Educated Escape

Yesterday was both a really cool and a really annoying hike. I twisted my knee sliding down a rock scramble which didn't hurt initially because I was still climbing for the morning but when we got afternoon the trail went downhill and I began to feel it. I ended up getting into town a couple hours behind everyone else because of my slow pace.  The trail itself was beautiful. There were several stream crossings, a couple waterfalls with swimming holes and some old ruins scattered about. I saw a bunch of deer but just missed the two bears that were on the trail.  The town of Waynesboro is really accommodating to hikers. The list of free shuttles from the trail is longer than the lists of paid shuttles in most towns. They have a nice hiker park that they let us stay in for free and the YMCA allows us to use their showers for free. One thing I really appreciate about the town is that while walking through the lower income neighborhoods I notice that people are still taking good ca...

We finally arrived! Waynesboro, Virginia.  This is definitely one of the coolest trail towns I've seen. It's one of the bigger ones, so there is a ton to do! Last night we got a ride into town and set up in their public park, where they allow hikers to camp. We got our much needed free shower at the local YMCA, and walked to a laundromat to clean our smelly clothes.  After laundry, we made a quick beer run and sat around chatting with other hikers until around 11:00.  We decided to take another zero day before we start the Shenandoahs, as there is alot to do in Waynesboro. We plan on playing pick up basketball with some hikers at the YMCA, maybe taking a swim, doing our resupply, eating at Ming's Chinese Buffet (Amazing place, by the way) for the second time, and getting some much needed relaxation time.    Ruins of an old home we came across yesterday.    They have these cool suspension bridges at different places on the trail!

Everything was damp when we woke up this morning. We stayed in the trees at the brewery in a spot for hikers. It was sheltered pretty well but it rained a lot so it couldn't offer a ton or protection. I went full hiker trash and spread all my gear out on the picnic tables at the brewery while I ate breakfast. It worked really well and my gear got mostly dried which is a huge morale boost.  The brewery, while expensive for supper, served an amazing hiker breakfast for 5$. It included: eggs, fruit, bacon, potatoes, toast, and coffee. I also order an extra 4 slices of toast and a beer. It was easily the top breakfast of the trip so far. The brewery also gave all of us hikers a free hat.  After breakfast my gear was dry so I changed just in time for us to head out with an awesome family who shuttled us back to the trail. Even better they had a truck so we could all sit in the back and "air out", there's a shower on the agenda for tomorrow night for sure. We made it back t...

We made it through the storm last night. I guess the next shelter past where we stayed last night had hail, more than the single piece that we got. I awoke this morning to a beautiful sunrise. I was one of the first awake to the peaceful morning, it started off a beautiful day. That changed.  We started off toward the next shelter on a mountain known as The Priest. The cool thing about the Priest is that in the log book at the shelter hikers confess their Trail sins. It's a great laugh and had us all in a good mood as we began the brutal descent. The morning had been cloudy and we were hiking through another cloud forest. At one point the sun came out and when I looked out at the view I saw clouds beneath us. I'm really kicking myself for not taking a picture. Countinuing on the trail we ran into the cloud again and we kept descending. Then it seemed that we all of a sudden broke to below the clouds and it started pouring down rain. I ran down the rest of the trail. I think it ...

Trail day 16 - May 28, 2017 Spy rock to Devils Backbone Brewery 8.6 miles Guess what! It rained again.  Hello darkness my old friend. Everything I own is once again wet! The morning started out great. We got a few miles under our belt and reached the Priest. It's a shelter name, however in the log book for the shelter the hikers have been using it to confess their sins on the trail! Stuff like peeing within 250 feet of a water source. (Gross)  Anyways, the priest shelter is followed by a 4 point something mile downhill that is steep and rocky. Midway thru our descent, it downpoured. Luckily Paul and Tyler, two day hikers we met offered us cold beer and a ride to Devils Backbone brewery! It is a hiker owned brewery and they let you camp in the woods next to the brewery. So we sat down and blew through way too much money on food and beer! It was a good day.  Tried to start a fire, but got rained on again. Going to try to hitch hike back to the trail tomorrow, and do our las...

