July 13 - 20 (Miles 843.0 to 965.1)

July 13 - Waynesboro, VA to Paul C. Wolfe Shelter

Ate breakfast and lunch at McDonald's. Haha. We had a hard time finding someone to shuttle us back to the trail, either they were out of town or didn't answer their phone, but we finally got a ride. While hiking Will rolled his ankle BAD. We do tend to roll ankles a lot but usually we can walk it off. This time Will could feel and hear something tear/pop. Crap. We stopped a little early and stayed at the next shelter instead of camping a few miles past. It ended up raining later in the night so it all worked out. Will's ankle was visibly swollen. Not good, especially since we were planning on a 26 mile day tomorrow.

July 14 - Paul Wolfe Shelter to Blackrock Hut

Today we entered the Shenandoah National Park! Today was long, but beautiful. Lots of deer! Near the end of the day I was getting worn out, mostly because we hadn't eaten enough. I was dragging behind so I tried to catch up by running. To keep from tripping I had my head down watching my feet and ran straight into a head level fallen tree. Man that hurt! And I bit my tongue! We got to the shelter as it was getting dark, but we made it! A whole marathon! Over mountains! We were quite proud of ourselves. It was especially fun because everyone at the shelter was like "You went HOW far?!?!"

July 15 - Blackrock Hut to Pinefield Hut

This morning before we left the shelter we saw a bear! The crazy part was that it walked across a fallen tree a few feet away from where we gotten water literally a minute ago! One of the other guys at the shelter went a little crazy when he saw it and tried to scare it away. He was screaming at it and blowing his whistle. I was annoyed, it wasn't bothering anybody and how often do you get to see wild bears, not often.

In the Shenandoahs there are 4 different restaurants that are within a half mile of the trail. A backpacker's dream! Today we are only hiking 14 miles so that we have plenty of time to pig out and drink the famous Blackberry Milkshakes!  It was way overpriced, but we couldn't say no. Luckily they didn't skimp on the fries and the burger was huge. While we were hiking we were stopped by a Park Ranger hiking with some tourists. She asked us questions about our trip. It was kind of fun being on the other side of this situation, I am so used to being the tourist, not the one with the experience. Later, at the shelter there were 3 deer circling around for about an hour. Its kind of cool seeing them for longer than the few seconds it takes them to run across the road at home.

July 16 - Pinefield Hut to Bearfence Mountain Hut

21 miles today. It seemed to be the hottest day so far. So much sweat. There was a campground with a camp store less than a mile from the shelter we were staying at tonight. We didn't think we were going to get there before it closed but we were hoping there would be a vending machine with a Mountain Dew in it. To our lucky surprise the store was still open and happy to stay open past closing for us! Sandwiches, chips, and Yoo-hoo!

July 17 - Bearfence Mountain Hut to Rock Spring Hut

We hiked eight and a half miles as fast as we could to make it to Big Meadows Wayside for breakfast. It was delicious! Three big pancakes with blackberry syrup, bacon, breakfast potatoes, and Mountain Dew! We got some ice cream and snacks for later at the small store connected to the restaurant. We ended up stopping early and staying at the next shelter because Will felt sick, okay with me because we had a cell signal! Later a large group of kids showed up with three young 20 year old leaders. You would think using the privy would be safer than using the woods, but tonight while I was in there one of the children yanked open the door taking the latch holding the door shut with it! Ahh!

July 18 - Rock Spring Hut to Pass Mountain Hut

Stopping early yesterday put us in the perfect place to eat breakfast at the Skyland Restaurant! We got there with only a half hour left on the breakfast buffet! And oh was it glorious! So gooood! We were a bit under-dressed, it was fancy. Oh well! After we left the restaurant we saw a momma bear and her two cubs off to the side of the trail! The cubs were so cute! We stopped for a break at a shelter and a man came up later with grapes, powerade, hot dogs, hamburgers, and other stuff! We wanted to stay for a hamburger, but we still had 5 miles to go.

July 19 - Pass Mountain Hut to Tom Floyd Shelter

This morning we saw 5 bears! All before 11 o'clock! Awesome! We took a long break at the last trailside restaurant, especially since it was the last time we could get Blackberry Milkshakes. Soon after we found a piece of bark with a white blaze on it. So of course we had to take it! I mean it was already laying on the ground! We are going to frame it with some pictures from the trip! Yay! It was a long day, 24 miles, but it was exciting because we were leaving the Shenandoah National Park! We got to the shelter after dark, but luckily we got through a really rocky section while it was still light.

