Final Remarks and Favorite Pictures (Part 1)

A view from the Bear's Den.

I met a very nice gentleman who was on his way south to meet up with other Civil War living reenactors. When I first spotted him on the trail, there was a very long moment of me questioning my sanity and my quantum portability. Fortunately, I know I'm not crazy and I'm pretty sure I'm still in the same universe...

To some: a nice little creek. To me: a nice little watersource.

With a net gain of 0ft in elevation, the morning was spent climbing and descending well over 5,000 feet worth of hills. Stupid hills.

Final Remarks and Favorite Pictures (Part 2)

One of the less glamorous parts of hiking areas where nobody has been for a week or two: spider webs. I'm pretty sure I got caught in several hundred webs throughout the entire hike. Pretty, but also pretty hard to get out of a beard.

Creepy walking through mist... but kind of fun in a sick sorta way.

Literally and figuratively walking in the clouds at that point :-)

Welcome to Shenandoah National Park! Perfect timing, as the whole hike was designed to arrive at the peak of fall colors in the one spot so famous for it!

Final Remarks and Favorite Pictures (Part 3)

One very nice thing about the Shenandoah National Park is the excellent trail markers. Not very often do you find stone/metal markers... it signaled the beginning of my return to society.

Leaves. Lots of em.

Another gorgeous view in the SNP.

One of my last overlooks before being picked up!

Today brought me 15.3 miles

Today brought me 15.3 miles down to the Rock Spring Hut where I am literally chillin out! It is cold and windy!

Pass Mountain VA

Yesterday brought my third day of rain in a row as I hiked 13.4 miles and climbed 3000 feet in altitude. It as a very difficult day to say the least! Today brought me sunshine as I have been hiking 13.1 miles to the Pass Mtn. Shelter. Hopefully I can get my things dry soon! While the fall foliage is nice, I won't be able to enjoy it properly until I'm dry!

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Front Royal VA

Today was an interesting day. First, it hasn't stopped raining since yesterday, which has grown old pretty quickly. Second, I was greeted by a crazy local as I was leaving camp, who decided to walk with me for a mile or so and tell me everything about bears that I didn't want to hear. Later on the trail, I ran across an AT volunteer, Sharon, who was looking for an injured hiker, Seeker. I offered to watch out for him and got her cell number and continued my hike. Believe it or not, I found Seeker about two miles down the trail, where he had been stuck for two days, and ended up helping him carry his stuff out to the nearest road where Sharon took him to a free hiker loft where he could heal up. During the whole process, Sharon offered to shuttle me to the loft after I was done for the day and I readily accepted the offer. So I am sitting inside a house with a load of clothes in the
laundry, enjoying the sound of rain from behind a window pane!

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Manassas Gap Shelter VA

I'm back on the trail! And it's raining! I did my first major hike in the rain, totalling 9.2 very wet miles. Fortunately, my new boots held up nicely and my rain gear did what it's supposed to. Despite the rain, I am still happy to be back in nature (being in a shelter helps a lot). Hopefully the next few days won't be the same!

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VA, MD, WI, and TN in a week!!

Hi everybody! As I am sure some of you have noticed, I have been negligent in updating my travelogue lately. For that I am sorry, but I haven't exactly been hiking... which may excuse me, right? Well, maybe not.

I headed to Belleville, WI, on Thursday, the 11th to see Jessica for a long weekend. Simply put, it was great! She had a full agenda planned out for us, so we kept busy the entire weekend doing everything from navigating a corn maze, seeing a play, hanging out with her family, to shaving off my beard! Yes it is true, she made me shave! Actually, I owe her a thanks for doing me such a service. Thank You Jessica!

As after any good weekend, I was left feeling miserable! I had caught a cold somehow, and was left feeling sorry for myself without the ability to get back on the trail. Then, my mom made a brilliant suggestion: that we should head to Tennessee, to see family for a long weekend! I thought that this was perfect, so we packed up our stuff, tied up my little sister, loaded everything/everybody in the car, and headed south!

We had a great weekend, at least I did! I got to catch up with my grandparents (on my mom's side) and my Aunt Barb & Uncle Scott (who are pretty cool except the whole NASCAR thing). We watched the new Elizabeth movie, walked around SAU's campus, and stayed up way past our bedtimes! Also, I must say that one of the best parts of the weekend was the food... I ate like a king! Cheers to the wonderful chefs in our family! It was very nice to be able to see them in the middle of my trek...

Now, I am ready to hit the trail again!

Bears Den Rocks VA

I'm on my way to the Sam Moore Shelter, where I'll be spending the night. Today is the third day in a row that I'm hiking over 15 miles; I am pleased to say that I am finally getting into good shape and am not exhausted at the end of every day! Although, I still won't do lunges at the gym with Ereck! The "hills" you see in the background are exactly where I'm heading, known as the Blue Ridge Mountains. Next stop, Shenandoah National Park!

