our son hiked almost a decade ago,” he said, imitating his best wife voice. “I’m going to keep doing it until it starts to feel like work, and then I’ll stop.” Caveman was very generous and kind, and it was hard to pull ourselves away even though we were eager to finish our day. We offered to help him clean up, and he allowed us to assist him with collapsing his canopy tent but nothing else. We departed to finish the last short distance for the day, and tumbled out of the forest onto Skyline Drive to meet my mom and longtime friend Frank, our extraction crew for the day. We said our hellos and got caught up as we drove back to the condo for a dinner of my mom’s homemade stromboli–one of my absolute favorite meals! We had a lovely evening visiting before it was finally time for bed.

Day 65, Tuesday May 23: We hit the trail around 7am, a bit of an earlier start than usual. The air temperature was in the 50s, so it was a little chilly but definitely still pleasant. We had very gentle terrain for almost the entire day, for a total of 4,000 feet of elevation gain in the entire 20 miles. The forest we traversed was rather non-descript, and I was surprised by how enclosed and “normal” the forest appeared to be in Shenandoah. Since I knew the Trail roughly followed along Skyline Drive I had thought we would see more open vistas and possibly some of the landmarks in the Park. Instead, the AT winds its way through the humble forest along (but not always directly next to) Skyline Drive, skirting most of the big Shenandoah landmarks like Big Meadow. Relatively early in the morning we discovered that the National Park has a stable and horses that you can take on guided rodes with park staff. We didn’t spring for the horse ride but we did get to say hello to some of the horses since one of the employees let us into the gate. The horses looked like they were well trained (or rather broken-in), and they sniffed around our hands for treats. A dappled gray had the yawns, which made me yawn quite a few times myself. On the way out, I measured myself against the “You must be THIS tall to ride the horses!” sign, and I barely made it by just a few inches. Good to know! We had our second breakfast just outside the stable area as a family of four were being lined up by their equestrian guide, their humble steeds plodding along and stopping to stand in a queue before embarking on their adventure.

Late in the morning we came across a crew of several young National Park Service employees, dressed in their khaki work gear, long gloves and tall boots, and chemical tank backpacks with a familiar-looking blue liquid. What luck! As we approached, I said good morning and asked them if they were spraying the blue stuff on the invasive garlic mustard plants. The young man said that he was spraying pelargonic acid (an herbicide, also called nonanoic acid) on the garlic mustard. He said the smell of the acid is waxy, and that some people have told him that the acid smells like crayons–after he said this I finally made the connection to the “old crayon” smell. The more you know! I thanked the National Park Service employees for the information and for taking such good care of the trail, and we allowed them to return to their work. In the afternoon, Nick and Kyle met back up with us after parking at our end-point for the day and hiking back to meet us. We saw many gypsy moth caterpillars on leaves and dangling on their threads on the trail, which was disgusting. Gypsy moth caterpillars wreak total havoc on trees, attacking and eating its leaves until the tree can sometimes no longer even survive the defoliation. An invasive species and a harmful pest, also completely disgusting to squish, I feel vindicated in my hatred of the nasty lepidoptera. After brushing the stowaway gypsy moth caterpillars off of our hats and backpacks, we piled into the car to head back to base camp. We got back to the condo around 4pm, and after we showered Meadow took a couch nap–I said a nap would cut into my eating time so I elected to stay awake so I could eat snacks instead of sleep. We ordered Chinese food for dinner, and once again had a wonderful night of visiting before dropping off to bed.

Day 66, Wednesday May 24: I emerged from my room to see am entire breakfast spread already on the table, complete with eggs, fruit, English muffins, and a sheet of woven bacon (one of Nick’s specialties). After reminding myself that we could not get used to this kind of pampering, we enjoyed the cooked breakfast in the morning before heading back to the trail. Nick dropped us back off at the trail and then headed back North since he couldn’t stay with us for the whole week. We started hiking a bit later than usual, just after 9am, and we both felt more tired than usual. The day’s hiking seemed to drag on since we didn’t meet any other Thru-Hikers and there were few breaks in the Long Green Tunnel. We did see one large cliff vista where someone braver than I would be had tied a rock climbing rope to a rock and was (I assume) hanging off the edge somewhere. By the time 2pm rolled around, we still had about 8 miles to hike which seemed like quite a long distance indeed. As usual we were able to laugh at our predicament of not exactly feeling like we wanted to walk the distance that we had set for ourselves, at some points becoming hysterical about things that wouldn’t be funny to anyone else…like renaming the Maine state park that contains our final destination and Thru-Hiking holy ground of Mount Katahdin “Buster Baxter State Park.” As the day wore on we took a bathroom break before realizing we were mere feet away from Skyline Drive. Had anyone travelling on the highway turned their heads they would have seen quite a sight indeed, causing us to laugh even more. As we popped out of the forest, laughing with relief that nobody was there, we saw that my mom and Frank had met us at the road crossing before our extraction point to give us some trail magic! We had some salted caramel biscotti,which gave us the boost we needed to finish our last 1.2 miles. We finally got back to the car around 5:30pm after a tough and tiring day of just under 20 miles, but were happy with the distance and that we still completed our goal for the day. We got back to the condo around 7pm and enjoyed our leftover Chinese food for dinner before going to bed early.

