July 28 — 7 Miles today, 855.4 miles from Springer, 1319.2 Miles to Katahdin, Net elev: +800 feet.
Climbs: 3,4, Wx: 70s-80, 50%, Shelter: 4, Dinner: -, Overall: 4.

I awoke at 8, and went to the Y for a shower (some local had paid for all thru-hiker showers). They were one-big-room style showers, but didn't even have a normal, human, twist-it-on, twist-it-off control. You pushed a button and got about 15 seconds of water, luckily at a proper temperature. It was like prison. You'd think they would at least make it last, say, a minute per push, but no, 15 seconds. Still, it was a shower. And it should keep me straight.

In the library in the morning, I was talking to Frond and Azaria, with whom I shared the ride and campsite last night. Frond (name because he is a horticulturist in Western Mass/Eastern NY) told me that he awoke around 1, thirsty, and proceeded to walk to the Kroger, drink, get some snacks, and walk back, getting back a few minutes before I did the same thing. Ha. Then, after getting kicked off the computer at the library, I went to the Krogers, where I read the Times (the news sounds all very depressing. Plus, Krugman went on about how Condi is still telling half-truths and conjecture implying that Saddam was behind September 11. What?) and then went to Weasies, a local joint with an AYCE pancake deal for $5. I had 9, because I actually wanted to be able to move this afternoon.

I didn't leave the trailhead until nearly 4:00 (after another ride up. This is a town which is trying hard, and succeeding, at being a good trail town. All they really need is a hostel open more than a month.), and I sure was full, from all the food. I had a bloated trip to the first shelter, not hungry for dinner when I arrived. No matter, I went right to bed, alone. I hung bear ropes, eschewing the silly bear poles which are a pain to use and hang your food only about 8 feet off the ground anyway. The Shenandoahs have these silly poles instead of proper bear cables (they have a lot of bears, too, I saw my 10th) and the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC), which oversees 240 miles, fewer than only the Maine ATC, seems to think they are useful. Bah. Will someone please clue them in?

July 29 — 26.2 Miles (MARATHON), 881.6 miles from Springer, 1293 Miles to Katahdin, Net elev: -270 feet.
Climbs: 4,3,4,4, Wx: 80s, 50%, Shelter: 5, Dinner: 4, Overall: 5.

I had gone nearly 900 miles without seeing a poisonous snake, but today I saw two eastern timber rattle snakes (Wiki)! Before that, I saw a garter/ribbon snake trying to eat a toad which was way too big for it to get its mouth around. A for effort, though. The first rattler was sitting in the middle of the trail. He didn't move, so after some pictures and a movie or two (the sound came out) I went around in a stream bed. The second snake was right near Skyline Drive, and attracted a small crowd, sitting a couple feet off the trail. He was fearless of humans and very photogenic. It was very cool.

I had a late lunch (out at 3:50) but as Caveman (GAME '00) told me, the next six miles (he said nine) were "sidewalk flat." When I was talking to Caveman about why I was going north (because it is proper, it seems, to end on Katahdin, not a treed-in summit in Georgia) he agreed wholeheartedly. So I did 13+ miles to the shelter by 8:45. I saw another bear. He didn't run, but just kept eating his berries off the trail. They are fearless here.

July 30 — 20.6 Miles today, 902.2 miles from Springer, 1272.4 Miles to Katahdin, Net elev: +780 feet.
Climbs: 4,3,3,3, Wx: 80s, 90%, Shelter: 5, Dinner: 5, Overall: 5.

I thought about 30 miles until I went my first mile, slowly. I just didn't feel "it" today. The privy bee stings in the morning didn't help, either. So five slow miles, an early lunch, and then fifteen faster miles. Lots of climbing too. The camp store at Lewis Campground was closed when I arrived, but I was at the shelter by 7:45. And now a 20.6 mile day is short!

I met a fellow (name forgotten and withheld nonetheless) from Plimpton, Mass. He said Newton is "moneytown" and then proceeded to tell me a story about stealing a Caddy (just putting his key in the door) off a lot while drunk, stealing plates, driving it home, and trying not to let on his crimes to a statie at the gas station. Uh...what was he on?

