Hello Vermont! This was a state I was most looking forward and thought it would go on my list of favorites, but while it was beautiful it did not make a favorite list. Mostly because I think I thought there would be more views, but it was just so green! Ok, that’s not bad, but I wanted some views! Plus, while we’d been told Mass was a mosquito and fly heaven, it turned out that Vermont was really the horse fly haven. Vermont also goes by the moniker Vermud, but with the exception of a few places we did not run into much mud, mostly because it was a dry year. I can’t imagine it on a wet year because it truly would have been a mess.
Ok, to express just how bad the flies are, here is a photo of Merf on a fire tower. The best way to deal with flies is to let them land and then smack the crap out of them until they fall down on the ground dead. We also dealt with some small gnats that would just hover in front of your eyes, sometimes winding up in your eyes, or perhaps inhaled up your nose or mouth. If someone stopped and hacked for awhile it was usually because of gnats.
We entered Vermont and we had a series of small PUDs, low ups and downs. Our destination for the night was the Congdon Shelter. The trail got very busy in this section because of the popularity of the Long Trail. We passed several people hiking the LT or doing small sections of the AT. Somewhere right before the shelter we came across a pond and the trail went just to the east of the pond on plywood planks. When we looked out across the pond we realized we were several feet below the pond. The beavers had built a nice dam up and the trail was subsequently eye level the top of the dam. We stopped for a few minutes to see if we could spot a beaver and sure enough we spotted one! Our first beaver on the trail!
Once at the Congdon shelter we nabbed a spot to set up our tent as fast as possible because there were so many people around. We chatted for awhile with various people who were doing small sections of the LT and got some advice. We met one guy from NYC who just randomly decided to come out and backpack the southern section of the trail with minimal experience. We’d gotten in our tent and had been drifting off to sleep when I heard screaming, someone yelling “help”. It was the guy from NYC. The screaming got progressively worse with him stating his finger was stuck in the knot of the rope with his food bag hung over the tree and pulling on his finger, his hand in the air. He was screaming for a knife to cut it free and I struggled to wake Chris up when we finally heard that someone came to help him out. In the morning we found out that Merf had gotten up to help him and realized she had a height disadvantage and finally another lady came out to help him out. It was pretty black and blue and cut up a bit, but luckily no lasting damage.
The next morning we left out just me, Chris and Merf. Her friend Jim had taken off earlier because he knew we’d pass him at some point and Little Brown left out hoping to make bigger miles to get a zero in at Manchester Center. Somewhere near Harmon Hill we scared off our very last bear on the trail. Not much further later we ran into one of the AMC NY chicks that we had met back at the NY/NJ border. She was doing a short section with her friend for the weekend. Small world!
We had a steep descent down into Vermont 9 where Bennington, VT is located and then climbed up out of the gap and headed for the Melville Nauheim Shelter for a small break. We ended up meeting Jim there and then shortly after passed the 1600 mile mark.
Merf stayed behind to walk with Jim for awhile while we kept going taking a lunch in the middle of the trail somewhere near the non-existent Glastenbury Lookout. I’m sure it is there but it isn’t labeled. Jim and Merf showed up as we were lounging and took off with us. At the Goddard Shelter we stopped for a quick snack and potty break. On the entire trail I did not once drink untreated water, but Chris, Merf and Jim took their chances and sipped out of the spring at Goddard. Apparently it was coming straight out of the ground and looked perfectly fine, but I was liking my no-stomachaches-for-1600-miles bit. They didn’t come down with giardia or anything, but I was still leery.
The Glastenbury Mountain fire tower.
The view from the tower
Lookout below!
It was the 4th of July and we lucked out in picking the Kid Gore Shelter to stay out. It ended up being only the three of us at the shelter.
Merf said she saw some fireworks from the shelter but we were tucked in our tent for the night. There was an amazing sunrise, though. We were planning 20 miles that day and were hoping that Jim could keep up with us. We were going to climb to nearly 4,000 feet on Stratton Mountain and weren’t sure how tough it would be. The morning went pretty quickly with a short stop at the Story Spring Shelter and a trail magic soda cooler near the Stratton-Arlington Rd. Ahhh, refreshing! Then we started our climb up Stratton. It didn’t seem too bad, just kept plugging away until we met some people coming down from the top. I was a bit disturbed by some dogs that appeared out of nowhere and weren’t too friendly and then their owner, a woman, came around the corner. I don’t mind people hiking without their dogs on a leash if they know the dogs are friendly to others or aren’t scared of people, but if they are I don’t understand why they let them off their leashes!
