Start: Stealth Site by Stream (AT mi 1009.5). Stop: Top of Piney Ridge (AT mi 998.1). Today’s miles: 11.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 1195 miles
When I think back about today, all I can do is laugh. I woke up around 5:30am to Jerzy trying to get our food bags down. He had already told me he was getting up early, so I expected this. What I didn’t expect was the slew of curses coming from him and the branches shaking like crazy. Uh oh. Somehow, the food is stuck.
I get up with my headlamp on to try to help. Somehow the carabiner clipped into the rope a second time and it was stuck-that booger wasn’t going anywhere. We stared and pondered. I’m not too bright first thing in the morning, and as far as I could tell, this food wasn’t coming down anytime soon.. so my plan was to go back to bed-at least until the sun showed up. I told Jerzy we should look in our guthook app and see if there’s anyone nearby that could help-probably a bit later in the morning. He thought my idea was a good one, and decided he’d check the app too.
When I laid back down, I remembered my friend Kevin! He was going to hike some with me yesterday, like he did on my very first day on trail, but ended up having to get some stuff done with work and logistics because of the storm the day before.. if he was close enough to potentially hike yesterday, maybe he’s close enough to help today!
It was just after 6am and I messaged him. With screen shots and satellite he was able to figure out the closest road to me, which luckily was only a little over a half mile down a power line trail and then a split second on the AT down to our stream. We sent pictures and we video chatted so he could discern the best equipment to bring.. ladders, pole extenders, knives. He let me know that he’d have to go into work at 8 and get his employees out on their jobs, then he’d be able to head my way.
OH MY GOODNESS. Talk about being completely lucky.. what are the odds of having a friend that owns a painting company with ladders readily available and lives close-ish to where you accidentally get your food bag stuck.. for the first time since starting this thing!? Of all the places this could have went down, it was the absolute best for getting such quick help! I napped again until 8, then packed all my stuff and walked the power line trail to the road he’d be coming to- a tiny dirt road in a residential neighborhood with no trespassing signs.. haha welp.
Kevin appeared at exactly 9am with Chris for extra hands. I hugged them both and thanked them profusely, and we all got a good laugh at the silliness of my predicament. They carried a 12ft ladder, I carried 2 poles, and we made our way back to camp. Jerzy popped up from his nap when we arrived (I purposefully didn’t wake him when I left, he had said he didn’t sleep well, I was wondering if this was God letting him catch up on some).. and Kevin and Chris had our food down, without cutting Jerzy’s cord within less than 2 minutes, start to finish. Hahaha Good Lord.
We all walked back to their truck, me with the poles and the 3 of them trading out with the ladder toting duties. I think Kevin takes the cake as the ultimate trail angel! I mean, we all know I wouldn’t have starved, but damn I would have been pretty cranky if I had to hike out to a road and get food AND figure out how to get someone to come back and get our bags down.
Jerzy and I walked back, chatting about our gratefulness and how we definitely won’t be making it to our original planned destinations. He was hoping for a 13.8 mile shelter, I was hoping for 22 miles-if I had left at 6:30am I would have potentially made it.. haha. We happily ate our breakfasts, thankful for food and to be able to get our days started. Since I had already packed up everything but my food, I just had to put my bag in and I was ready to go. We said our goodbyes and I hit the trail at 10:30.
So. I only made it 11.4 miles today: BUT I got started late, I took an hour lunch, AND I went up and over 9-10 mountains (depending on how you count one of those, could be separate-could be one lumpy one) and up to the top of the 10-11th one to camp. They don’t call it a rollercoaster for nothing! Jerzy was calling them “PUDs” aka: a bunch of Pointless Ups and Downs.. haha-it’s frustrating to many because they’re aren’t any views. Like the campsite I’m at on top of a mountain: no view. At all. Lol
I however, strangely enough, enjoyed this day! The first uphill didn’t even register as going “up” for some reason. I was hiking along and the next thing I knew there was a ledge with about 10 people standing around. I snapped a pic and kept it moving. Down, up, repeat for hours. There were so many people out, too! I probably saw over 50 day hikers, a couple section hikers, a potential NOBO, and another SOBO flip flopper like me.
It was close to noon when I was coming downhill to a parking lot. A couple caught up to me and started asking about my backpack, when they realized I was thru hiking, I was offered a banana at their car in the lot! How sweet! Their names are SlimShady and CityBoy and they have aspirations of doing the trail, but they come and hike this section often since it’s close to home.
After chatting with them and eating my banana, I headed across a huge highway and right back uphill. There was another ledge type view of the city below, but there were so many people around that once I got a picture I kept going. Sometime close to or just after 1, I stopped at a stream to filter water and eat my lunch. I sat there for an hour, reading on my kindle app as I munched on chips.
At 2, I got back up and started going again. Sadly, I kept getting smacked in the face with spider webs. Clearly no one had been around this section for awhile. I passed the 1000 miles to Springer sign and did a little dance! I like that the trail is basically a count down now.. home will be mile Zero! Man, it feels so close yet so very far away.
As I made my way, I happily passed a few more people.. which only delighted me so much because since they were coming from the opposite direction, they cleared all the spider webs for me going forward! Thank GOD. I hate stuff touching my face, especially when every now and then it’s a spider itself or a bug trapped in the web. Yuck.
I filtered another 2 liters before heading up what ended up being my last climb of the day. I knew by getting the water I’d probably end up staying either way, but I started hitting chunks of trail with more webs again, and honestly it was just too damn annoying to continue. Plus it was already 5pm, and I just didn’t care to go another 2.4 miles to the next shelter, although the comments in the app made it sound very nice. We’ll see if I regret that when I pass it in the morning.
I set up my tent, hung my food line, and then changed my clothes. Not having camp shoes really blows a loose one, I hate putting those trail runners back on even for a second! But I’m making due. I think I’ll get a shuttle to Walmart when I get to Front Royal in the next 2 days. Anyway, I cooked and ate dinner, unpacked my stuff, and went to put my food bag in the air. It’s definitely not as high as yesterday’s.. my arm isn’t that good. The way I see it, it’s far enough away from me that if a bear does get it, he’ll be too busy over there to eat me over here. Haha
It’s almost 8pm, and I’m laid up in my tent listening to the bugs and crickets sing-and what I hope is fireworks in the distance. If it’s a mass murderer, they definitely have some bad aim. It is a little unsettling though, being alone on top of a wooded mountain and hearing booms but not being able to see anything in the sky from the trees blocking. Oh well, let’s hope my earplugs help me and my camo tent disguises me from creepies.. lol
Anyway, I think I’ll read a bit before bed tonight. It’s 26 miles to Front Royal and the town looks pretty cool, so I may try to do more miles tomorrow and have an easy day into town the following day to do laundry and buy new camp shoes and resupply. We’ll see. The sun is rising at 6:45 this days apparently, so I set my alarm for 6.. maybe I’ll actually get up and get a move on.
Goodnight y’all.