On the trail somewhere!

Well, I haven't been good with simple updates recently, but at ldast I got my nice pics up two days ago! I am currently in WV and will be entering VA tomorrow. I am sadly done with MD, but at least I enjoyed the last 30 miles of it. My mom and stepdad even hiked a portion of it with me! They seemed to even enjoy themselves as I forced them to march at a fast pace, perhaps they are who I get my outdoorsiness from! I hung out in Harpers Ferry for a few hours todayand had a blast seeing things I remember from my childhood!

Favorite Pictures So Far (PART 1)

Well, I debated whether to update past posts with pictures & details, but I think that it would be too much for everybody to have to go back to every post and re-read what I have written, so I decided to make a couple of big highlights-blogs to give you some nice pictures taken from my normal camera.

Enjoy!

My first steps on the AT!

My Sleeping Arrangements

A view to the east from "Bake Oven Knob"

A cool picture if you ask me...

A view to the west from "Bake Oven Knob"

This is a portion of the trail about a mile long called the Knife Edge. It was a ridge that came to a very fine point and I had to jump from rock to rock with open air (and a few trees) on both sides of me... kind of scary for my first full day of hiking!

A typical section of the rocky trail in northern PA

Me at Dan's Pulpit... this was the only day I think I wore pants on the trail... I have since worn shorts exclusively!

This is the view from Dan's Pulpit looking south across a valley which I had to cross the next day and climb to The Pinnacle, which is located on the top-left part of the ridge in the picture... I crossed the valley about three miles to the west of this location (to the right).

A new friend!

Favorite Pictures So Far (PART 2)

A view from the Pinnacle

Me on the Pinnacle

A slow butterfly on its way south...

This is a picture of the pond I wrote about in my blog for 9-20. It was a very peaceful place!

This is called Pocahontas Spring. I don't know why, but I like the fact that somebody went to the trouble to stack rocks over it!

A picture of my dad, stepmom, and me in Duncannon, PA, after they saved me from being stranded in Pine Grove, PA, without a pair of functioning shoes. Thanks guys!

More Rocks!

A picture overlooking Duncannon, PA, and the Susquehanna River from Hawk Rock. This is basically a duplicate picture, but better, from my post on 9-24

A Chipmunk! There's a lot of these on the trail so far...

Surprisingly, gas lines going through the forest tend to make for nice views. This is another picture of the Susquehanna River, south of the last one.

Favorite Pictures So Far (PART 3)

This was one of the first open fields that I saw on the AT at that point! It was quite a different feeling walking through open space.

This boardwalk lasted at least a quarter of a mile; I was impressed with that fine work of AT volunteers!

A view from the boardwalk.

This day, the 25th, took me over the Cumberland Valley. The AT went through many pastures and along many property lines; it was a very different trail than what I am used to!

Boiling Springs, PA.

I crossed paths with a nice four-foot black snake on the 26th. It was just hangin out and didn't seem to mind the photo-op!

More trees, eh?

Me taking on a 1/2 gallon of Moose Tracks ice cream. I almost finished... but almost doesn't really count in 1/2 gallon challenges.

The night after eating all that ice cream, I stayed at the Ironmaster's Mansion Hostel, in Gardners, PA, which was actually part of the Underground Railroad. The keeper was kind enough to show us hikers the false-floors and tell us a bit of the history behind the property. It was pretty cool to see it! Fortunately, we weren't required to sleep in the basement!

This is me hiking through some old stone building that the AT actually passes right through! I thought that was a nice touch! Is the beard progressing enough for you?

Favorite Pictures So Far (PART 4)

This type of fern seems to be one of the first plants that changes color for fall. They make for nice pictures... but I can't wait to get to the Shenandoah National Park for the changing of the season!

This is in Caledonia State Park, PA, where the AT is very well maintained... they even make tunnels for their hikers!

A crik in Caledonia State Park

A few miles north of the MD/PA Border

These are the birds that I was talking about in my post on 10-1. There were thousands of them!

Me on Annapolis Rock, in MD!

Looking out from Annapolis Rock over the Boonsboro/Smithsburg area.

Big buzzards... not my friends.

This is a familiar site for all of you who drive on I-70 between Hagerstown and Frederick: the AT footbridge crossing the highway. I have seen this thing so many times, I couldn't tell you how many. But it was nice being on the bridge instead of under it for a change!

This is me next to a 1955 Ford Thunderbird. On Friday, my stepdad took me to the Carlisle Car Show! It was cool seeing all kinds of old cars and getting an ancient-history lesson while we were walking around! Haha, I jest!