Once we arrived on top of Stratton Mountain we were ravenous and didn’t want to talk to the caretaker who stays on top in a little caretakers house. No questions, just food, people!
I kept worrying that Chris was going to fall down the stairs and tumble all the way down.
Down from the mountain we stopped at Stratton Pond to cool off and relax for the afternoon. This is one of the few sites along the LT that is a fee site for camping, but luckily we weren’t staying.
Only swimming and floating on NeoAir’s. I didn’t get in, yes I’m a cold water wuss, but I did sun myself, wash my legs off and relax. After filling our water up at the spring nearby we set off down the trail again.
Half a mile off the trail on a relatively flat and easy trail, though I slipped on one of the plywood planks over a wet area, it was pretty easy going and not much more than a blink of a half a mile. The William B. Douglas Shelter was empty and we were the only folks inside for the night. The register was full of complaints about the trail conditions nearby; other trails branching from the LT/AT were in the area and apparently beaver dams and overgrown brush was making it impenetrable.
I have no idea which place this was taken at, but you can see our water treatment drops and our water bag. We loved having the water bladder to fill our water up instead of using only our Camelbaks. I definitely recommend getting one of these to carry water to and from camp.
We had a mere six miles to get to Manchester Center for our resupply and hostel stay. The Green Mountain Hostel had emailed me while we were in CT and recommended we stop in so we did! I am glad we did because this place was amazing! More on that in a minute….we had a relatively uneventful hike into town and we had to hitch to town which was one of our fastest hitches thus far. We got a ride in the back of a truck and headed into town. We’d told Jim and Merf we’d meet them at the donut shop; splitting up for hitches is ideal. Trying to get four people into one car can be tough and most people aren’t going to stop for a big group. The donut shop was delightful and Merf and Jim weren’t too far behind us. After breakfast I decided to make my way for the post office which was on the outskirts of town because I had a birthday card waiting for me as well as something else that was important that I can’t even think of now. The rest of the gang waited for me at the donut shop. It had to be at least nearly a mile outside of town that I winded through the cement jungle to get to.
Manchester Center is packed with nicely appointed outlet stores, so I felt a little grungy walking next to the likes of Abercrombie and Fitch. In town we decided we’d hit up the Eastern Mountain Sports for new gear, boots for me and a belt to keep my pants from falling off (that’s always a nice thing, right? Pants too loose!) and then make our way to the Mexican food place for lunch. The restaurant turned out to be more southwest-Mex, but it was still good. We sent my old boots back home, and then off to the grocery store we went. With food for dinner and then our resupply we were ready to call the Green Mountain Hostel to come pick us up. The hostel is a bit outside of town so it was better to do all of our chores before heading there.
In the winter the house serves as a place for the owners son and his friends to come and stay while skiing. Most of the year the owner lives somewhere in the mid-west. This place was lushly appointed in hiker standards. Since we’d called in before he’d already reserved a bunk room for us and it was quite cozy. For $15 we did our laundry, got a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, free internet, a big screened tv with all sorts of movies, showers, and a wonderful little house to relax in.
It was hard to peel ourselves away from the hostel but we managed to get away the following morning. We were planning another 20 and the heat was getting miserable.
We climbed up Bromley mountain pretty quickly and at some point realized we were hiking on the ski run.
Snack break at Bromley. On our way up Bromley we met a girl in a sportsbra named Whoopie Pie who seemed slightly odd. We later learned from other southbounders that she was a yellow blazer. That means, taking a road (by car) to skip ahead on the trail. At Mad Tom Notch we ran into a tattooed guy with a very ultra light pack. I initially thought he was a day hiker taking a break or perhaps someone giving trail magic. We had been hiking around Mr. Fusion who we had met for the second time at the hostel in Manchester Center (the first time in McAfee Knob in VA) and he was at the notch with this tattooed guy who turned out to be Lint. After actually seeing his tattoos which were symbols of all the long distance trails he’d hiked, we found out he was working on his double Triple Crown. I think he also said he was the first person to thru-hike the Ice Age Trail. We quickly realized he was fast when he told us he’d started in very late April and had been passing people left and right for 1600 miles. Through more conversation we talked about Sea Otter and Nuthatch and that they’d hiked the PCT the previous year, well it turned out he knew them and was trying to catch them but they were about two weeks ahead of us. We did find out from Nuthatch that he did catch them—on Katahdin! That means Lint hiked the trail in about three months!