Our campsite last night was amazing. There was a wonderful creak that went by giving a nice ambiance for a great night sleep. The creak was Brown Creak and there were some ruins of an old community along the creek at different places. I guess the community was made up of freed slaves that sharecropped in the area. I didn't get any pictures of the ruins but I thought I would share the campsite with everyone.    I started off the morning with a huge climb and I couldn't get in the groove. It was miserable this morning. By the time I reached the top I wanted to throw in the towel, but the view from Bald Knob and a Boston Creme honeybun quickly lifted my spirits. The rest of the day wasn't bad though. We had some pretty cool views this afternoon. We eventually made camp at Spy Rock, finding what might have been the last spots for miles. There are a ton of weekend hikers and Boy Scouts out, I guess it should be expected since it is a holiday weekend.  We finished off the day t...

Trail day 14 - May 26, 2017 Mile 784.8 - Mile 804.8 20 miles Glasgow, VA to Johns creek shelter 5163.7 feet ascending 4456 feet descending Our first twenty mile day! Today started off great. Prof got his coffee, and it wasn't raining! We got a hitch from town to the trail fairly quickly. When we got to the trail head there was a couple handing out gatorade! A mile down the trail there was a cooler sitting there. Wouldn't you know It, theres beer inside! Getting trail magic is always a great way to improve your hike.    We seemingly climbed all morning. Who would have guessed. We ate lunch on top of Bluff Mountain, with a view   The afternoon got hot, and it was mostly downhill. We stopped around 16 miles in looking for a camp with no luck. We ended up hiking the full 20 to the shelter, had a late dinner, chatted with the hikers and went to bed. Feet are definitely hurting, and it was a little rough getting focused again after our zero day yesterday. We start off tomorrow ...

Today had its highs and its lows. One high is  that we did our first 20 mile day! That might also be a low. I'll let you know how I feel in the morning.  We started the morning late, not even getting to the trail until 10. We had to hitchhike to the trail from Glasgow. Luckily Josh gave us a hitch. He does some hiking but his passion in white water rafting. We learned a bunch about it during the 10 minute drive. He also shared some cool historical and ecological facts about the area. We really appreciated the ride, our first trail magic of the day.  When we got to trail at the Foot Bridge (named in honor of a trail supporter Mr. Foot) we came across our second batch of trail magic. Some folks from a nearby hydroelectric dam had brought a cooler of pop and Gatorade to share. The Gatorade was a great way to start off what was to become a warm day. After about a half mile on the trail we came to the reason we zeroed yesterday. There was a bridge over a creek that had flooded...

So it's been a few days... Mostly due to the copious amounts of rain we've been getting! It makes you not want to do much when you get to camp. To sum up the past few days: rain, cold, climbing, descending, repeat.  Anyways, we're staying at Stanimals 328 hostel in Glasgow in order to dry out our gear and rest up before the tough few days we have coming up.    We played board games with some of the other hikers, Backtrack, Shuffles, and No K.  The plan today is to sleep in, resupply on food, head to the post office, and get another hot meal in us. The town of Glasgow has a shelter for all the hikers that is free to use, so we will sleep there tonight to wait out some of the rain.  Hopefully we will continue to have good service so we can keep posting!

Today was all up hill. We climbed Apple Orchard Mt.  I woke up this morning surprised that it hadn't rained in the night. I quickly got going taking advantage of the dry conditions to get my gear packed away. As I started taking down my hammock I felt the first rain drops. We quickly hit the trail clad in our rain gear but it soon subsided leaving us sweating on the first portion of the climb. We continued on up the hill until we reached lunch. Having an uneventful morning in general. We stopped for lunch at a shelter and quickly grew cold, but warmed back up on the trail once we got moving again.  It started raining late in the afternoon as we were doing the final leg up to the summit of the mountain. We hiked into the clouds. I would love to post a cool picture of the view at the top but we weren't given much of a view. We only had a couple hundred feet of visibility at best. As we we're coming off of the summit we did go through a cool rock formation that had a boulder p...

The rain continued through the night and into this morning. Everything was soaked this morning even if it didn't get rained on it was still wet. I probably carried and extra 3 lbs because of the dampness. The cool weather was nice for hiking right away this morning although it was a bit slippery. The first half of the day was a bit eerie though because there was a couple low clouds that were choking the mountain tops. At one point I walked out from the trail on to a road that was supposed to have scenic overlooks on either side. I though I was going to walk off the edge of the world.    There was a beauty to the dampness though. All the flowers and plants had such healthy and alive colors that I stooped to appreciate them several times.    As the morning continued on the fog and clouds passed and I got a chance to see the view I had been missing. It seems like I'm rewarded at least once a day with a view that amazes me.    Soon after the sun came out and it...

