Origin: Calf Mountain Hut
Destination: Hightop Hut
Today's miles: 34.4
Total miles: 900.4
Today was the best day of hiking alone that I've had. Every day since Magge left, I have been against some deadline: a shuttle pickup, darkness or storms. Today I had no shuttle and the forecast looked great, so I could hike as much as I wanted to without any pressure. And I ended up hiking a lot.
I was on the trail at 6:30am and didn't see another hiker on the trail for four hours. What I did see, though, were my first bears. I could hear something large in the woods and I looked over to my right. At first I didn't see anything, but then I noticed two cubs descending a tree about 100 feet away (following mom, I assume, which is what caused the noise that made me look in this direction). Before I could even get my camera out of my pocket, they had slipped away.
I forgot to mention yesterday that I am now in Shenandoah National Park. The park is very motorist-friendly and the Skyline Drive weaves its way through the forests, often within earshot of the AT. While I find the road to be mostly a nuisance, it comes with a perk - roadside grills called "waysides". Today I stopped at one for a late lunch/early dinner and got a burger and a milkshake (yes, I had that for lunch yesterday at McDonald's - don't judge me, I hiked 34 miles today). It was a nice novelty to pop out of the woods for an hour and get a hot lunch. I'll probably do it once more to save the dinners I have so I won't need to buy anymore for the rest of the trip.
I pulled into the area where I planned to stop for the day (26.2 miles from where I started) at 5:00pm. I still felt good and the weather was great, so I decided to do an extra 8.2. I actually felt stronger as the day went on and I averaged 3.4 miles an hour over this last section. I followed a hiker named Zip, who is well known for being fast, over the last 3 miles to see if I could keep up. It was over the biggest climb of the day and I finally lost him towards the end when I desperately needed a water break, but I ended up finishing in 45 minutes. Extremely happy with the day, but tired, I set up camp, ate some food and crawled under my quilt. The nights have gotten cooler, which I love, and I'm looking forward to a good sleep.
Early in the morning, try to picture it without the power lines:
Bears oh My! Beautiful view honey, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteNice hiking! Keep up the pace.
ReplyDeleteWhat an extra eight miles when you still have lots of energy to kill! :) This is one huge hike so I won't judge you about eating another hambuger.
ReplyDeleteWondrous landscape. Very soothing. Seeing bears on the other is heart-stopping!
After this very long walk I hope your rest was refreshing and so goooood!
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ReplyDeleteYou should've killed the bear and worn it's head as a hat. Keeps you warm and wards off all other predators - including more bears. Plus, you'd have a bunch of bear meat, so you wouldn't have to stop for so many hamburgers. There's always next time I guess.
ReplyDeleteIt can be done:
http://goo.gl/gKPej