We stopped at a few more shelters for short breaks and to fill up on water and then stopped at Griffith Lake for lunch and a long relaxing few hours of respite from the heat. We found Little Brown there; he’d left earlier from the hostel than we did. Time went faster than I thought because before long it was time to mosey town the trail. We were planning on hitting the Little Rock Pond tenting area for the night and it was another 9 miles. We’d also heard about a trail re-route right before the Big Branch shelter, a large stream had lost its bridge but thankfully because the water was low enough we could rock hop. If there’d been recent rains we’d of had to of done the 3 mile reroute.
Little Rock Pond is one of the LT pay sites but we lucked out in not having to pay because the caretaker was gone. It was a beautiful little site and we were later joined by Snickers and Prophet who’d been hiking with the Traveling Circus but they’d gone on ahead of them. Merf and Jim stayed a few tenths of a mile south at at the Lula Tye shelter for the night.
The next morning was a bit overcast as we left the tenting area. We passed this crazy rock cairn area near Whit Rocks Cliff and I set up a small one in memory of Asheligh (I did that a few times along the trail wherever there were rock cairns). Near the junction of the Greenwall Shelter trail Merf and Jim caught up to us and took we took a short snack break. Jim was having some trouble after hiking all of these big mile days with us. We went on ahead down the road and there was talk that Jim might head back to the hostel to rest a bit and then get back on.
We had lunch at Clarendon Gorge and I finally got in the water for awhile. It was warmer water and much more enjoyable. Merf showed up without Jim. She was visibly upset. Jim had gotten off the trail for good and was feeling a bit bad about it.
As we were wrapping lunch up we noticed some threatening clouds forming. It was still hot and we were wet so a little rain wasn’t going to be too terrible. We thought.
Right after Vermont 103 we passed a cow field and a southbounder who told us about what we were going to be getting into a few minutes later. Apparently it was a fun rock scramble! Oh boy! But before that we managed to find a cooler of sodas to drink just as the rain started coming down. We found the rock scramble and it wasn’t too fun in the rain. The Clarendon shelter was very close and we ducked inside there with Mr. Fusion and shortly after Merf and Little Brown arrived. It rained for a good while as we laid on the hard bunks of the shelter, flipping through old National Geographic’s and a Long Trail companion book. Eventually the rain let up and we were able to carry on for the next 5.5 miles to the Governor Clement shelter.
The trail to the shelter was pretty easy. We passed some trail maintainers, missed out on trail magic that was empty, and went over some very dumb parts of trail, up a little hill, then back down to practically where we’d just been. What? *doh* In the guide book the Governor Clement shelter is warned against to stay at due to raucous locals. We’d found out from Fusion about some sort of secret shelter located on private property nearby and were supposed to look for clues, but we found none. It didn’t matter because the forest roads near the shelter had been blocked off awhile back to prevent the raucousness from happening and we found the shelter very old, but very quiet. We set up our tent down near the stream and had a wonderful little night camping there.
The following day we had planned to go into Rutland for a resupply but first we had to get over Killington Peak. The trail does not go to the top but a side trail does access it. If we’d not been pushed to go to town we probably would have stopped to go up, but we didn’t. Instead we climbed the mountain which was pretty easy considering what I’d worked it out to be in my head, a few little areas to pull yourself up, but nothing major. It was a beautiful mountain full of wonderful conifers and the smell was awesome. We stopped for a few minutes at the Cooper Lodge shelter, a run down stone shelter, before moving onward. Little Brown wasn’t going into town but he’d tasked Merf to bring back a bag of M&Ms when we met up with him later on. We listened to the birds on our way down, learning new calls from Merf.
