low battery

haven't been able to post lately due to no computer access in towns and not enough battery out of towns. I'll be in damascus on the 2nd and will update everything then.

Day 101

My plan had us doing a very short day today, just 7.8 miles and camping on top of the Priest. After freezing yesterday at just 2000 ft elevation and tonight was supposed to be colder that plan quickly got trashed. We quickly and easily did the 3000 ft climb up the 4000 ft mountain only stopping twice, once for water and once for a really nice view.
{Insert pretty view from Priest here}
Neither time were my legs feeling the least bit tired... hurray for switchbacks. When we got to the priest shelter we stopped off to enter the shelter log. The priest shelter log is full of people writing "confessions". Its really funny since all the confessions are true but  harmless. For mine I did "I confess that I had planned to do a short day and stay at this shelter but got scared away by the cold." and I also added "I confess I littered in the 100 mile wilderness when my trashbag got a hole in it and things fell out before I noticed." On our way to the next shelter we passed an amazing 360 view at a place called spy rock. The first 360 view I'd seen since I don't know when.
{Insert 360 view video or photos here}
While there I ran into the owner of the ultralight tent company Yama who were up there doing photo shoots. All their tents are made out of cuben fiber and weight between 1 and 2 pounds. On our way down to the next shelter I passed an apple tree and picked a pair of apples for a genious idea I had. At the shelter I implemented the idea. There were 4 weekenders from University of Virginia law school who had built a fire. I diced up the apples into little bits and boiled them. Then used the boiled water and apples and mixed it with 2 packets of apple cider. It was amazing, unfortunatly the apples added nothing to the flavor but it was still a genious plan in my opinion. RJ came up with an even better idea of putting spam on a stick and cooking it over a fire. Why didn't we think of this sooner! We also put some apples on the stick and they were much better roasted than boiled.

Day 100

RJ and I have a fairly agressive shedule lined up with us doing basically 22 mile days every day except one for the next 6 days. Today's hike was a good one having us go up over a 3600 ft and 3980 ft mountains. Unlike the mountains up north though these were a cakewalk. They had a nice easy switchbacked grade the whole way. There were some really good views along the way. {Insert pretty mountain top vista views here} When I got to the top of the 2nd mountain I was feeling so good that I wanted to hike an extra 7 miles and go up the Priest, the first 4000 ft mountain since VT. My enthusiasm quickly waned once I started going down the 2000 ft to our evening campsite. That night it was really cold again. After yesterday being in the 90's today's hike in the low 80's the tempature tonight got all the way down to the low to mid 40's. I'd camped in colder weather up in maine but back then I was more used to it. The sudden change from dripping sweaty hot to freezing cold made it feel even worse.

Day 99

RJ and I still had a lot of stuff to do in town; laundry, shopping, eating more all you can eat buffets so we were planning on doing a very short 5 miles out of town. Which worked out well cause late last night the cops showed up around 10:30 pm and woke all the people camping up to check their IDs. It seems that there had been a known violent sex offender that had used the YMCA the day before who they were looking for. He had already left town though. We headed off to a local restaurant which has an all you can eat pancake breakfast challenge for $6... it was closed while they resurfaced their floors. That made me so very very sad. I love pancakes and I'm sure I could have beaten that challenge easily. So we did laundry, resupplied our food stocks and decided to head over to the local pizza hut for lunch to eat at their buffet... turns out the local pizza hut doesn't have a buffet. That made me sad again but I still ate 3/4 a large pizza so it wasn't all lost. At this point RJ and I decided it was best if we just head out of town and continue our hike. So we called another trail angel, miss lady's husband as it turns out, and got a ride out of town with a quick stop off at the local outfitter. I needed a new pair of shoes as my old ones were falling apart after hiking in them from Hanover. I also bought a new platypus collapsible water bottle for my Sawyer filter since the one I picked up in frederick had gotten a hole in it already. That was pure carelessness on my part and nothing to do with the quality of the bag. The shelter was lovely but disappointing. The guide said there was a nice waterfall with a swimming pool under it... there wasn't either.

Day 98

From Blackrock Hut we had a nice easy 20 mile day into Waynesboro. Waynesboro is infamous on the trail as being the home to the best chinese buffet, Ming's Garden Buffet, and an all around nice spot for hikers to visit. The trail to Waynesboro was like all the other hikes in the Shenandoahs: easy, pretty, and  full of bears. Granted there was only one bear and that was at the very edge of the park but it was a bear. It was amusing though since we saw the bear at a tree where there was a list of trail angels that would pick us up and drive us to town. My theory is that the bear was hungry and wanted a ride down to Mings. We made good use of the trail angels and a lovely lady going by the name of "Miss Lady" picked us up, gave us a tour of the town, and dropped us off at the local park that we were allowed to camp at. We quickly setup our tents then made a beeline for Mings.
{Insert Picture of Mings here the library computer isn't reading the pictures off my phone}
Mings was good the food was constantly being rotated out with fresh stuff, they had a sushi chef making sushi, a hibachi grill area, and some very cute decorations like a chinese dragon boat for a salad bar. That being said I think that new place in frederick was better.