July 20 - Tom Floyd Shelter to Front Royal, VA

We hiked three miles to a road to get a taxi into town. We called from the shelter so that we wouldn't have to wait long, but when we got to the road it was hour before the car came. We sat at McDonald's for a couple hours, took my white blaze to the post office to send home, and went to the motel. Later we ate at KFC and Will got his hair cut at a Barber shop. His hair wasn't cut bad, but it was nothing like he asked for. I had almost got my hair cut there too but because of that and due to the fact that they completely ignored me, I didn't. They probably would have ended up shaving my head anyway.

July 6 - 12 (Miles 767.1 to 843.0)

July 6 - Thunder Ridge to Johns Hollow Shelter

We weren't on the trail until 1 o'clock and we had 15 miles to do! Oops! When were filtering water, I dropped my water bottle in the rushing creek! Will ran after it and fell in the creek twice! So much for staying dry! Atleast he got my water bottle! It was a rush to get to the shelter before dark, but we made it!

July 7 - Johns Hollow to Brown Mountain Shelter

We were hoping to to do a 24 mile day but because of rain, the Virginia Blues, and I having a hard time climbing for some reason, we ended up stopping one shelter short at 18 miles.

July 8 - Brown Mountain Shelter to Hog Camp Gap

It was a dreary morning and the Virginia Blues were hitting me so hard. One forth of the trail, 500 miles, are in Virginia. It kind of gets depressing. The past couple weeks, with all the rain and the so few views, have lowered our spirits. Around noon we reached a bald. A bald! My favorite parts of the trail! So we spent a few hours up there, on accident.... :D We stopped for water when it started raining. Not again! :( So we were like 'What the heck, we'll just camp here'. It was a cute field and it was so nice relaxing in my hammock. Exactly what I needed to raise my spirits.

July 9 - Hog Camp Gap to Harpers Creek Shelter

Finally saw another bear! Yay! Climbed Spy Rock, a nice rock scramble to a view. While hiking down The Priest I rolled my ankle and smacked my knee on a rock. Man that hurt! And to add insult to injury, an hour later my foot caught climbing over a fallen tree and I landed on the same knee. Owww. We ended our 22 mile day with a few minutes of hiking in the dark. Not to bad though, I only barely needed my head lamp.

July 10 - Harpers Creek Shelter to Maupin Field Shelter

We had planned for another 22 mile day, but a couple of things didn't go as planned... As we were nearing the top of the mountain, Will stepped off to the side of the trail to a view. I hadn't seen him do this and thought he was still ahead of me. When I reached the top and saw he wasn't there, I assumed he had continued on without me. I tried to catch up but couldn't see him, which was weird because usually when he gets too far ahead of me he usually stops and waits. So I start screaming for him, trying to catch him, but I had a little thought in the back of my head that maybe he is behind me. I don't know what to do, keep going, turn around, or just sit there. When you are separated from someone, you are supposed to stay put, but what if Will was waiting for me and not looking? I got part of the way down the mountain stopped and waited for 5 to 10 minutes and decided he must be behind me and turned around and started climbing the mountain. In the mean time Will had hiked back down the other side of the mountain looking for me, saw I wasn't there, ran up the mountain, and started down the side of the mountain I was actually on. When we finally found each other, we had probably been apart for about 45 minutes. This event combined with our 2 thousand foot climb that took longer than expected, we decided that we weren't going to make 22 miles. The day wasn't a whole loss though! A family on a short trip stayed at the shelter with us and they had an adorable puppy!

July 11 - Maupin Field Shelter to Waynesboro, VA

We hiked 6.5 miles and got a shuttle into town. Food! Mountain Dew! A bed!

July 12 - Waynesboro, VA

The weather said it is supposed to storm. I know, I know, 'You can't make it to Maine, if you don't hike in the rain'. But at this point we don't care anymore. We are sooo sick of rain. Our shuttle driver even said yesterday that this has been the wettest season in years. So we stayed in town. 

July 6 - Thunder Ridge Overlook to Johns Hollow Shelter ( mile 767.1 to 782.0)

We thought about leaving the hotel early. But it didn't happen. We left the hotel and drove to the overlook and took pictures. The weather was beautiful!

The sky really WAS this blue and the clouds just hung right there!

Views of the trail on either side of the overlook.

Hi, Dad! Wish you were here!

The gnats were out in big clouds, flying around our faces. ugh!

Time for us to head back to the trail.

