Back on the trail again! I was off the trail for the weekend, but I feel like it was so much longer. I definitely needed the time off for sure. My hips have been really hurting me, and my body needed a break from walking day in and day out. I arranged a shuttle with BG, a friend of Preacherman Wayne's, is meeting me. I Go to the ATC in Harpers Ferry and get my backpacking tag. There are several thru-hikers checking in and a new flip-flopper registering when I arrive. I look the hiker yearbook and see Non-Stop and Buttercup's picture!
I Meet BG at the Harpers Ferry National Historic Park Visitor Center. The fee booth is closed because the town of Harpers Ferry is having work done on the water main and there's no water, so I guess they're not charging anyone for entrance. I scored on that one! BG Seems so nice, just like his Waynesboro counterpart Wayne. We chat the entire trip to Front Royal. He thru-hiked in 2021 and he tells me about his adventures. The trip takes no time at all and he drops me off and I'm on my way around noon.
There is heavy rain in the forecast for the next few days, and it looks like I will get rained on at some point today, so I'm going to just get as far as I can before it gets full dark. The heavy rain is supposed to start tomorrow morning. The weather is nice, the temp is 77 degrees and it's overcast. Leaving 522, the trail heads immediately uphill.
The trail runs along the side of property owned by the Smithsonian Institute. This property is massively huge. Chain link fence topped with barbed wire runs the whole length of the property. I hike alongside of it for at least a mile.
I pass by some trail magic on the side of the trail. My pack is stuffed with food, so I don't take anything. I would hate to deprive someone behind me a nice snack.
I feel like I'm really dragging, but after an hour I see that I was able to do two miles, even with hiking uphill the entire way. I also have a pack full of food and water, and with the warm temperature, I think 2 mph is pretty good.
After the hill, the hike is actually very easy for the next couple miles. I stop at the Jim and Molly Denton shelter at mile 977 for water. My new water filter is working beautifully, but I realize the water bag doesn't connect very well, and it is leaking like crazy at the connection, so I'm dumping about half of the same amount of water that I'm filtering onto the ground. I have to angle it so that the dirty water from the bag doesn't leak into my clean water that I filter and contaminate it with nasty protozoa. Giardia is a real problem on the trail!
The poison ivy here is so freaking huge, and crazy thick on both sides of the trail. I take care not to touch any while shouldering my pack after I filter water.
I walk over to the nearby shelter. I stayed here once before when doing a section hike with my friend Becky. This spot is just as lovely as I remembered. A large covered picnic area is off to the side of the shelter, which features a nice huge deck. Horseshoe pits are out front of the shelter on the grassy lawn, and there is even a shower that runs off of the spring nearby. Unfortunately, the spring is almost dry and supposedly the shower hasn't worked in some time, but I don't try it out, and there's no one here to ask.
I look through the shelter log, and I see an entry from Babysteps! She made it here a few days before and is doing really well. She's making great time and she talks about how she can't wait to be in her husband's loving arms, LOL. He's meeting her in Harpers Ferry next weekend. She also has a post script to Goldilocks. I'm wondering if she means me, because the group at Open Arms were joking that should be my trail name since I need everything to be just right in order to sleep.
I should have taken a picture of the entry. She said If I'm reading this I'm back on the trail and I'm meant to be here. I really hope I can catch up with her at some point. Maybe I will if she stays a few days in Harpers Ferry.
I start feeling occasional raindrops as I return to the trail. The next shelter is five and a half miles and it's only 2:30, so I think I can get there well before dark. If not, I can always set up camp where ever I find a suitable spot.
The trail is really nice, albeit narrow from the thick vegetation on both sides. The trail is flat and covered with pine sheds interspersed with short rocky areas. I cross a road and hike into a really cool meadow that goes up the hill. The meadow is thick with Autumn Olives and black briar canes. The smell of the passiflora rose has been absolutely divine. I have been walking through a rose scented tunnel for the last six and a half miles.
The trail goes up and down and I emerge into another meadow, although this one is more briar and poison ivy chaos than a field type of meadow. I have to mind the poison ivy as I walk on the trail because it is inches from my ankles. The milkweed is plentiful, which is wonderful for Monarch butterflies, and lots of mountain mint line the trail. I'm sure the bees and butterflies go wild around here in the summertime.
I'm sitting on a random bench in the meadow for just a second when a thru hiker comes through followed shortly by his wife. They are trying to make some miles so they can take a zero tomorrow with the heavy rain in the forecast. He says one to two inches are expected tomorrow. I think I will be quite soggy by tomorrow night!
I re-enter the woods and start downhill. I can hear the road noise of I-66 not too far in the distance. It increases in intensity as I descend. Soon I am crossing a road and I walk down a country lane that goes under the interstate before the white blazes take me over a stream and then uphill once again.
I've been hiking up for what seems like forever, but soon I have covered an additional 2.5 miles, when I reach the blue blaze for Manassas Gap shelter.
When I arrive at the shelter there is one occupant, a nice lady a little older than me. We chat for a few minutes before I grab some water and walk back up the trail to try to find a suitable spot for my hammock. I end up setting up near the AT before I go back to the shelter to eat my dinner at the picnic table and talk to the woman at the shelter. She is doing long sections and hoping to go southbound to Georgia.
I finish my dinner just has big, fat raindrops start to fall. I say good night and get in my hammock. I have cell service so I can call home and I work on my journal.
Todays Stats: 11 miles, 2520 elevation gain, 1788 feet loss
Trail Stats: 983 Miles, 217K feet gain, 221K feet loss
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