Day 97

Another 22 mile day planned to get us to the shelter that started it all for me. Along the way we passed a lot of animals. I'm beginning to think RJ attracts them somehow. First we found this little guy hiking his way up a mountain.

 A little later in the day we ran into this black snake doing his best Ostrich impression. When we nudged him to get him off the trail he tried to pretend he was a rattlesnake and shook the tip of his tail at us.

 A little later on we ran into a cute little baby collared snake that was about 3 inches long. Then as we were on the approach trail to our shelter RJ walks right over a copperhead and yells COPPERHEAD. I manage to put the full breaks on in time which is for the best cause that snake was defiantly not going to let another creature walk over it. Out of time at the library. Will update more tommorrow.

I've had really bad reception with the phone again and didn't make it back to the library so back to updating now. We stopped at the Blackrock Spring Hut. This shelter was where I stopped off during my "Hell Hike". Way back when before I started all this and it was just a simply an idea Sean suggested I do a hard hike in really bad weather to ensure that I wouldn't wimp out. So I arranged a 30 mile hike over 3 days with lots of ups and downs during a weekend that was going to be "cold" and wet. These were conditions that at the time were very daunting to me and I knew if I made it through this hike the only thing on the AT that would stop me would be snow/ice; boy was I naive. On my first day of the hell hike after about 9 miles of hiking a thunderstorm blew through so I decided to take a 1.5 mile detour to the Blackrock Spring Hut to wait it out. When I got to the Hut there were two southbounders, Woody and Buzz, already there. I peppered them with questions while we all ate lunch. Me being the uneducated douchebag that I was at the time didn't even offer them lunch from my over abundant food supplies. I feel bad about that still. After the hut I went back out in the rain made it to a stealth campsite for a massive 13 mile day and was totally exhausted. I was able to setup my tent and cook dinner in a rain break then hang my food from a tree. I was glad I did cause that night there was something big crawling around my tent, either a racoon or a bear. I woke up the next morning freezing, wet and tired and decided to cut short my "Hell Hike" and just head back to the car. I ended up doing 22 miles in 2 days, got cold, wet, insomnia due to a large animal sniffing around my tent and was still inspired to go hike the AT southbound.

Day 96

Another big day planned. We were going to do a 23.9 which would be the longest day RJ had done yet. I got walking a bit earlier then RJ and before he caught up to me I ran into what I thought was a deaf and dumb deer. It was just sitting in the middle of the trail completely ignoring me until I got within 10 ft. Then it finally acknowleges me and meanders off the trail where it starts nibbling at the trees.

 Turns out it wasn't deaf or dumb it just realized there was a much more dangerous creature around. About 20 yards down trail I run into a Momma bear and her 3 cubs. While momma is deciding if it is worth it to eat me and feed me to her cubs RJ comes along at which point she moseys down to the tree where 2 of the cubs climbed up and hugs the bottom. I have now seen 7 more bears then I wanted to.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The shelter we stayed at was full of section hikers so I ended up tenting for the first time since the Bar in PA. I also slept much better but I'm not sure if that was due to the tent or the mileage.

Day 95

What a magical day. RJ and I decided to do a short 16 mile day today to recover from yesterday and we got trail magic 4 times! We started out hiking down past the intersection for Lourey where Busch had apparently dropped off a 12 pack of mtn dew for hikers when he took a zero down there. The trail then had us hike up to one of the best views I've seen in a while at Mary's Rocks.

We then hiked to a picnic area for lunch where we were handed ice cold water as soon as we reached it by some nice picnickers. Then as we sat down to lunch at the picnic area, a group of Koreans that were having a picnic there invited us to join them. It was so sudden we hadn't even had time to get our pack's open before they asked us to join. They hooked us up with a full pork buffet, fresh salad with a nice spicy dressing, a great whole grain rice dish with beans and boiled peanuts, sweet and normal potatoes, and some plums as desert. They even gave me the left over plums and potatoes to take with me as they were heading home after the picnic. It was fantastic. From there we hiked to the skyland restaurant and had a piece of their triple chocolate cake, chocolate cake + chocolate moose + chocolate ice cream. We didn't really have room for it but it was as good as described so I managed to force myself to eat it. But the magic wasn't done yet. When we got to our camp spot there was some PBR and pepsi chilling in the spring.

Day 94

I finally talked rj into doing a 23 mile day. I think that's mostly because we could stop at one of the wayside rest stops on the shenandoah mountains.