There are bats in the shelter, which make it not too buggy, and nice company from Frank, who is almost done with his half of the trail. Plus, I am catching up on some proper thru hikers, maybe I'll have company come Pennsylvania somewhere.

July 31 — 26.8 Miles (MARATHON), 929 miles from Springer, 1245.6 Miles to Katahdin, Net elev: -520 feet.
Climbs: 4,4,4,4, Wx: 80s, 70%, TRH, Shelter: 5, Dinner: 4, Overall: 4.

I was up around 6, awoken by the birds and the bats, and on the trail by 7:25. I was seated and ordered at 10:20 at the first wayside I'd visit (Shenandoah has little restuarants on Skyline Drive, generally near the trail, with proper food!). Lots of flat and easy trail today, and I am shooting for lunch at Skyland and a 27 mile day. The food is decent, if expensive, but definitely convenient. And not carried on my back.

I talked to my dad and found out that the forecast is for the week to be very hot. 100 degrees in Boston. It's pleasant in the 'Doahs but supposedly in the mid 90s in DC, and only getting hotter. In any case, I pushed for Skyland for lunch (2:30) and didn't get in until after it had closed (close to 3; still, 16 miles by 3 is not too bad). Luckily, the taproom was still open. And since it was going to be in the 90s, I decided I deserved a beer (Sam Adams) wth lunch (a decent, if somewhat pricey, chicken sandwich). Plus which the thunderstorm hit while I was eatng, perfect timing. 10.5 miles to the shelter. With the hot weather coming, I hope to keep starting early to try to beat the heat.

The trail in the park was almost all constructed by the CCC in the 1930s. Thus it is very vell laid out, with some banked corners, a flat treadway even over rocky sections, and easy switchbacks. It is good for my feet. Vitamin I does help, too; I noticed when it wore off today, and I took it again when necessary.

August 1 — 13.1 Miles today, 942.1 miles from Springer, 1232.5 Miles to Katahdin, Net elev: -210 feet.
Climbs: 4,3, Wx: 90s, 100%, Shelter: 4, Dinner: 5, Overall: 3.

I can't say I wasn't warned about the heat — but — it is HOT! When I am on the trail, in the weather, the heat suppresses my appetite. I find it hard to eat much; eating makes me thirsty and nautions, and irritable, too, and I leave my snacks in my pocket. I can spend all day outside and barely eat a thing. For those of you keeping score at home, that is not a good thing.

At the Elkwallow Wayside, however, I did eat. It was decently cool inside (AC) and I had a cheeseburger, snacks (for salts, I told myself, and calories) and ice cream. I think I ate too much. Back outside I felt tired again. This must be the noted Virigina Blues (which you get after just too much time, 540 miles and about a quarter of the trail, in one state). It looks like I wil spend from 12 until 5 in air conditioning, my last respite for a few days, as it is just too hot to spend on the trail. I am going to load up my Nalgenes and myself with water, and am thinking I might hike through the night, when the weather is actually tolerable. The border with Maryland seems so close after so long in this godforsaken state. So that is the plan.

Sometimes I think about how very small changes could make a big difference in my hike. Frankly, it has made me even less inclined to believe in a higher being, or in fate, versus my decisions impacting my life directly. For instance: no ankle injury in North carolina would have put me five or six days ahead. I'd have less pressure on me. It'd be great. Except, well, I would have hit this heat on the rocks in Pennsylvania. That would have been terrible.

Or, maybe, as it turns out, I will do a short day. Seeing two more bears (I got a picture of one, which looks like bigfoot) convinced me that I do not want to be in the woods with them all night. So, a short day it is. I am staying with a bunch of campers from the Quaker camp again — albeit a sister camp for younger kids, in this case, 13- and 14-year-olds. One of the counselors put phallic pasta in to the their tortollini, and the kids got a kick out of it. I threw a wicked bear rope 40 feet over a stout tree limb and they took pictures of it. We debated hoisting a kid up there but liability would have proved an issue.

