Monday, May 14, 2012
OK, today is Monday, May 14 and I am in Waynsboro, Virginia. I am taking a zero day. I had planned on taking a zero day here, then I changed my mind and I was going to skip this town and go on to Harper's Ferry. But when I got the weather report yesterday that we will be getting over 2.5 inches of rain today, I decided to hold up here and get caught up on things and head back onto the trail tomorrow. I am trying to upload pictures but I am having a difficult time figuring it out. Hopefully I will get it figured out. The last few days have been a blast. Now I know I talk a lot about FOOD and Trail Magic, but I can't tell you how fantastic it is!. It is great to get the food, but it is also great to meet the people who a providing the trail magic. I think this is some of the most exciting part of the adventure. I am so enjoying Virginia, and I can't believe I will be in Harper's Ferry in a few days and onto Maryland and Pennsylvania. Since the last blog entry, I have had my first slack pack experience. I stayed at a hostel called the Dutch Haus and met up with a couple of other hikers who slacked packed (one guy "daypack" - this is his 3rd AT hike) who convinced me to do the same. I was driven 20 miles up the trail, took a small backpack and put in a litre of water, water purifier, camera, phone, and lunch & snacks, and was dropped off on the trail and hike southbound back to the Dutch Haus hostel. This was a blast. As I was going south I met up with people I was hiking with and said my good bye's to a couple who would be going onto a different hiking schedule, and I met up with a couple of people who have been ahead of me and who I've been following in the shelter logs. One hiker, "Doctor Dave" is from South Berwick. I've heard about him since I started and what a nice guy he is. I met up with him on the slack packing trip and then this morning I had breakfast with him at the hotel (he was finishing a zero day from yesterday). I'll catch up with him tomorrow and hike with him a bit through the Shenandoah Mt's. I will be starting through the Shenandoah Mt's tomorrow, March 15, and expect to complete this section by March 21. This will be Harper's Ferry. HALF WAY BABY. Yesterday was mother's day and I got to a road crossing on the Blue Ridge Parkway around 10:15 (about a half hour after I stopped for a mid morning snack overlooking a view of a huge valley) and there were three trail angel's "king" who hiked the trail in 2010, Joe who hiked the trail in 1973 (when it was really a challenge), and his wife Sarah. The served breakfast including pancakes, sausage, hot coffee, Gatorade, soda, watermelon, strawberry's, snickers, oreo's, granola bars, and more. I had so much fun hanging out with them I stayed until 12:00. They kept trying to get me to stay to have lunch which included BBQ pork chops, grilled potatoes with lots of butter, and more. When a couple of other hikers showed up I took my leave and headed back onto the trail. All is well, and I am going to walk over to the Chinese Buffet and stuff myself (I have lost over 30 pounds - my new size 34 inch waist shorts are even too big now). I will come back to the library later today and attempt to upload photos.
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