April in the Shenandoahs

Finally, I get a week off in spring for a section hike!

I had originally planned to do the AT section through Shenandoah National Park with my hiking buddy Mule, but he got called to an out of state work assignment at the last minute.  I was kinda bummed; the Mule is an awesome hiking partner.  He can carry any amount of weight needed (see water carries), has a paramedic background, and is currently an industrial firefighter.  He can literally start a fire in a deluge.  Plus, we have great spiritual conversations on the trail, and he can somehow tolerate staring at my ass all day.  Literally- I’m usually in front.

Nonetheless, I was pretty stoked about this hike.  If successful, at about 110 miles it would be my longest ever hike.  And of course, the Shenandoahs are not only beautiful, but are reputed to have some of the friendlier trail on the AT.  Oh, did I mention the waysides?  Shenandoah National Park is a foodies dream.  The trail passes by several wayside restaurants and a couple of lodges with dining.  Not only does this mean tasty greasy stuff will be available, it also means having to actually carry less food.  Since this was planned as an 8 day hike, that was pretty sweet.

I was on the road after work on Friday April 13th.  I got a late start, and it was close to midnight when I finally pulled in to Stanimal’s 328 Hostel in Waynesboro.  Reputed to be one of the 10 best hostels on the entire AT, and I’d say that reputation is deserved.

The owner (Adam Stanley) is a former thru-hiker.  He and his wife don’t have kids of their own, instead choosing to “parent” their dogs and fellow hikers.  Adam is a great guy, and he got me shuttled off early the next morning to Chester Gap, where a short side trail connects to the AT just beyond Possum’s Rest.

Although it was mid-April, as you can see the trees had yet to leaf out.  It was however a pretty warm day that reached the mid-70’s.  The spring ephemerals such as hepatica and bloodroot were in bloom, but otherwise there was an absence of greenery.

At 3/4 mile I hit the junction with the AT and backtracked a short distance to Possum’s Rest so that I could pick up a permit.  I then reversed and headed back south along the AT.  Most of the day was pretty uneventful, but the climbs of North and South Marshall Mtns. toward the end of the day featured the first of the many spectacular views that I would enjoy during this trip.

At 11.3 miles I hit a parking lot off Skyline Drive in Gravel Springs Gap, and in less than half a mile further I reached Gravel Springs Hut.  Being so close to road access at this hut (SNP shelters are called huts) concerned me, and my worries were soon proven valid.  Not long after I set up in the shelter, a veritable army of tourists showed up to camp, carrying multiple coolers of food and drinks.  Based upon their misadventures setting up their tents, I suspect that this was their first “backpacking” trip.  They left a scandalous amount of food debris in their wake, and it’s a minor miracle that no bears came by that night.

The shelter itself was nice, and the water source was a really well-maintained spring.  Already at the shelter was a young lady section hiker from Missouri who was doing an 800 mile section with her Pomeranian.  That was one tough little dog, and an expert yogi to boot.  Day 1:  11.7 miles.

The next morning started out with a climb over Little Hogback, along with several crossings of Skyline Drive.  After passing Mathews Arm Campground and then the side trail to Range View Cabin, the trail began a gentle descent through open oak woods.  I was cruising along somewhat mindlessly when all of a sudden my primitive brain hit the red button.  I stopped, and then I knew.  I turned around slowly….

Yup, I’d trotted RIGHT past a big ol’ black rat snake sunning itself on a log.  I walked back over to check him out, and did what any intelligent hiker should do when they encounter a snake- I poked at it with my trekking pole.  This greatly displeased Mr. Snake, but there wasn’t much he could do about it other than quickly slither away.

As I continued my descent a hiker approached me with what could only be described as the biggest $hit-eating grin of all time.  “Bionic Man” said he was finally back on the trail after 2 total knee replacements and 1 total shoulder, and he couldn’t have been happier about it.  The fact that he was my age was a bit unnerving (is my body falling apart like that too?).

