Day 120: Stealth by a Stream

Start: Harper’s Ferry-ATC (AT mi 1025). Stop: Stealth Site by Stream (AT mi 1009.5). Today’s miles: 15.5 miles Total AT mileage: 1183.6 miles. States Completed: Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, West Virginia

I didn’t sleep very well, I think it was the anxiety of the unknown with starting southbound today. I got up at 8 and peeked out the blinds expecting to see overcast or damp weather.. to my surprise the sun was already shining and the hotel parking lot looked completely dry! I took a quick shower, got dressed and went to get the free breakfast the hotel offers. They have a egg and cheese biscuit you pop in the microwave that I’m sure is overly processed, but I liked it enough to eat 2 of them lol..

I took them back to my room to eat in bed with the Law and Order SVU marathon on.. haha I’ve seen every single episode and I still watch them like it’s brand new. I packed up after eating, sad at how heavy my food bag is. I’ve got to learn to quit packing so much food! Before I let myself sit back down on the bed to finish the episode, I quickly threw my pack on and headed out the door.

I checked out and started my short road walk to the trail. I came in on the trail 2 days ago so that way I wouldn’t miss any of the trail today by just walking to the bridge, instead of walking all the way back to the ATC headquarters. The trail went across the bridge that crosses over the Shenandoah River. It’s such a beautiful spot, and you can see the water rushing heavier with more water from yesterday’s rainfall.

Once off the bridge, the trail went down a set of stairs and under the roadway.. then promptly uphill for a while. I purposefully didn’t look at my maps until after lunchtime, because I didn’t want to feel the need to push myself to hike faster. I literally just walked. The hill wasn’t bad, the grade seemed more gentle than the previous mountains I’ve been encountering, so I just took it how it came, one breath in, one foot forward.

I was enjoying the change of scenery, although I will say it was rockier than I expected in places. They were easy enough to dodge completely, step over or around.. there was far more smooth trail than not. It wound around trees and mountains with no names.. I crossed several roads and was shocked how loud all the cars sounded compared to the complete wild feeling of Maine, even when passing a road here and there. These are much busier areas, certainly.

I ate lunch sitting on a swing at David Lesser Memorial Shelter. It was a beautiful shelter, nice enough that I was sad it was only 1pm and didn’t want to just stay put. There was a gentleman there that I briefly spoke to, he mentioned that the water was a trek to get to.. which it was and it sucked to have to do it, but I needed some. He was gone by the time I got back. Besides him, I saw the back of a man hiking southbound ahead of me before I turned to the shelter, and I passed one NOBO hiker.. but that’s absolutely it for the people I’ve seen today.

I spent an hour at the shelter and then finally made myself get going again. As I was getting close to 4:30pm my feet started to really ache. I decided I’d stop at the next steam if the stealth sites looked good, otherwise I’d get water and carry it the half mile uphill to another camping area. When I went down the side trail, the guy from lunch was there setting up!

I ended up camping there, too. We’re not right by each other, but close enough to eat together by the fire pit. He also hung my food with his to make my life easy, lol. So nice! His name is Jerzy, and he summited with FarOut and Sauce! Small world! Today is his first day back on trail since he reached Katahdin. We chatted and talked about the trail and what all we’ve been through while we ate dinner. Sometime around 7 we got our food up in the air and I went to finish unpacking my stuff. I realized then that somewhere down the trail between lunch and now one of my camp shoes fell off! I’m quite sad about this. I hate wearing shoes! I’ll be on the hunt for a new pair if no one magically appears with it any time soon.

Now, I’m laid up in my tent, comfortable as can be. I’m hearing a weird radio like noise, but it’s not coming from Jerzy so I’m not sure what it is. It’s not even 8pm but im ready to sleep. Im trying to wait a little longer because I know I’ll end up having to go pee again.. but my eyelids are already getting droopy.

Oh, I entered into the “Rollercoaster” of Virginia. It’s a stretch of trail that just going up and down and up and down for miles with no views apparently. Because of that, we’ll see how far I get tomorrow. I’m shooting for either 13 miles or 22 miles, depending on how much the up and down takes out of me. Haha there’s a couple places to camp between those, but they don’t look appealing. We’ll see though.. I’m not setting anything in stone. Goodnight, y’all.