July 5- Buena Vista (zero day #2)

Mom didn't like like the motel we were in, so we found a new one. We had lunch at Applebee's and drove to downtown Lexington, VA, and saw Despicable Me 2. I tried on some new shorts Mom brought, finding out I can actually wear pants 4 sizes smaller than I used to wear! Woot! Woot! We packed our food supplies and hung out at the motel. Tomorrow we say goodby to Rachel, Katie, and Mom.

July 4- Buena Vista (zero day) Happy Independence Day!

We slept late and then got sandwiches, potato salad, and sodas from the Amish store. Then we waited for Mom and Katie to get here. Their ride was not uneventful. A four month old tire blew out while they were traveling 65mph down a highway in the middle of nowhere. A nice Ohio state trooper and a firefighter/emt pulled over and changed the tire. Then, while on the interstate in the middle of Charleston, WV, a sudden downpour, including lots of hail hit.

 

We had a late dinner at DQ with the sounds of fireworks outside and then went to sleep.

July 3- Thunderhill Shelter to shuttle ride to Buena Vista, VA (1.5 miles)

We stayed in the shelter until everyone left, so we had room to move around. We hiked 1.5miles to the Blue Ridge Parkway where we had a shuttle come rescue us from the nasty weather and take us to a motel. We hung all of our belongings out to dry, went to Subway, took showers, ate Mexican and went to bed.

July 2- Bryant Ridge Shelter to Thunderhill Shelter (mile 755.5 to 765.7)

It rained today.

A lot.

It flooded.

We got wet.

Very.

The trail was a creek.

Literally.

We had lots of fun complaining about it.

We reached a one mile side trail to a waterfall. We all thought, 'We can't get any more wet, what the heck!'

We were wrong.

We all fell down.

Will and I fell on the stupid wooden stairs that didn't have any traction on them. Rachel fell on a slippery rock, somehow getting even more wet and muddy than she was before!

We were supposed to see an FAA tower. Will saw it for a moment, turned around to see if Rachel and I were close behind and when he turned back, it was lost in the fog! Here's what we SHOULD have seen as one of our landmarks. (We did end up seeing it in the distance on July 6 while Mom was driving us back to the trail!)

You can see the trail cutting through the grass. Can you believe we couldn't see this!
 

Soon after this we came to a rock formation called, 'The Guillotine'. The trail goes underneath this boulder.

We hiked through ankle deep water to the shelter we thought we'd never get to. It was a 6-person shelter that housed 7 on the floor and 2 hanging from the rafters in their hammocks that night. We couldn't hang out our wet belongings to dry, just balled them up in a corner.

July 1 - Cove Mountain Shelter to Bryant Ridge Shelter (mile 748.5 to 755.5)

Swimming Hole Day! We played in a swimming hole. I saw a snake on the other side of the creek, sunning itself. Will threw rocks at it and we are 99% sure he severed it in half. Heeheehee!

We spent a couple of hours there building cairns and playing in the water.

 

We hiked 7miles to a big, beautiful 20-person shelter with a nice privy, except for the palm-sized spider inside. Will was our hero and killed it. The shelter had two posts that had eyelets in them that were the perfect space apart to hang my hammock, so I lounged for a bit.

June 30 - Wilson Creek Shelter to Cove Mountain Shelter (mile 734.7 to 748.5)

We stopped at Bobblets Gap Shelter where there was a very nice privy. It had a clear roof so there was light inside and you didn't have to wear a headlamp. It was clean, not having a bunch of spiders in it. If the nice privy is the highlight of our day, you can see that this part of the trail isn't so exciting. Not so good for Rachel.

Rachel and I almost walked past Cove Mountain Shelter, so we thought Will, who was hiking ahead of us a bit, may have missed it, too. I yelled for him, but heard no answer. So I blew my whistle. Will, who was actually in the shelter, scolded me and reminded me that the whistle is for emergencies. We said, 'It WAS an emergency. We didn't want to have to hike any further to find you!'

While making supper, Rachel spilled her noodles on the floor. Now she experienced first hand the sad feelings I had when I spilled my Mac and cheese a while back. Haha!

June 29- Daleville, VA to Wilson Creek Shelter (mile 723.5 to 734.7)

We didn't leave for the trail very early. After Penny dropped us off at the trail to drive home, we decided to go to Wendy's for lunch before heading out. When food is an option, it is the ONLY option!

We hiked 11 miles on Rachel's first day, a great deal for her first day with a full 37 pound pack! At one point we had to cross a fence using a stile. We have seen a few different kinds.

 

 

 That night it rained and the water was blowing in on us, even though we were sleeping at the back of the shelter. We hung our tarps up across the open front to try to keep the rain out.