Not long after saluting Bionic Man, I came out of the woods at Elkwallow Gap, and lo and behold there’s my first wayside, just in time for early lunch.  Note: this is why I carry some cash on the AT.

Right before heading in to order, I met an older NOBO thru-hiker named Gentleman.  What a great dude.  We chatted for 10-15 minutes, at least until my stomach demanded attention.  Inside I placed an order for some greasy food with extra greasiness on the side.  While it cooked, I browsed the store, which obviously catered to hikers.  Lots of good hiker food and beverages, including tall single cans of some excellent malted beverages.  When my order was ready to pick up I gave the cashier an extra $15 and told her that when a man in a blue bandana came in to load him up with a great lunch.  She understood, and winked an affirmative at me.  I went back outside to a picnic table and enjoyed my feast.

Right as I got up to leave, Gentleman returned, and thanked me for his lunch.  It turns out that he was almost out of money, and he appreciated my trail magic very much.  It’s always rewarding to do someone a solid on the trail, and goodness knows I’ve benefited from some of the same myself.  Pay it forward ya know.

The weather started to take a turn for the worse over the back half of the day, and by the time I was walking down an old woods road to Pass Mountain Hut it had not only gotten rather cool, it was drizzling too.  Ah, this is the AT I know and love- cold and wet.

I found one person at the hut ahead of me, a lady about my age named Free Thinker.  And indeed she was.  Although at first I think she was leery of my large male presence, we ended up having some great conversation.  She was an expert on edible plants as well as mushrooms, and had some passionate political views that largely aligned with mine.

As it got cooler and more rain fell, we decided to eat dinner early and turned in before hiker midnight.  Day 2:  13.5 miles.

Apparently Free Thinker is hard of hearing- she claimed I didn’t snore at all.  LOL little did she know that I am one of the most feared of all Snorlaxes on the trail.

It was still drizzling in the morning, and barely above freezing.  Less than 2 days ago I had started my hike by getting sunburned on a warm day, and now it was cold.  Nothing to do but put on my rain jacket (pit zips wide open) and head out into the suffering.

Before long I had crossed US211 in Thornton’s Gap and was staring up at one of the toughest climbs in SNP- the rocky ascent to Mary’s Rock.  This was a climb that several years ago would have beaten me, but now that I weigh less and am in better shape I was able to slowly but steadily slog my way uphill as the cold wind picked up.

Weather conditions were not terribly conducive to taking photos, but I did manage a couple.

Due to the weather, I skipped the side trail to the summit, but got high enough to get one good panoramic view.

As I reached the ridge crest the weather worsened.  Not only did I encounter repeated 40 mph gusts of wind, but it started to sleet.  The next half-mile stretch along the exposed ridge was fairly miserable.  Not long after that I met a small group of hikers at Byrd’s Nest #3 shelter.  The wind was blowing directly into the open front of the shelter, so nobody stayed for long.

The next 6 miles went by in a blur of cold and wind, but I put the pedal to the metal, because there was a carrot in front of me.  I had started early this morning with a wishful goal in mind, and it paid off.  At around 1 PM and after nearly 11 miles, I emerged from the woods into a parking lot at Skyland Lodge.  You see, Skyland has a hiker friendly dining room AND a tap room.

I was ready to race in there but all of a sudden a huge Sprinter van pulled to a stop in front of me and disgorged 20 Korean tourists.  One who spoke limited English ran up to me and asked if I was a thru-hiker.  “No, I’m just hiking the park end-to-end.”  “End-to-end….THRU HIKER!” he exclaimed to the others, most of whom suddenly required a selfie with the brave “thru-hiker.”  I was pretty mangy and ripe at the time, so I probably looked the part.  I no doubt featured in many Korean travel blogs that day.

Eventually though they left and I entered the Skyland dining room.  I had had the weirdest craving for fish and chips all day, and lo and behold, that was on the menu.  My body NEEDED that malt vinegar!