At U.S. 4 we found a fairly busy road and thought we’d have a quick hitch. I took a bit of time to get a hitch since there were three of us, but luckily a kind guy who’d done some hitching in other places around the world gave us a ride into Rutland. We had him drop us off downtown near the Back Home Again Cafe and hostel. Jim had gone there and we were hoping to see him before he left but it turns out we’d missed him. The hostel let us stow our packs in their hall upstairs while we ate downstairs and went for our resupply. The hostel and restaurant is run by the Twelve Tribes, a Christian based cult. They were super friendly, would definitely try to talk to you about religion, but it was in a different non-threatening kind of way. Anyway, it was good food, nice people and looked to be a nice hostel. We resupplied, did some internet and then caught the city transit back to the trail.
How cool is that to be dropped off at the trail by a city bus? It worked out wonderfully and as soon as we got off the trail we saw the Traveling Circus had caught up. They were heading into town to stay the night. It was the last time we saw them for the rest of the trail.
Five seconds back onto the trail I walked over a plank to avoid some mud and then promptly slipped and gashed my knee. I let out a bunch of expletives and said how much I hated the trail and then carried on. The trail does that too you. Really pisses you off sometimes. We finally made it to Maine Junction where we ditched the Long Trail where it headed for Quebec and we turned and headed for Maine. Our destination for the night was the Gifford Woods State Park and we were racing the thunderstorms that were supposed to be coming. Once inside the campground we encountered a group of people hanging at a drive in spot with several pit bulls. Now, I am a pit bull lover but I was actually a bit scared of these. For one they weren’t running in the usual, “Hey, new people! They will pet me!” kind of run, it was a very defensive kind of run and I was not thrilled about them. The owners got them and we get on walking and found the park headquarters where we found out where we could stay for a few bucks a person. It was a quiet campsite right behind the headquarters. We found out Little Brown had gotten tired of waiting for us and went to the next shelter instead. Too bad, we had his M&Ms! We got showers at the campground, filled up on some ice cream and sodas that they park sold and then tucked in for the night.
The next morning it was raining. Just like I was whining about in the post listed at the top about rain. We rolled over when the alarm went off, kept rolling over until about 9am when we decided it was just drizzling and we could take everything down and went under the awning at the headquarters. We thought Merf would have been gone but she was under the awning drying out and eating breakfast. We ate too and then set off for a 17 miler.
The morning started off fairly fast as we passed Kent Pond and went by Thunder Falls. Then we went up Quimby Mountain for what seemed like ever, up and around switchbacks. It was never ending. At the Stony Brook shelter we stopped for a late-ish lunch were we met Blue Rooster for the first time. The afternoon seemed to drag a little too, lots of PUDs in this area of the trail.
Shortly after leaving the Stony Brook Shelter we ran into this little contraption. I took it as a sign of things to come.
The trail comes to a shorter trail to a cabin that hikers are allowed to go visit to see the lookout. I decided to hang back but Merf and Chris went to check it out.
They came back and said that they heard someone inside the house but wasn’t sure if it was a hiker or the owners. We later found out that it was Snack Attack!
Not too long before the Wintturi shelter we met Birthday Suit, White Blaze and Ceviche. We saw Birthday Suit first, the guy, and then Ceviche and White Blaze came bounding down the hill after.
The shelter we found packed, but it held a few people we knew including Speaker, Little Brown and later Snack Attack. Speaker had sneaked passed us when we went to Rutland. Everyone had had a slow day because of the rain, not doing many miles.
Chris hung our tent up to dry out from the morning.
I spent the last night of my 20′s and the first morning of my 30′s at this site.
It was my birthday and we were hoping to pass at least three places to eat that day. The first one ended up being still closed when we arrived at the road.
It was a fairly easy day with a few PUDs as we passed lots of maples being sugared.
We passed overgrown trail that went next to homesites, and through a few muddy areas that reflected Vermud.
At one of the road crossings we met a park ranger for a nearby historical park that was supposed to meet people to do a short hike. She ended up hiking out with us but as we went on, talking, one of us asked her a question and then turned and realized she was gone. We’d smoked her. Oh well.