August 2 — 24.1 Miles today, 966.2 miles from Springer, 1208.4 Miles to Katahdin, Net elev: -825 feet.
Climbs: 4,4,3,3, Wx: 90s-100, 70%, R, Shelter: 3, Dinner: 5, Overall: 3.

From the shelter log (Gravel Springs, 6.12):
"I can't belive that I am still running in to the sorts that believe in God. "Forchrissakes." We are well out of Georgia, Tennessee and N.C.; by this point I thought we would have escaped the great myth of the south. But alas, every day I am inundated with acclaims of "His" glory and "creation." Perhaps because this is a national park the flock still lingers. Soon we'll all be in territory where the good folk realize that it was man that created "god."
--Ablejack.

Note that this is someone else talking. Not me. But I agree wholeheartedly.

I actualy got an early start today — out around 7:30. A small climb in the park, and then the last of thirty, or so, crossings of Skyling Drive. Then, all of the sudden, the trail became rougher and I was out of the park, down 1000 feet, and in to the heat. Boy did I notice it. Shenandoah was nice, but this part of Viriginia really sucks, especially with the temperature soaring to 100 with humidity. There are also tons of spider webs across the trail. I tried swinging my pole to clear them but realized that it was just going to give me super-terrific-carpal tunnel syndrome. I finally rigged up one of my poles to stick out and keep the webs off my face, which worked a bit better.

At 6:45 I was 2.5 miles from one shelter and 7 from the next. I'd gone more than 20. I began to slow down and made a quick decision, like the day before, to go to the near shelter. No point in pushing when I had found some free food at the lunch stop. Indeed, these were the easy, expensive freeze-dried meals that non-thru hikers eat. For $5 or more you get 500 calories and 80% of your daily sodium intake. The problem is, 500 calories is not enough for dinner. I had two of them. Basically, these meals cost one dollar per 100 calories. Pasta from the grocery is five cents per 100 calories. That's a pretty big difference. It's okay when the food is free (averting a trip to Front Royal), but a ripoff otherwise.

My clothes are wet and stinky from sweat. I am stinky from sweat. I meet cousin Lazar tomorrow, and I wonder if he knows what he is getting himself in to!

There are no hikers at this shelter. Nor are there any snakes, as is warned in the log. There are, however, two large wolf spiders waiting in the cool eaves before they go out for their nightly hunt. Creepy, but I've gotten used to it, I guess. My mother will take me to hotels when she is my support crew in New England if she knows about this. (The news from home is that after several years of dealing with HealthSouth she got fed up and quit her job and has all of August off before she starts a new job. So, I have a support crew. Meals! Lightpacking [I prefer that term over slackpacking, and always carry at least a bivy and sleeping bag with me]! Long days! Rides home!)

With the warm temperatures, the sounds of the forest come alive at dusk. It is really like music. Different animals find rhythms with eachother and create a cacophony of sound. It's no Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms, but it is about as loud and cohesive as anything Wagner churned out. Someone who can compose should come out and find inspiration in the noise. Dvorak found inspiration in Iowa (somehow). Copeland wrote Appalachian Spring. Gershwin used the rhythm of the NYNH&H when he was writing Rhapsody in Blue. These bugs and birds and reptiles and all should create the next American musical masterpiece.

August 3 — 23.3 Miles today, 989.5 miles from Springer, 1185.1 Miles to Katahdin, Net elev: -655 feet.
Climbs: 4,4,4,4, Wx: 100, 90%, Shelter: -, Dinner: 5, Overall: 5.

Today was one of those days which, in retrospect, is better than it seemed. It started out hot, after I slept in because it had taken so long to fall asleep in the 80 degree weather overnight. I had a cobwebby morning which got better as people passed. Still, it was slow. I kept pushing back (by cell phone) the time I planned to meet Lazar, and moving forward the location. I finally met him at 6:00 at VA 605 after I had almost run out of water when a stream Wingfoot mentioned did not turn out to run.