So Doc decided to elbow me in the throat last night for some reason. I guess I won't try cuddling with him again. Other than that the night stay in the Howard Johnson was great. Laundry in the bathtub worked out well but none of our clothes were dry by morning. I tried drying mine on the outside of my pack as I walked today but it's way too damp for that to work even a little bit.  The continental breakfast was great this morning. I think I had two rounds of biscuits and gravy and five bagels. The trail was pretty easy today just an average climb with some small descents mixed in. With the great breakfast and the nice trail we booked it, doing 11 miles in a little over 4 hours with a stop for lunch in there as well.  Today while hiking we came across a couple cool things. We saw our first deer on the trail, surprising us that it took this long. It was a young buck just outside of town    Later in the afternoon we came across three different little orange lizards. The...

Trail day 9 - May 21, 2017 Mile 728.1 - Mile 739.3 Daleville VA - Wilson Creek Shelter 11.2 Miles Total ascent: 2952.8 feet Total descent 2360.6 feet Yeah, yeah I didn't post yesterday. Something about staying back in the real world makes me not want to write! Anyways.  Started off the day right with a continental breakfast. Chatted quite a bit with Bad News, the hiker we met last night. Packed up, and hit the trail around ten. It was overall a pretty uneventful day! We went 7.3 miles before we looked at a map or took a break. It feels good to finally have a rhythm and good pace going with our hiking.    We saw a bunch of these tiny orange lizards. No clue what they are though.    Ran across a bunch of streams with big pools filled with tiny fish in them.  Got to the shelter and set up and took a much needed nap. I think both of our feet are hurting pretty badly. It doesn't help that the weather switched from very hot to chilly. It's mid fifties in town, so...

It rained in the night but my tarp worked so I stayed dry! I used the excuse as my reason to sleep in. We didn't get in the trail until 9 but we busted out some miles today, I think 16 done by 4 pm.  The morning offered a great view off of Tinker cliffs.    After the cliffs we decided to push all the way into town. Another thunderstorm caught us in tfe afternoon for long enough to make the humidity even higher.  Eventually we made it to town and got a big discount on a room at the Howard Johnson motel. We resupplied at the Kroger and got supper at the Three Little Pigs in Daleville. The food was great and they even gave us a free desert for hikers. It was a great tasting banana pudding!  We met Bad News when we first got to the restaurant. He's a recent high school graduate who is thru hiking before going to college. He's a cool guy and it's always fun to swap hiking stories. We invited him to split the motel room with us making it even cheaper.  Well I'm t...

After staying up until midnight (the actual one not the hiker midnight) we woke up to a fresh pot of coffee and I had my first caffeine in a week! Absolutely amazing!  I ate the leftover pizza from yesterday at breakfast and hung out with the other hikers, some a buzz with talk of how to hitch to Trail Days.  Last night will for sure be one of the best nights of this trip swapping stories with people from such a varied background was extremely interesting, and we were all brought together by the trail. A group of seven of us guys went out to eat last night and we demolished the meal easily eating triple servings of everything between us. Hiker hunger was in full swing! We then stopped at the store on the way back for a last minute resupply and came across another group of hikers. It's a cool experience seeing how quick hikers connect with each other out here, it's like we have all been friends for years. I couldn't help but notice how rag tag we looked though with some of u...

Trail day 6 - May 19, 2017 Four Pines Hostel to Campbell Shelter Mile 702.4 - Mile 712.7 10.3 miles Sorry I skipped yesterday! We were enjoying our time in the hostel so much I skipped a post. To sum up our day: got in early, petted some dogs, ate pizza, drank beer, ate a huge dinner, chatted with new friends, and made a massive fire! Anyways, the miles seemed to fly by today which is unusual. We went 10.3 I believe, and it was hot and humid again. However we had a thunderstorm roll through and it was LOUDDDDD. Being on the mountain during that was a little scary, and we were climbing up. The rain cooled us off and got rid of some of the humidity. We then stopped at Mcaffes Knob.    Not much to say about it except for wow.    Bonus picture of everyone hanging around the hostel! We got to camp early which allowed us some down time to nap, and read a book. We felt like we could have pushed a few more miles, but I'm glad we decided to stay. Why rush it?   The hoste...

