Educated Escape

Yea I didn't push my speed today like Doc. I might have stopped for coffee in the afternoon. 💁‍♂️ In my defense it was to get out of the rain.  Within minutes of waking up this morning in the campground I saw 2 cubs playing with their mother babysitting and slowly guiding them away from the road. Then about fifteen minutes later the biggest bear that either Doc or I had seen yet came lumbering across where the other bears had just been. I watched all of this from my hammock while I ate breakfast. They were too far away for me to get a picture though. I saw one more bear this afternoon but again I couldn't get a picture.  The day was kind of dreary with it drizzling and sprinkling in the morning, downpouring after lunch, and then it was overcast, warm, and humid in the afternoon. I got a couple good views in the breaks between the clouds but most of the views I couldn't see much.    After a couple hitches I eventually made it into Luray for a resupply. The nice girls...

Tonight we're staying at the Open Arms Hostel in Luray, VA. I thought since I'll have wifi I'd post some unseen photos of our trip! A quick summary of today was....  17 miles with no breaks. It was drizzling all day, but nothing too serious. No exciting views due to hiking in a cloud. I did 17 miles in about five and a half hours. Not bad pace! Anyways here's some photos starting from the begining of our trip.    Me on the train down to Blacksburg. Look how clean my gear was!   Panoramic view of our campsite on the very first night.  Took a quick snack break to enjoy the view on day 2.    Morning of day four I believe. The days started to blend together!     There were some awesome hikes through pastures!   The memorial of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in WWII.    I honestly can't remember when I took this photo. These exposed ridges were brutally hot to hike along!   Apple Orchard Mountain, one of our tougher c...

Yesterday I didn't feel the greatest and fell asleep before writing a post. Today was a great day though! It finally happened! I saw bears! I'll talk about that in a moment, I should start from the morning. We found a cool stealth site on top of high top mountain last night and for the second night in a row we were able to watch the sunset from a beautiful spot.  I slept in again this morning, my my excuse being that I was woken up by two owls last night and was wide awake for a few hours. I got on the trail by 9.15 though which isn't too bad. About an hour down the trail I came across some amazing folks doing trail magic! They had amazing sloppy joes, snacks, beer, chocolate milk, and they even gave me a new smart water bottle which was clutch because mine was starting to get a little tires on me. As I was saying my farewells and leaving camp they gave me a small sampler bottle of liquor and two more for Eagle and Sunshine who had just left without some. Thank you very muc...

We only have 118 miles left! While this may be alot of miles, it seems as if we're on the back end of the trip. Anyways, we stayed at an awesome camp last night and watched the sun set. Plan to do the same tonight. We hiked 13.1 today and found another site near a view. It's nice to take it slow and enjoy our day. We plan to follow this pattern for the rest of the trip. The days have begun to fly by and all the miles seem the same.  The Shenandoahs have been incredible thus far, and it's a great break from the miles we put behind us. Something about the park makes me want to do short days and lay around. We should be all done in about a week, which puts us essentially at one whole month in the woods! It's been an incredible experience thus far and we're not done yet.   

Last night there was a pair of Whiperwills that kept everyone up through the night. I used that and the cold this morning as an excuse to sleep in until 8.  The trail today wasn't bad, but we are definitely in the park. People were everywhere and it will only be worse tomorrow. There were a bunch of trail maintenance volunteers out today weed whacking the trail. The first one I came upon was using a gas weed wacker and I grew very confused because I could smell the gas exhaust before I got to the guy who was using it. They were working on most of the trail I covered today, which made my allergies go a little crazy.  Around lunchtime I came upon a campsite of trail angels that had made chilidogs for hikers. It was pure heaven. I had four chilidogs, chips, potato salad, a salad, a couple brownies, two beers, a coke, and then we went to the wayside and I got my first Shenandoah blackberry milkshake. I proceeded to place my sleeping bag on the ground and pass into a food coma for ...

We are finally in Shenandoah N.P.! Time for some glamping! We joke about it being glamping because we only have to plan for 2 day resupplys since there are waysides in the park which means we won't be carrying a lot of extra food (aka pounds). The terrain is not going to be difficult compared to what we have been doing.   We got a shuttle from town to trail head this morning and got started hiking around 11. We have to register before we hike in the park so all the hikers were lining up to fill out the form before contuing today.  I tried something new today, retroblazing. The major road that goes through the park is Skyline Drive and retroblazing is when you walk on the road instead of the trail. The reason why someone would do this is because the road offers more views than the trail, especially today. I walked on the road for about 5 miles today. There's a reason I didn't do more, I really didn't like it. The sights were cool (including the McLaren that drove) but wa...

Day 20 on the trail! Did 21.4 miles today and everything hurts. We finally began the Shenandoah National Park! It's been gorgeous so far. Tonight we are staying at Blackrock hut. The service isn't great, so I won't share any photos today.  The whipporwhils at this shelter are EXTREMELY loud and I do not anticipate sleeping much tonight.  Anyways, the trail gets significantly easier during this section so we hope to be able to push big miles. It was a great walk today and I was in very happy mood! Tomorrow we are stopping at one of the National Park's waysides to get a burger and a blackberry milkshake. There is also a couple giving out chili dogs to the hikers as trail magic! More on that tomorrow. Going to try to fall asleep despite the obnoxious noises I'm hearing.