We arrived at Cloudland Road hoping to get ice cream or something good at a farm/farmers market a few tenths of the way down the road but they were closed up. Instead we used their picnic table and hammock for lunch to relax. A few workers were around but said nothing as we hiker bums hung out.
At the Thistle Hill shelter we stopped for a privy break and found this trail masterpiece. We weren’t there too long when two hikers came in, southbounders. One came in in a fairly decent mood and the other came in throwing his poles into the woods and appearing to freak out a bit. He calmed down and then apologized and just stated that things were tough at the time. We got some dish about the Whites and learned they weren’t fond of the AMC. I haven’t met a thru-hiker who was. We left them to figure things out and carried on.
Not sure what was going on in this photo other than it shows my the scrape from slipping and well, a plank over mud.
We finally found food at the West Hartford General Store! Ahhh!
Pizza was not my idea of a birthday dinner, but it was good nonetheless.
We lingered for awhile before heading four more miles to the Happy Hill shelter. It was a quick walk, not too terrible. One tent was set up already and we figured it to be COB. We found out in the register that it had been him and he’d caught some bug and was trying to take it easy.
Morning dawned nice and we were planning a leisurely five miles into New Hampshire. We did quite a bit of road walking in this area. In a quiet neighborhood we received two trail magics, one was watermelon and something else and another house down the street had maple cookies. We’d been told to stop at Dan and Whits to get day-old sandwiches and bagels that they give out to hikers. We did stop but I think Merf ended up with an upset stomach from the sandwiches. We packed some out thinking we’d eat them later in the day but I am pretty sure we threw them out. The town of Norwich was pretty hoity-toity, almost like Kent, Connecticut.
Road walking the last bit of Vermont. Before we crossed the Connecticut River we met two more southbounders who gave us some extra goodies from a mail drop they’d had in Hanover and got more words of advice on the Whites.
And then in the middle of the Connecticut River we crossed into New Hampshire.
*Thanks to Merf for letting me use some of her photos to illustrate my blog! I wish we’d taken more photos*
I have to say that Massachusetts surprised me. It turned out to be a lovely state and also a plant community and ecosystem change.
Once into Mass we descend into Sages Ravine, a *bleeping* cold water source. I prefer my water Gulf of Mexico warm but the rest of the crew braved the water for a bath.
Chris and Merf
After getting cooled off we headed for Race Mountain where we stopped to pick blueberries for long periods of time.
It’s impossible to resist a clump of sweet and delicious berries! We sat for a long time on several Mr. Everett false summits before realizing a thunderstorm was coming. You can read more of that in the first post listed above, but we had planned to finish early that day at the Glen Brook Lean-To, and instead we took our leisurely time eating blueberries and soaking in the trail. After getting near the top of Mt Everett the lighting had started and Caboose and Spark had gone much faster and were ahead of us, while Chris, Merf and I were trying to stay low and out of the rock areas. The top of Mt. Everett is scrubby and has a view so we were definitely exposed. We were most of the way down the mountain when the bottom fell out but luckily we were close to a privy and saw Caboose and Spark and a bike rider squeezed inside, so we joined them.
We got to The Hemlocks Lean-To and found a boyscout troop had taken up the entire shelter so we made our way to the Glen Brook Lean-To which was only .1 down the trail. There we found a younger couple, I think the girl was something like Tinkle Fingers or Sparkle Fingers—something strange—and they’d just got on the trail at Harpers Ferry with no real plans on if or when they were going to finish the whole thing. After drying out we set up camp for the night and hit the sack. Caboose and Spark were planning on resupplying in Great Barrington the next day and were leaving early so they could get in and out and miss the rain for the next day as well.
Chilling by the bear box the following morning at the Glen Brook Lean-To.
Some sections of the trail have bear boxes that work pretty well. It’s better than having to hang your food.
Somewhere near Jug End.
A particularly slick area near Jug End.
Our goal for the day was about 22 miles to the Mt. Wilcox North Lean-To and we were in a hurry to try to get there before possible late afternoon thunderstorms. After descending from Jug End we walked through some forested swamp areas that had potential for really nasty bugs. We’d heard that Mass had a bug problem but so far we had no major issues. We passed monument for Shays Rebellion and kept on going to the road for Great Barrington where we were planning to stop at a place .1 off the trail to get ice cream or sodas. We found the place closed but an antique store next door had sodas but a restroom that was not for customers. Luckily the store that we thought had ice cream ended up opening, no ice cream but the lady was nice enough to let us use the bathroom and we moved down on our merry way.