So far the shenandoah are amazing. The trail is almost all dirt except for steep inclines, which are all switchbacks so steep is relative, but those have so many water bars that they might as well have steps the whole way. So the rocks aren't bad at all. I've convinced rj that it is fun to mess with the tourists in the cars by waving at any car that can see us. The looks of confusion on their faces is priceless as they wave back at us.
On another note I got to see my first bears today. There was a moma and two cubs that I scared off a side trail to an overlook. Mom and one cub took off down trail and one climbed a tree. I got my camera out to take a picture of the treed cub and was focusing for a good picture when it started to make whiny I'm scared noises while sliding down the tree. So I took a blurry picture and retreated.

Day 93

Another 18 mile day planned with rj. The trail really is much better when hiking with other ppl. Not a very exciting day. We did get rj to build his first fire on the trail when we got to the shelter. It seems my alcohol container got deformed while I was taking my zeros and I'm down to just one dinners worth of alcohol. Luckily there is lots of wood.

Day 93

Another 18 mile day planned with rj. The trail really is much better when hiking with other ppl. Not a very exciting day. We did get rj to build his first fire on the trail when we got to the shelter. It seems my alcohol container got deformed while I was taking my zeros and I'm down to just one dinners worth of alcohol. Luckily there is lots of wood.

Day 92

From bears den rj wanted to do a short day to red hollow shelter. I wanted to do an 18 to dicks dome. Either way we would be done with the roller coaster.

When we got to red hollow the water source was dry so rj decided to keep hiking. Once we were out of the roller coaster the trail got practically perfect. Nothing but smooth packed clay dirt. Then we go up to sky meadow state park. Which had an absolutely gorgeous mountain.

Day 91

Thanks to Bill I for an early start and made really good time. I stopped at the first shelter south of harpers ferry for some water. This shelter was beautiful and is only 2.5 miles from rt. 9.

I got ahold of rj who said he was taking an easy day and stopping at the bears den hostel. I had planned to skip the place since I had just taken 3 zeros. The nobos had said it was a great hostel and with rj there I decided to stay. Oh I forgot. I passed the 1000 miles to go mark.

Day 90

The plan is to have Sam take me up to Frederick where I will catch up with friends at Comsource and make a run over to the local Motor Vehicle Department to get a new Drivers license and try to figure out what is wrong with the insurance on the Saturn. Then Bill is going to drop me off at Harpers Ferry on his way home and I'll hike to the nearest campsite or shelter. The plan almost worked. The MVA took basically the whole day so I didn't get to stop off and chat at work like I wanted to. I did go see a doctor who said my ankle was fine if I gave it 2 more days of rest and ice. So I compromised and stayed at bills house instead of hiking.

Day 89

Another Zero. Ankle felt significantly better hardly any soreness at all and it actually felt normal to the touch. Had a nice day where we ran up to Chris Twombly's house to pick up my guide for the rest of the hike sure d a box of Jerky mom had sent me. She sent a lot of Jerky I'm going to be eating basically nothing but that for the next few days. We also ran up to Harpers Ferry where I got my picture taken and entered into the through hiker picture book as the 34th?(not sure about that number) southbound hiker.

Day 88

Zero Day at Sam's place. Spent the day just sitting around watching some Anime and icing the ankle. I did make a run to REI to pick up a new shirt and socks and managed to spend an extra 100 on some really nice lightweight warm-up pants. I plan on using these as my camp pants from here on out as it was starting to get colder at night. They will double as windbreaker if I need something like that again.

Day 87

A nice easy day into Maryland to meet Samantha at 2pm at Pen Mar state park. My ankle was still sore so I decided to not do the Maryland challenge and just take some time off when I got to maryland. I was still hiking with Busch and he was planning on giving it a shot so we were going to split up after we got to Maryland. While we were waiting on Sam we noticed that less then 2 miles from us was a Golden Corral. We managed to convince Sam to take us up there and pig out. After that I have a few zeros to heal the ankle.

Day 86

Not an exciting day just hiked from the shelter past the unmarked halfway point according to my guide and called it quits after 20 miles. Very nice and easy trail. The only interesting thing of the day was passing the Quarry Gap Shelters. Very nice linked pair of shelters that are by far the best maintained shelters on the trail. There was stacked firewood, flowers, a raked gravel area, games and what I'm sure is a beautiful Azalea grove when its in full bloom. I would have stayed there but I had made arrangements to meet Samantha from work the next day and I didn't want to walk the 20 miles to the spot I was meeting her in the morning. ((No pictures not sure why but my pictures for today didn't get uploaded to picasa))

Day 85

From Boiling Springs I decided to just hike to the halfway point and camp at the nearby shelter. This was an easy 20 mile day but there was a significant challenge in the middle. Right before the halfway point was where the Half Gallon Challenge was hosted. The half gallon challenge is to eat a half gallon of ice cream. You can do the easy way out and eat the "half gallon" which is really just 1.5 quarts or man up and eat the "half gallon" plus a pint. I wimped out and did the "half gallon". There was only one flavor left, mint chocolate chip, so I didn't have a choice of flavor. I had been warned by nobos to pick a flavor that I didn't want to eat again for a while, luckily this worked out as I've never been a big fan of mint chocolate chip.