I managed to eat juuust slow enough that right as I finished the waitress came over to tell me that the tap room was now opening, and would I like to have a beer before leaving?  Are you serious Clark?  I dug deep so as to not hurt her feelings and somehow found a way to imbibe a couple of amber ales.  The things one has to do to appear polite.

Two hours have now passed, and I’m finally ready to return to the trail.  But first, I hit the Skyland Get ‘n’ Go or whatever they call it to grab some deli sandwiches for dinner.  The super nice folks even filled up my water bottles and talked about how much they love hikers (“Hikers spend money!”).

Fully sated and anesthetized, I breezed through the remaining miles to Rock Springs Hut.  This one ended up being nearly full due to the weather, but it was per usual a bunch of good folks.  A pair of NOBO thru-hikers named Achilles and Hannibal said they had left Springer Mtn. in early February and got stuck in waist-deep snow in Grayson Highlands in March.  Before I could call BS they produced pics to prove it.  YIKES!  Those dudes are hardcore.  I got to brag about my highest mileage day ever lol.  As it dropped below freezing we all made like hamsters (except for one poor fool in a hammock who didn’t have an underquilt), and I quickly went to sleep after demolishing those deli sandwiches.  Day 3:  15.5 miles.

We awoke to a cold world.  Apparently it got down to 23 degrees overnight.  Our hammock hanging friend soon arrived to inform us that he just spent the worst night of his life.  Without an underquilt, he literally froze his butt.

I forgot to mention all of the deer I saw yesterday between Skyland and Rock Springs….probably 40 or 50, none bothered by my presence.

I got a late start, but that ended up making the timing perfect, because after 4 1/2 miles I reached Big Meadows Wayside just in time for lunch.

Can you believe this?  Three straight days of real food.  I restrained myself this time though, settling for merely a big bowl of chili and FOUR Dr. Peppers (today’s weird craving).  The table was adjacent to an outlet, so I recharged my phone while eating.  Afterwards, I grabbed some dinner sandwiches to go at their deli along with a giant chocolate chip cookie for tomorrow’s breakfast, and got back to the trail.

Four miles later I was at the summit of Hazel Top.  I THINK this pic is from the summit.  The weather had finally started to improve.

I got a taste today of something else hikers love about the Shenandoahs- long stretches of trail made for cruising.  It is common for thru-hikers to bang out 25 mile days here.  Purple monkeys will fly out my butt before I ever hike a 25 mile day, but I still enjoyed these stretches.

About 11 miles into the day I skirted Bearfence Mtn.  It has been described as looking like the back of a Stegosaurus, and that’s actually not a bad description.  Lots of ravens in the area too.

Shortly thereafter I reached Bearfence Mountain Hut.  There were already 4 hikers there, a group from Washington & Lee College.  I think it was their first trip into the backcountry, and they were just starting to make dinner when I arrived.  They had a huge cookpot full of boiling water, to which they subsequently added several different Knorr soup mixes.  Too many of them too, because what was ultimately generated for their dinner was a thick, pasty glop that smelled odd…..I couldn’t quite place it.  They didn’t seem to care, they just poured a ton of hot sauce over it and called it good.

They were hilarious guys.  Degenerating back into college humor is something I rather enjoy.  We were eventually joined by 4 ladies and an older guy, so ultimately we became a group of 10.  Fortunately there was a loft in the shelter and we had room for everyone.