We crossed the Housatonic River for the umpteenth time (and was given a warning from the non-friendly bathroom lady not to filter water from the river because of chemicals and such) and headed up East Mtn, which showed us some roundabout trail maintenance (going up and over rocks for no reason) and a few false summits before we made it to the Tom Leonard Lean-To for lunch. When we showed up we were greeted by a guy who immediately recognized us and said he’d met us somewhere on the trail already. He had to state a few locations and shelters before I realized it was Blue Jay a previous thru-hiker who does large chunks of the trail for fun every years. We’d met him at the shelter near Tinker Cliffs in Virginia back in May and he’d been doing the Virginia Section. He’d hiked up to the Tom Leonard shelter to do some trail magic, was looking for Sly Jangle and we told him he was a day or two ahead of us. Also we met Make Time here and found out that our friend COB from back in Georgia was going to be arriving back on the trail after a few zeros and we should run into him again shortly. Make Time had taken some time off in Great Barrington and was only 40 miles or so shy of finishing his thru-hike within the 365 time limit. He only had to make it to Dalton, Mass. You can read more about his story in the post above.
Caboose and Spark showed up just around the time we were going to leave and so we all hiked together to the Mt. Wilcox North Lean-To.
After passing some trail maintainers near Blue Hill Road we stopped for a bit at Benedict Pond. It was a peaceful, overcast walk the rest of the afternoon, past something called The Ledges (that we never saw) and over a few unlisted ups and downs before we arrived at the shelter.
The shelter was .3 down the trail and we had some trouble figuring out where the best water source was. Make Time showed up and completed our quiet little group.
We’d planned to get to the Mt. Wilcox shelter because it was only 14 miles from Upper Goose Pond where we were planning to spend most of the next day. It was a pretty easy walk to Upper Goose Pond, though sometimes it seemed long and I felt anxious just to get there, to this long awaited, little respite in the woods. Sometimes it gets frustrating when landmarks aren’t labeled in the woods so sometimes you will wonder if you’ve passed them or not. We walked through some fields around Tyringham/Jerusalem Road area before ascending up a mountain and continuing on towards UGP.
The Upper Goose Pond cabin is operated by the Appalachian (Money) Mountain Club and is by far much better than any of their huts in the Whites. For one, it’s free and donations are accepted, the people are super nice, and you get breakfast! There is no electricity, but it feels so cozy and wonderful inside. There are books to read, lots of places to lay and rest, newspapers to catch up on, and of course the pond to go swimming in.
The water was still too cold for me so I spent most of the afternoon sunbathing on the dock with Spark and Merf, taking a nap and resting. I moved indoors later to rest some more, just enjoying the peaceful area. COB ended up showing up later that afternoon and we got to catch up with him for a bit. He was planning on catching up with Make Time to help him get to Dalton.
You can take their canoes out, too.
Merf pointing to where we were on the AT map. Long way to go still!
Our caretaker at UGP.
Inside the cabin. I was very reluctant to leave the next day, the place felt like a hostel in a way, something that I could get tied down to. But, we headed out, with our original intent to stop at the Kay Wood Lean-To 3 miles from Dalton.
In Mass we saw our first moose prints! Sweet! We also saw moose scat but never saw a moose. We had a really easy walk that day, around several ponds, through some overgrown vegetation that needed some maintaining and we started enjoying some of the wonderful conifers that were starting to appear. At the October Mountain Lean-To Caboose, Spark and Merf caught up to us from the morning and told us of their idea to run ahead of COB and Make Time in order to throw a surprise celebration for Make Time at the finish line in Dalton. We loved the idea, but even though we were planning to speed up and do some extra miles we decided to try to stop at the Cookie Lady’s house at Washington Mountain Rd. Unfortunately they were not there, but we signed their log book and ate lunch at their picnic tables. Chris decided to water their plants since it appeared they were on vacation.