I managed to beat this challenge easily. It only took me 23 minutes to finish. I considered doing the extra pint but with 4 more miles to hike I called it quits there. On my way to the shelter I passed the official ATC halfway point but not the actual halfway point.

Day 84

I had 15 miles to hike to get to Boiling Springs to catch up with Smiles and see the show. They were by far the easiest miles I've done yet. Nothing but cornfields and flat land.

 I got up early cause I wanted some time to check out the town as I had heard its very nice to hikers. At 10:45 I got a text from Busch, who is staying in town at the hotel where the play was being held, saying that the show starts at 1pm. I tried to get a hold of Smiles and let her know but she had her phone turned off. So I did some crazy fast miles, it took me just over an hour to do the 4 miles to get to town. I managed to find Smiles and let her know about the show in time to see it. The show was a production of Hair Spray which turned out to be a lot better than i expected. I thought it would be a local production but the entire cast had broadway or off broadway show experience and were very good. I ended up staying in the hotel and splitting a room with Busch as that turned out to be cheaper to do then just seeing the show alone.

Day 83

We had another short day planned to the next shelter. The guide book says that there was no camping allowed between the next shelter and Boiling Springs. The area between these was all farmland and backyards. On our way to the shelter we passed some section hikers who said they had just Stealth camped in a pasture and nobody bothered them. Smiles decided that she wanted to take the chance and do the stealth camp so she could get to town sooner and explore while I decided to stay at the shelter and just get up early since my ankle had started to hurt. The shelter was also infamous on the trail for having the "Taj Mahal" privy.

I'm not sure why it was named this as I've seen nicer privy's before but it was much larger and more spacious then most other privies.

Day 82

Smiles and Busch were staying at the Doyle as well, and after my encounter with the snake I decided I didn't want to hike alone until I got out of Pennsylvania, or at least the snakey part of it. Busch was going to take a zero to let some blisters he got from his new shoes and Smiles was going to be doing a very short 3 days to get to Boiling Springs where she was going to go to a theater production on wednesday. So I tagged along with Smiles for a 4 mile day. Very easy, very relaxing, with some decent views, and my ankle was still hurting so a short day was for the best.

When we got to the shelter we had a fire going and kept it going for 5 or 6 hours. Normally when we build fires it goes for about an hour while someone cooks dinner or scares the bugs away.

Day 81

Since I cut it short yesterday I had to do a 25 to get to the Doyle. The ankle was hurting more today then before I took my zero but I wasn't going to spend another day near that snake or that monkey creature. Passed some very nice views of the Susquehanna on my way down to Duncannon.

The Doyle is a famous old hotel on the trail. Known for having some of the sketchiest rooms you will probably ever stay in in your life. Mine wasn't that bad, I think that is cause we got some of the better used ones since there were only 3 of us southbounders staying there.

Day 80

Ankle was better but still sore. I decided to just go ahead and walk on instead of staying in the shelter since I didn't know how long it would take for the ankle to heal. I wanted to head to the Doyle in duncanan but that was 48 miles away. So i could do it in 3 short days or 2 long ones. Since I was in Pennsylvania and had just taken a zero I decided to go for two long ones. I wanted to do a few long days to prep myself for hiking the Maryland challenge once I got down there. The hike went fairly well considering my ankle hurt anytime I tried to use it. When I got to about mile 23 I had a fun encounter with a Rattlesnake. This guy here was hanging out sunning himself next to the trail.

I didn't see him since he was black on black behind a log and some shrubs, he didn't know I was coming so when I stepped right next to him he was as scared and jumped for the bushes. At which point i saw him and jumped 5 feet backwards. I bushwacked around the snake since he didn't seem inclined to move anymore and got another picture of him without a log or bush hiding him from me.

At this point I decided to call it quits for the day. My ankle was starting to hurt bad and that snake made me decide to wait for a better time of day to hike in. There was an old abandoned town a half mile further on where camping was allowed. As soon as the sun set I heard something large hopping around in the canopy of the trees. I have no idea what the creature was I didn't get a good look at it but it was bigger then a squirrel, about the size of a racoon, but it was jumping around in the tippy tip of the trees. I figure it was someone's pet monkey that got loose or freed.