Thru-hiker void
Today was just one of those days. I did not feel like hiking today, but that's just part of the game.
I was up and on trail by 6:45AM this morning. The trail today, on an overall level, was fairly easy. There was some uphill, but nothing that required a trip to the emergency room.
I was particularly fond of the stretch from Manassas Gap to Dick's Dome Shelter. In the stretch I had it all. I saw birdwatchers, plant photographers, and a group of Asians out on the trail. Not to be rude, but one of the Asian hikers looked like she has had tons of plastic surgery, I held my composure long enough to not laugh in front of her. This was the highlight of my day.
There were a lot of strange sounds in the forest today. It felt like with every step I took I would hear a different sound, it was really quite odd.
Sky Meadows State Park was an interesting walk. I spent most of it walking through an open field with trees placed randomly about, it was a nice change of pace.
At Ashby Gap I had cell phone reception so I called my Dad to check in.
Tonight I am at Rod Hollow Shelter, and we are almost full. It is raining quite heavily right now, so everyone decided to ride out the chaos here.
It seems I have found myself in a thru-hiker void. Besides Cookie, I have not seen another thru-hker in 3-4 days. There is one other thru-hiker here tonight through. It's nice having section hikers around, they seem like real human beings. Thru-hikers are starting to feel more and more like robots, it's as if the trail has taken away their personality.
Tomorrow I have a couple of big landmarks. First, I will cross into West Virginia, brining the 535 mile march through Virginia to an end. Tomorrow I will also cross the 1,000 mile mark of my journet. It's hard to believe I'll have come 1,000 miles by the end of tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will walk through "the rollercoaster", which is a 13.5 mile stretch with roughly 13 pointless ups and downs. Since the trail corridor through the stretch is so narrow, maintainers have no choice but to route the trail up and over the PUDS. Should be a fun experience.
And that's the way it was.
Kirby
Ga>ME 2008.