Shortly after deciding it was time to move on we met Hit & Miss, our first southbounders. They just ‘seemed’ to be southbounders by the looks of them, full of confidence and carrying packs that most northbounders didn’t carry. After chatting with them for awhile we hit the trail and maybe three or four miles later they come running up behind us having changed their minds and deciding to head into Dalton with us for another day! What a surprise!
Hit & Miss had stayed at trail angel Tom Levardi’s house the night before and convinced us that we had to stay there as well. So, we ran into town, Caboose and Chris borrowed bikes from Tom and ran to a liquor store to buy beer for Make Time (since we’d found out the type he liked back at the Tom Leonard Lean-To) and came back in time for us to sit at the trail head near the CSX Railroad crossing.
Strider, Caboose & Chris.
Merf & Hit
Hit & Miss
Make Time and COB coming down the trail
Soaking it all in…the trail is done for Make Time!
We walked with him to the exact corner in Dalton where he and his wife got off the trail.
Make Time, making time!
After all the hullabaloo of finishing we walked a bit down the road to a pub to eat dinner. Everyone who was staying at Tom Levardi’s showed up.
That’s Tom in the back right corner.
Caboose, Spark and me
Snack Attack’s fun drawing in the log book at the pub. We’d missed him by a day.
I am not sure on the full story of how Tom Levardi came to let people stay in his house, but he has many beds for guests, including his couches, but somehow Caboose, Spark, Chris and I got to share this pallet bed in the basement. It was a little bizarre, but we made it work. If the trail shows you anything, it’s that you make the best of whatever situation it throws at you, including strange pallet beds. Tom is very gracious and gets ice cream for every one, and we stayed up and watched The Royal Tennenbaums for awhile before hitting the sack. Since we’d previously decided we were going to make it into town the following day and instead we’d made it in that night, we decided to zero in Dalton since we hadn’t had a true trail zero since Damascus, Virginia (this is minus the time we came home for 5 days), so we felt like we needed a real zero. Merf was staying as well, but Caboose & Spark were moving on to get off the trail a day later to go spend the 4th of July with family.
In Dalton there isn’t a good resupply, so a convenience store has to suffice to get you to North Adams. There are several restaurants to eat at, the library is good and the motel we stayed at for the second night was nice and had free internet and a cat to sit in your lap. We heard Little Brown had arrived that day and that the Traveling Circus wasn’t too far behind.
We left Dalton on July 2nd with the intent on making it up and over Mt. Greylock and a destination of the Wilbur Clearing Lean-To 20 miles away. The walk out of Dalton was pretty nice, we passed a few ponds, met a kid selling lemonade for I think $1 a glass in half filled Dixie Cups, stopped for lunch at an ice cream store in Cheshire and then ran into Merf and Little Brown on our initial ascent up Greylock. This would be our first time over 3,000′ since North Marshall Mountain in the Shenandoah’s.
We stopped for water and rest at the Mark Noepel Lean-To and I remember Little Brown asking me since I was leading why I was taking the trail on all of the rocks. I laughed and told him he really needed to talk to the trail planners, not to me, but it was foreboding of what kind of trail the trail would become in a few hundred miles.
It’s always disappointing to climb a mountain that people can drive their cars up to. Greylock has a lodge on top and a restaurant and we thought we might catch dinner but it was only available for guests. You can pay to stay there as well, but we’d just zeroed so we passed.
The stairs to the top of the tower.
From the tower
We met Catman here for the first time. I’d seen his logs for awhile but had never run into him. On our descent of Greylock we ran into some iffy white blaze issues, as in there weren’t any and it wasn’t clear where the trail went. There is a typo in the trail book stating that you would have to descend almost 1,000 feet in .1th of a mile! That would be some rock wall scaling and it certainly didn’t happen.
Not sure what I am eating here…this is Merf’s photo that she left me lift (along with a few others on here).
Dinner at the Wilbur Clearing Lean-To. The shelter is .3 off the trail, and by this point in time you really don’t care that it is that far off the trail. Half a mile or more, eh, maybe, but this, not so bad. We ran into a trail maintainer there and a few others doing some section hiking but went to bed for a cozy night.