Day 67, Thursday May 25: Kyle was able to hike with us again! We had another beautifully crisp morning as we started hiking around 8:30am. Meadow and I had admittedly started skipping the vistas and views as we passed them on the trail, since we had seen either side of the Shenandoah mountains dozens of times. Kyle was excited to see the vistas though, so we stopped at several and dutifully admired the views. A section hiker that we had met several times before passed through, and we chatted with her about our experiences hiking through Shenandoah. We never got her trail name, bit we took to calling her “Fabulous” because she wore a formal dress to hike in, matching her hot pink puffy coat and dangly pink sparkly earrings. Fabulous said that she was finishing up her 500-mile section hike at Harper’s Ferry, and that she was hoping to take the trolley into town at Front Royal at the northern end of the national park. After wishing her well on her section hike, she passed us by and disappeared. The miles passed relatively quickly on this day, and before we knew it we had finished up our 17-mile planned distance around 4pm. When we got back to the car, my mom had picked up three varieties of Keebler elf cookies to offer, which we set upon immediately. After we got back to the condo Meadow and I tackled a plethora of camp chores that we had been putting off all week, such as shaking the leaves and dirt out of our tent and backflushing our water filter. We ate dinner and visited briefly before it was time to go to sleep.

Day 68, Friday May 26: We woke up pretty early and finished packing up our backpacking gear and the rest of stuff in the condo before heading back to the trail for the last time. We only had a few easy miles to hike in Shenandoah National Park before we hit the park boundary. The week had felt like such a whirlwind, and we were so grateful to be absolutely spoiled by the people who came to support us! Despite how wonderful the week was, both Meadow and I agreed that we were still looking forward to returning to our “normal” life of sleeping in a tent each night. I found the balance was easy to strike between enjoying the comforts of home while still being content and even excited by returning to the forest because of the peace and familiarity that awaited us there; being grateful for the opportunity experience both allows me to be excited for both. We did take a bit of luxury with us back to the forest though, in the form of small foam camping pads for us to sit on when we take breaks, etc. Neither of us had started the AT with a sitting pad, but now that we had shed our winter gear from our packs we felt we could spare a few ounces for the comfort item…and they did not disappoint! The seat pads make sitting on rocks and trees much more comfortable, and also helps to keep our pants cleaner from dirt. I haven’t historically sprung for luxury items while backpacking, but the foam sitting pad will probably come with me on every backpacking trip from here on out! After hiking all morning we stumbled upon some trail magic, where Staph (Thru-Hiker from 2014), Backwards (Thru-Hiker from 2022), and Granny Rescue (aspiring backpacker) offered us peanut butter jelly sandwiches along with other snacks and resupply options. We each made a PBJ and had a clementine, and enjoyed chatting with the group. At one point Granny Rescue pulled her camp chair close to us and leaned in to ask us a question. “So I’m going to be going backpacking in a few weeks, and I just have to ask about the ‘hygiene situation.’ What else can I bring besides baby wipes?” We casually mentioned that we don’t even carry baby wipes, washing our hands is a real treat, and we try to shower once a week but our current record was twelve days. As Granny Rescue began to process the horrifying news, she leaned back in her chair with a dead look in her eyes and said absolutely nothing for a long while. Backwards told us that he had absolutely loved Thru-Hiking and his only wish is that it would have taken longer. “Take your time!” he told us. “This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and you don’t want to rush through it just to say that you did it.” This really resonated with both Meadow and I. We certainly don’t have any regrets about how we have done the Trail so far, but now that we have plenty of buffer time before Mount Katahdin closes in mid-October we agreed that we could be more open to enjoying fun things in town or taking rest days, etc. We s see what the trail provides! We eventually tore ourselves away from the eclectic group, and hiked on for another two miles…right into a other trail magic group. Wye Knot was grilling up burgers and dogs, and his friend Rise who had hiked the AT with him in 2015 was also there running backup on the grill. We chatted with this second group, of course eating a hamburger each. Wye Knot regaled us with the story of how he broke his wrist on the AT and then instead of waiting for his wrist to heal he chugged a six-pack of beer before ripping his cast off his own arm. Wye Knot is also legally blind with no peripheral vision, so he fell and broke a rib in Maine and still finished the AT…Ouch! We thanked everyone for their time and attention to the trail magic before schlepping our well-fed selves back to the trail.