(Later) I awoke in the middle of the night.  Something isn’t right.  I can sense it.  First via my sixth sense, and then via my sense of smell.  I catch a whiff of something absolutely vile, and that’s when I remember the soup smell I couldn’t place earlier.  It’s leeks. DEER LORD THEY USED LEEK SOUP MIX!  Never,  and I mean NEVER eat leek anything if you’re sleeping at a shelter.  The blonde guy is sleeping next to me, and apparently the leek soup concoction has catalyzed an unholy chemical reaction in his lower GI tract.  I mean, he is literally fumigating the shelter.  Mice are leaping away to the safety of fresh air, but as for us hikers, we are trapped.  I roll the other way, but it’s a heavy gas, and it’s tentacles follow me, crawling along the floor of the shelter like those aliens in War of the Worlds.  Surely this is what President Bush thought the Iraqis had.  I catch another lungful that practically paralyzes me and I bark an accusing whisper at Blondie.  He whimpers an apology- he is clearly in great torment.  Soon my other shelter mates are overcome as well.  The stream of profanities issued from the women in the loft is quite entertaining.  There are frantically barked warnings for nobody to use a lighter lest we all perish.

We all have a good laugh about it in the morning while picking up mice carcasses and sweeping away dead flies and wasps.  Day 4:  12.0 miles.

Fortunately, my semi-asphyxiated self had an easy day planned for today.  I still got out of camp by 8:30 and was welcomed by yet more friendly Shenandoah trail.

After passing the Pocosin Cabin and cameling up at its sweet piped spring, I ascended via switchbacks to rewarding views.

Interestingly, I met 4 nice Holiness ladies at this viewpoint, and they were friendly enough to chat for a few minutes despite my stinky male presence interrupting their girl time.

Several miles later I stopped for a lunch break at South River Falls Picnic Area.  Sadly, their faucets weren’t turned on yet, but they did have one of the greatest of trail luxuries- real toilets!

The next 6 miles were fairly uneventful, with two crossings of Skyline Dr. later in the day.  Late in the afternoon, I found the short spur trail to Hightop Hut.

I had several shelter companions this night, including a father/daughter pair doing a long section hike.  This was the evening I prepared my famous salmon sliders for dinner (see the post in the Recipes section).  The sunset through the trees was really pretty, and then the owls came out in full force.  What with there being no flatulent college students in this particular shelter, sleep came easily.  Day 5:  12.9 miles.

Due to the odd spacing of huts in Shenandoah National Park, I elected to only hike 8 miles the next day.  The alternative- 21 miles- was something I wasn’t sure I could pull off.  So I slept in a bit later and didn’t get moving until 9:00.  Minor summits of Little Roundtop and Flattop Mountains during the first 5 miles, and then several leisurely miles before reaching Pinefield Hut.  I arrived shortly after lunch and had it to myself for a while, but eventually 6-7 other folks showed up.

Pinefield Hut had a really neat location, with several big pine trees adjacent to it and a nicely flowing stream just in front of the shelter.

Two of my shelter mates had interesting stories.  They were both young women, one of whom was a lawyer and the other a CPA.  They had been grinding away for big firms, and had each separately decided screw this, and had quit to hike the A.T.  I had to admire that.  Working your buns off to make other people money sucks.  I hope they found answers on the trail.  Day 6:  8.3 miles.

I got an early start the next morning.  Not only did I have a high mileage day planned (for me, at least) I had to be somewhere by late morning.

Early in the morning I had an interesting view.

A short while later I hit the junction with the Fraser Discovery Loop trail, which led me to my morning destination- Loft Mountain Wayside.  Sadly, the last one for me on this trip.  My hiker hunger had kicked in and I was craving a REAL breakfast.  No more granola bars for me.  I think I ordered one of everything on their menu.  3 eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, sausage, and a breakfast sammich, along with water, OJ and coffee.

I charged my phone while dining, and left in a state of bliss

The return leg of the Fraser Loop kinda sucked, a bit of an uphill muddy scramble, but once back on the AT life was good.   Several miles later I found yet another great panoramic view.  One thing nice about hiking before leafout is that the views were better.

It was starting to get warm again, and suddenly I realized that I was funky.  Not George Clinton funky, more like hobo funky.  Luckily, I soon came upon the Dundo Picnic Area.  Not only did it have a real toilet, their water was on!  I took advantage of the opportunity to strip in the bathroom and do some laundry in a gallon ziploc.  I emerged wearing my backup underwear, nothing else.  It was a good thing my clothes dried in the sun within 30 minutes before anyone could report the presence of a streaker to the rangers.  I changed back into fresh-smelling dry clothes and continued on, reinvigorated and ready for the ascent of Blackrock Mountain.