Wow what a sunrise this morning. Starting off up there on Dragons Tooth was certainly a cool experience. I'm also happy that we stayed up there because that climb down was rough. Often we had to use our hands to climb down over bolders. On the way down we came across several day-hikers who were climbing up to the Tooth. The girls were wearing perfume and the guys had on deodorant for sure and they smelled way better than we did. Luckily we got to fix that today with ashower  and wash of our clothes at 4 Pines Hostel. We made it to the hostel about 10 am after a short three miles hike this morning, making today a nearo (near zero).  When we walked up we were immediately welcomed into the energy. A large group of hikers were already here and they were gearing up to head down to Damascus for Trail Days. After talking for a while we found out the owner of the hostel had left for Trail Days already. They left two other hikers Midnight, and Buttercup in charge. Oh and can't forget t...

Tonight I was sitting in my hammock eating instant mashed potatoes and drinking a propel packet mixed into water and realized that this was a perfect moment. There's been a couple so far on this hike but this was by far the best.  In case you havnt noticed by now I leave a lot of the technical data posts to Doc and I just write what I feel like for the day. But anyway we went about 14.3 miles with a big climb to start the morning and another one that was way more rocky in the afternoon. I'll cover the down hill in a moment. First the cool part, we made it to dragons tooth tonight! We also had one other cool sight today at the top of our morning climb up and over Brush Mountain we came across the Auddie Murphy memorial site near where he died in a plane crash. For those who don't know he was the most decorated veteran of WWII, a true American hero. Around it were momentos and tokens in tribute to the brave man and all the hikers we were with, ourselves as well, placed a rock...

Trail day 5 - May 17, 2017 Niday shelter to Dragons tooth Mile 685.6 to mile 699.9 14.3 miles Title.  Wow what a day. Stayed at Niday shelter last night and woke up around 7:30 this morning. Today was mostly uphill and once again, it was scorching hot! We were drenched in sweat all day. We had a long winding uphill on brush mountain, and came down to a creek for lunch. My first thought was: I need a bath. So we jumped in and cleaned off! The water was freezing, however. Too bad the bath was worthless, as we were once again drenched in sweat on the next uphill. We were walking up to dragons tooth. It's a giant stone monolith on the edge of a cliff.    This is the view from my hammock spot tonight! Dragons tooth is on the right. And we also climbed it!   It was a scary climb down, as a fall would mean serious injury if not death. (Sorry mom) This is by far the best campsite I've stayed at due to the views and landscape. We have the whole place to ourselves too! This is...

Bearly missed a bear today 😂 I'm sorry about that pun (not really) So I didn't post yesterday because I was exhausted and fell asleep but nothing cool happened except a couple views but I covered that in my instagram post. Today however was interesting.  We started off the morning filling up our water next to a cool stream at last nights campsite. Then started a hike of variety that lasted all 12.5 miles today (we wussed out compared to our 16.5 the other day). We initially dropped down through some awesome mountain meadows and walking through pastures definitely reminded me of home, if SD had hills. We crossed a low point that had log footpaths to keep us out of a slough then over a bridge to see our first snake of the day. I didn't get a good glance but I think it was a tiny rat snake. We continued on passed the Keffer Oak which is the second oldest tree on the AT. I think it was something like 18 foot in circumference.    -This photo was taking from a little ways upth...

Trail day 4 - May 16, 2017 Mile 673.2 - Mile 685.6 Laurel creek shelter to Niday shelter 12.4 miles Wow was it hot out today We got going late morning after refilling our water bottles. The highlight of the morning was walking a mile or two through a giant pasture! We had some great views of the surrounding mountains.    A little later on we crossed the second oldest tree on the AT! It's over 300 years old and 18 feet around.    I never knew I could be so fascinated with a tree! After this we had a grueling climb up a steep mountain side. After 3 or 4 breaks we made it up and had a deceptively easy ridgewalk ahead of us for the afternoon. Our first hint at the misery that awaited us was the fact that there was no water for the next 6-7ish miles. The second was the fact that it was over 80 degrees out. Our easy walk turned into a blazing hot rock scramble over the mountain tops in direct sunlight! So much for the green tunnel. While the views were fantastic up there, ...