We had a pleasant hiking afternoon (albeit tiring due to the added weight of our full packs!) before making it to the shelter after 17 miles, and found it completely empty! An Appalachian Trail Conservancy Ridge Runner was eating her dinner at the picnic table, and it was wonderful to talk to her. Michelle (trial name Popsicle) Thru-Hiked the AT in 2003, and has since hiked thousands of miles of trail all over the country, including most recently the Arizona Trail (which sounded incredible). Michelle said that Thru-Hiking the AT would “ruin us” as long we did it right, meaning that the experience was supposed to change us for the better. After listening to Meadow and I talk about our impressions of the trail and how much we loved it she laughed and said, “yep, you guys are ruined!” Michelle was funny, personable, and so incredibly capable when it came to backpacking, and she had a trace of pink in her blonde-gray hair…in short, she was a total badass. In northern Virginia and further north, the trail clubs have provided a new kind of bear hanging torture: the bear pole. It’s a pole about 10 feet high with hooks at the top for your food, but you have to use a forty-pound shepherds hook to lift your food bag onto the pole hooks…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually prefer to chuck a rope over a tree! We managed to lift our bags onto the bear pole from hell and then went to sleep.

Day 69, Saturday May 27: I awoke in the shelter around 6am, but was so comfortable that I decided to stay in my sleeping bag for as long as possible and I fell asleep again. We both got up around 7am to the glorious sunshine and a crisp but not cold morning. We decided to cook oatmeal for breakfast since we had a nice picnic table to use, and it was delicious. The first few miles of our hike were a little hilly, but there was a mowed grass corridor with hedges of wild vegetation on both sides. The multiflora rose was in full bloom and its effusive scent came to us in waves. Some of the blooming bushes were ten feet tall and created lovely arches over the trail, and bees buzzed all over them.

We passed through Sky Meadow State Park where the open meadows gave us a wide view of the beautiful blue sky. Around 1pm we came across trail magic, hosted by Yard Sale (a thin young man who said he was 20 but could have passed for 12) and his father. Yard Sale had attempted a Thru-Hike in 2022 but had to quit fairly early due to health issues, and he and his dad had enjoyed doing trail magic last year and so we’re doing a reprise. The duo both currently worked at a machine shop, and I could tell that the father was proud of his son for attempting the AT. His trail magic station was well thought-out, and included a saute grill (perfect for GRILLED CHEESE as well as burgers and hot dogs), fresh clementines, granola bars, chocolate, gummies, and various cleaning products. The grill master said that he loves cooking for hikers because nobody EVER complains! My grilled cheese from the griddle was amazing, and it was great to talk to some of the other hikers while we were there. We ran into Shane again; I was relieved to see that he hadn’t starved to death in the Shenandoahs after all. We met Groceries, who wore a tiny bottle terrarium around his neck because he liked to have some of the Earth with him at all times. We also met section hiker Concrete, a Chinese materials scientist who did research on concrete. Concrete told us that he was meeting a friend at the next shelter, who was bringing a bottle of bourbon to celebrate the end of his section hike through the Shenandoah National Park. After eating our sandwiches and snacks, we gave up our seats to other folks who had arrived and said our thanks and goodbyes, and headed back to the trail. We entered “The Rollercoaster” section of trail, which is so named for its bunny hop hills up and over Rover valleys. I expected it to be worse, but the ridges were short at least in comparison to the mountains we had climbed in Georgia or even the week before the Shenandoahs, so it wasn’t completely awful. In the middle of our third bunny hop, we came across a sign that told us we were now 1,000 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia…we had reached the ONE THOUSANDTH mile of the AT. Elated and proud, and tired, we celebrated as usual and took a few photos at the sign.