We said hello and I gave them most of my gear so I could hike most of the rest of the Rollercoaster in peace. The Rollercoaster is a 13 mile stretch of trail with ten separate 300-500 foot climbs. It is necessitated because the ridge line is taken up by a government facility which we later found out is a continuation of government facility for Dick Cheney. There's one person the government can do without (let's see how long it takes before I am seized off the trail by the FBI for saying that). Come on, Al Qaeda, bomb Cheney's bunker. He's the bastard you really should be after. (Thin ice, thin ice.) In any case, the trail goes along the side of the ridge, climbing up and down each little stream, and it is quite tiring, rocky and painful. But it is supposedly the hardest section until the Whites. For dinner, we got hamburgers, fries and such from a local bar where we all wondered the same thing: how are these people all going to get home. The answer: they'll drive. We made sure to get out before then.

The hostel here is run by a guy, Circuit Rider, who seems to live a great life. Summers are spent hiking the AT, or this year, running this hostel as a volunteer. He has thru-hiked in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2005. He winters in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I love the UP! I asked how he does it and he says he is a serial hiker. That still doesn't explain how he manages to get by. A quick search tells that he is one of the AT ministry folks/nuts. Ah, it makes more sense now. Jesus told him to. See the shelter quote from yesterday if you need more explanation on my stance here. But the hostel was nice, in an old, 1930s era summer retreat for a rich Washingtonian which was now owned by the ATC and operated by the PATC. Not bad.

August 4 — 19.3 Miles today, 1008.8 miles from Springer, 1165.8 Miles to Katahdin, Net elev: -575 feet.
Climbs: 4,4,4, Wx: 80s, 50%, TR, Shelter: 5, Dinner: 4, Overall: 5.

I talked to the folks last night. They had a contest where my siter, Leah, works (Starbucks) and whoever sold the msot coffee or something got free Red Sox tickets. Good seats. For August 31. Right about when I am going to be nearby. She might have to go back to school early. So I may get off trail for a Sox game. That would be sweet. Then I went to sleep aftera long and much needed shower and too much time on the free internet at the hostel there.

Supposedly, I was going to be woken up at 6:00 for a 6:30 departure. However, the other group staying there ran late, and the whole time frame was pushed back close to two hours. There were a few more dips and rises of the Rollercoaster and then, it was flat. Whoa! Really flat. It did, however, become rocky later on, which slowed my progress, and I didn't reach Harper's Ferry until after 3:00. It's too bad I didn't get slightly further a couple days ago, the train was three hours later. No matter, Lazar and Harriet, who had a grand time exploring the National Historic Park there, drove me in towards DC after the obligatory stop at the ATC headquarters, where I am the 657th northbound attemptee this year. The numbers have dropped off from their highs in 2000 and 2001 (when over 640 people completed the trail, this year will likely be around 500) but that is still quite a few. For instance, June 15 saw 26 thru hikers pass through. I might see a bit of that crowd, but am glad for a somewhat more solitary experience. And after learning my start date, the folks there said that the warning about flip-flopping didn't apply to me. There are also a few Nobos up the trail, maybe I'll run in to them soon.

In any case, it was in to civilization for me. I felt almost disoriented at Shady Grove Metro station, with so many people and buses and the Metro and all. No matter, I got in to the District, hung out at the transfer station for a bit (and took some cool time lapse photos) and then met Ted at his apartment. I showered, and after a bit, we went to sleep.

August 5. Zero miles today

The plan, originally, was to get in to DC early on Friday and leave this afternoon. After the heat, I was running late, so I will take a zero and head out tomorrow. In short, I visited the Library of Congress (very cool), the American Indian museum (cool), a crummy supermarket (not very cool) and walked a bit around the city. It is really the first time I have visited the District and paid close attention to all the spatial clues around. Like how separated the White House is from the Congress (think the planners envisioned a strong Legislative branch, on a hill at the center point of the city, or Executive branch, off a mile at a minor crossroads?) and how the streets are named, laid out and otherwise designed. I like being a geographer!

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© 2006, Ari Ofsevit. Appalachian Trail Thru Hike, Georgia to Maine, June 4 to October 17.