Trail day 3 - May 15, 2017 Mile 658.6 - 673.2 Baileys gap shelter to Laurel creek shelter 14.6 miles Good news! We pet a dog today! Woke up a little late today, and didn't get on the trail until close to 9. We hadn't had service all day so we checked our phones and called our mothers to let them know we weren't dead! (Yet) our hike today was much harder terrain wise than our hike yesterday, thus we hiked less miles. We started off pretty easy with some PUDS (Pointless ups and downs) and then came to a very long downhill. The downhill portions hurt your knees, so we were feeling sore coming into lunch. After lunch we had a 2.5 mile, 2500 feet in elevation uphill climb that was absolutely brutal. It was 77 degrees out mid afternoon and the trail I swear seemed vertical to us. Oh and did I mention there were rocks everywhere? The type of rock large enough that it disrupts your hiking rhythm, and gives you some gnarly blisters! Nevertheless, we powered through and came on to Ke...

Trail day 2 - May 14, 2017 Rice field shelter to Bailey gap shelter Mile 643.1 - 656.6  16.5 miles Boy was today a long one! We found out last night we're going to have barely enough food to get to our first resupply. So we added on a few more miles than we planned. Today being the first of these big mile days. We started with really nice trail today! Nice and flat, and a few good views. However, the day ended with a steep, 1.5 mile uphill climb which drained us both. I don't think either of us is in the mood to write much, and we have no service what-so-ever so this post will be going up tomorrow. In fact, we didn't even cross a road today. We were very much in the wilderness.  We took very few photos so I will put up what I have! Happy mothers day to all the moms out there, and especially to my mother! I'm sorry I couldn't call I swear I had no service. Hopefully I have more to say tomorrow, but it is 8:30 (hiker midnight) and I'm off to bed.   We climbed a ro...

I am now double checking the map with Doc when we plan for food and resupplies. We originally planned to to start with 8-10 mile days to get our trail legs under us before we start pushing big miles. Today, day 2 we did 16.5 miles. With two brutal claims and one brutal down hill (down hills suck so much more, I'll explain later) to finish at a pretty campsite not quite to the summit of a ridge. The last mile destroyed us.  I'll start from the beginning of the day though. It was a decent night until about 3am when the wind picked up and switched directions to blow right under my tarp and into my hammock. The disrupted sleep caused me to sleep in a little longer than Doc wanted and he was hurrying me out of the campsite, so much so that I almost forgot my cook system. Once we got on the trail the cool weather offered us a beautiful morning following the ridgeline. It was about 45 when we started (got in the 30s last night) although it got up to around 70 today. We stopped for a s...

And so it begins! It's so great to finally be out here. After months of preparation and dreaming we finally are on our way. What a day to start with too! It was done raining this morning when we began but stil overcast. We left the hostel we stayed at last night and went to McDonald's for breakfast. We filled up on water and then went off to walk through town to the trail. We got a hitch from an awesome guy named Joe which saved us from a long walk (walking in town is so much worse that on the trail lol) and before we knew it we were waving goodbye and heading up the trail.    We then hiked up hill for almost 7 miles, a brutal climb to start with but worth it when we made it to the top of the ridge. With all the rain they have been getting down here the trail was striped with rivulets. They were so beautiful both to see and also to hear as you approached. I'll be posting a video of some when I get wifi. It's funny how although mother nature can be brutal she rewards you...

Trail day 1 Mile 635.4 - 642.1 Narrows parking area to Rice field shelter. 6.7 miles.  First day on the trail was a massive success. Fast day of hiking today, started around 11:00 and ended around 2:00. Got to the shelter which is on a massive bald (top of the mountain has no trees) and it's gorgeous up here! It is however very windy. Met two hikers, Teach and Mass, who were very pleasant to be around.    We sat around, ate lunch, and had a sip of whiskey in the shelter! The hike today was gorgeous, sunny and mid 60s. We crossed at least a dozen tiny streams that resulted from the rainfall the past week.      Oh, and how could I forget our McDonalds breakfast?   Tonight we hope to take some photos of the sunset and the view from this mountain top, and maybe see some stars!    Looking down on the rest of the world! That's West Virginia down there.    The sunset we saw was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I will not ...