After passing this enormous milestone, we had another few miles to go before finding a campsite that wasn’t plugged up with day hikers (I had forgotten that it was Memorial Day Weekend!). Our wide open campsite was on the top of Buzzard Hill, and we had a nice albeit tree-obscured view of the sunset on the opposing ridge. As we set up camp, who should join us but Groceries who we had just met at trail magic earlier. I hung the bear bag with little trouble (better than a bear pole!) and helped finish the tent before we turned to dinner. We cooked and ate some tuna noodle casserole while chatting with Groceries…he accidentally dumped half of his cooked macaroni out onto the ground and had to throw it away. He was able to save some of it and seemed more than happy with that, although Meadow and I gave him an Oreo and a candy bar to supplement his sparse dinner anyway. After finishing with our evening chores we climbed into the tent and called it a night.

Day 70, Sunday May 28: We woke up to a cloudy morning and decided to take our time getting packed up. A group of young teenagers were backpacking past our campsite and decided to stop for a yelling break around 7:30am, much to the chagrin of our campsite neighbor Groceries. He made a sassy comment after a few minutes and the boys moved on slowly, leaving a devastating wake of noise. We decided to cook a breakfast of oatmeal, and as we ate (I missed you, Oatmeal!) Groceries told us he typically stays in his tent until 10am or later each day. Yikes! We finally got our own show on the road around 8:30, and quickly realized that we were in for a busy day of Day Hikers. We probably saw over 200 day hikers as we passed through the Roller Coaster, which was certainly unusual for us as we have spent the last several weeks passing few people even in Shenandoah National Park. Most of the Day Hikers were cordial, but the significant increase in sign vandalism, unyielding trail traffic, and bags of dog poop or other trash littering the trail helped me understand why Thru-Hikers often speak ill of day hikers. (Day hiking is awesome–just don’t disrespect the trail!). We hit the Virginia-West Virginia state border early in the afternoon, and it was definitely a surreal moment. We had just finished the LONGEST state on the entire AT! I couldn’t believe how long ago it seemed that we had just gotten to Virginia, and now we were staring at the end of it. As we were ogling the sign, a middle-aged couple stopped and asked if we wanted our photo taken, which we appreciatively agreed to. He asked us if we were Thru-Hikers, and after learning that this was our 70th on trail he looked shocked. “You guys look like you should be going to the prom, not like you’ve been backpacking for 70 days!” This was a little ridiculous but I still appreciated the comment nonetheless!

As we waded through the busy trail and hiked on nothing but rocks, we stopped for a break at the Ravens Rock outcropping, finding just enough spare rock to sit on that wasn’t already covered in other people. After a few more miles we had finished up the Roller Coaster and were plodding along until we could coast to a stop at the shelter. I had felt tired all day for the most part, and within the last few miles of the day my aching feet began to protest. As I went to step over a large log laying across the trail, my front knee twinged with pain and I leaned backwards to relieve some of the pressure…I leaned a little too far backwards and fell back over the log, landing on my pack. I laid there for a few seconds, laughing at myself, before unclipping my hip and chest belts and dragging myself to my feet. I threw my trekking poles and my pack over the log, flopped my unfettered body over it, dug my pack out of the weeds and put it back on, and continued up the trail to finish out the day. I honestly felt lucky that I didn’t really hurt anything, bit was elated to see the shelter! It had a massive deck, plus a detached pavilion and a porch swing!

We enjoyed setting up our sleeping gear quicky Ithe shelter instead of having to set up our tent, and then chatted with Pedals in the shelter. He was sitting on the deck barefoot, and I noticed that he also had swollen bursa on the backs of both off his heels. He also had swollen tendons on the tops of both of his feet, which made his feet look like swollen spheres with toes stocking out of them…I asked him if he had any issues with his Achilles tendons, and he said that was the least of his foot and leg problems! The swelling in my heels has gone down slightly, which seems like an excellent sign. Meadow hung our food on the dreaded bear pole and we went down a long, steep, horrific side trail to collect more water. We spent some time swinging on the porch swing before sleeping bag o’clock hit around 9pm and we went to sleep.

We have a big day planned for tomorrow, as we will be hitting Harper’s Ferry, which is the “psychological halfway point” for the trail. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy HQ is located there as well, which we plan to visit. The week has already been so full of huge milestones and we have several more coming up this week, including getting to Pennsylvania which is also a little unbelievable. Other than being a little physically tired, both Meadow and I are still both feeling strong and are more determined than ever to keep pressing on. Onward!!

Thanks for stopping by!