The summit of Blackrock Mountain almost looks like an alien landscape.  The huge cubes of black basalt rock seem out of place, yet here they are in mass quantities.

The trail crew that did the work up here deserves some kind of award.  They poured TONS of pea gravel to create a relatively flat footpath circling around the summit.

The views as you circled the summit were possibly the best of the entire journey.

Descending the other side, the trail crossed the Trayfoot Mtn. Trail, and things got confusing due to a lack of white blazes.  I guessed correctly, and finally found the 0.2 mile spur that descended steeply to Blackrock Hut.

There was a piped spring a few yards in front of the hut, but it was hidden.  You had to listen for the flow of water to find it.  There were several other familiar faces from the previous night at the hut, and later in the evening my lady lawyer friend joined us too.  All of us actually took the trouble to build the first fire of the trip and stayed up late shooting the bull and sharing some of the bourbon I’d been carrying.  It’s nice to have trail friends who will help you reduce pack weight like that.  It turned out that everybody else had seen a bear that day.  Everyone but me.  I didn’t understand that.  I mean, I had smelled like a bear for most of the day.  Day 7:  13.6 miles.

The next morning heralded another sunny day.  After filling up on water, I headed out onto quiet, empty trail.  I had a couple more crossings of Skyline Drive early in the day but never saw another soul or car.

Somewhere later in the day (I forgot where exactly) I had one of the last good views of the trip.

Well into the afternoon I crossed the South Fork Moormans River, possibly the largest body of water I saw on this hike.  Being primarily a ridge walk, the AT in SNP crosses surprisingly few streams.  I then had a somewhat steep uphill stretch that went under an ugly power line, and then continued a rocky uphill stretch until finally meeting the 0.3 mile spur trail to Calf Mountain Shelter.

Calf Mountain Shelter looked like it saw a lot of use, which it does being the first shelter NOBO thru-hikers encounter in the Shenandoahs.  My lady lawyer friend showed up 30 minutes later, and as night fell her boyfriend arrived.  Turns out he hikes in to resupply her on the weekends- that is true top notch trail support for your SO.  BTW, she was in the midst of a flip-flop, which is why she was SOBO.  He was an awesome guy, and had spent time hiking in the Wind River Range (which I had done the previous fall).  We bonded over our Wyoming tales.  Well, someone got a fire going while we were talking, and then his girlfriend joined us as it got dark.  After we finished dinner, he said “pssst, wanna share this?”  I was half afraid he was going to produce a bag of herb, but instead he slid something else out of his pocket.  “The most important resupply item” he stated solemnly.  A bottle of Jack.  We slept VERY well that night.  Day 8:  11.6 miles.

I was up and packed early the next morning, anxious to complete this hike and get back home to my family.  It didn’t take long to leave the national park boundary and start hiking through private lands.  The forest ended, and a mishmash of secondary growth and overgrown fields took its place.

I passed a strange tree along the way that looked like it belonged in a Monty Python movie.

The trail then opened up into some pastures.  The gentle downhill grade and grassy tread made for some quick time.

Before I knew it I was walking down the last little bit of Skyline Drive to the bridge over I-64 and meeting my shuttle driver.  Back at Stanimal’s I retrieved my Expedition, thanked him for some great service, and headed home shortly after lunch.

Reflecting back, this was an immensely enjoyable hike.  I had lost 30 lbs. in the months prior, and that had noticeably improved my hiking ability.  It was like removing a 30 lb. tub of lard from my pack.  My joints hurt less, and I had better stamina.  I left highly motivated to stay in at least this level of fitness.  My gear choices, particularly in regards to clothing, had been spot on too.  I finally felt like a real hiker.  Day 9:  8.0 miles.  Total Miles 107.1.