The next morning we had a pretty easy walk 8 miles into North Adams for a resupply. Merf was meeting her friend Jim there and he was going to hike with her, perhaps until the Whites, but wasn’t quite sure how far yet. We ended up hitting a grocery store somewhere west down the road, shopping in a food wonderland and eating bagels and sandwiches before hand. It’s always a mess when having to repackage everything right there in front of the store, but you get it done and try to stay out of everyones way. After Jim arrived we set off down the trail heading for the Vermont border which we hit only about six miles later. At Eph’s Lookout, .6 from the Long Trail’s southern terminus and the Vermont state line, we met a group who were starting the Long Trail that day. It was hazy and humid, the bugs were starting to get worse.
Once inside Connecticut we climbed Ten Mile Hill. The day had turned overcast from a mostly bright morning. On the north side of Ten Mile Hill we met some Student Conservation Association volunteers reworking parts of the trail. I know that in general flat rocks on the trail are looked at as being nice, but I personally feel like they are just too slick to walk on and would much prefer bare dirt. I’m not talking about trail that is already littered with rocks, but when a trail has specifically been maintained to add rocks to the trail.
Lunch was at the Ten Mile River Lean-to just up from the actual river. There are no camping signs all around the river, but man, what a nice spot it would make. We tried drying some things out and took a small nap in the shelter and then mosied on down the way.
After eyeing the river a bunch, Chris decided he wanted to get in and swim. (Can I have the house at the end, there?)
Just about the time we started wrapping things up in the river we saw thunderheads in the distance with low rumblings coming on. Soon enough a storm came very, very quickly and Chris made a quick call to his dad to find out what the radar looked like. Turns out we were surrounded by a bunch of red and so we decided to throw the tent up and ride it out instead of walking in lightning. We took a nap for an hour or two and the storm passed. Before we took the tent down we heard someone walk by and thought it might have been Cubbie and Dilly Dally but we weren’t sure. As we started taking the tent down Caboose and Spark did show up and told us they were on top of Ten Mile Hill as the storm came over them and they were dashing down as the lightning was striking all around. Eek!
On our way to the Mt. Algo Lean-to we saw Caboose and Spark drying out on Schaghticoke Mtn and so we stopped for a minute to try to do the same. As we kept going we started hearing thunder again so we tried to make a mad dash for the shelter. Luckily the rain missed us and it was a pleasant evening at the shelter. There was a southbound section hiker and two other section hikers there who’d just come from town. Since we were going to resupply in Kent the next morning and hadn’t had a short day in quite awhile we decided to sleep in the next morning and only planned for about seven miles the next day.
We’d been warned by several people that Kent is not a very hiker friendly town. The southbound section hiker told us to not even bother hitching and to just walk into town, so that’s what we did. There was not a very good shoulder to walk on so we had to be careful as cars passed on the two lane road. I knew we were in a fancier part of the state when we passed a boarding school and then when we entered town it seemed like a Martha Stewart type cottage town. Very cute, but you can tell some affluent people live in the area. On our way in we saw Cubbie and Dilly Dally and Sly Jangle eating at a pastry shop. Turns out they’d gone in the night before and someone from town had let them stay in an empty house for the night and they’d gotten beer as well. Drat! We saw Caboose and Spark not long after as they’d passed us that morning since we’d slept in. We filled up for breakfast at a local diner and then resupplyed at an IGA in town. We had some things to mail home and while there a woman asked me if I was hiking the trail and then told me that sometimes the Curves allowed people to take showers for a fee. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d taken a shower two days before at the landscape place. We had lunch in town and spent some time in the library working on our resumes. We thought we’d have time to work on them more on the trip but it definitely wasn’t worth the time to do that nor to even worry about it.
On our way out of town we saw Merf walk in and she said that Little Brown, Moose and Tetherball had also come in. Merf and Little Brown were also supposed to come to the shelter we were going to that night so we were looking forward to some company.
Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to.
Connecticut has a lot of rock walls in their forests, I suppose from old property lines.
The trail follows the Housatonic River for a good while and the going is very smooth. Chris really wished he had a good fishing pole a few times so he could join some of the fishermen we saw in the river. We planned 23 miles from the Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-to to the Limestone Spring Lean-to but the first part of the day felt very slow and the 10 miles to the Pine Swamp Brook Lean-to for lunch crept by. Merf met us at the shelter just as we were about to leave and she said the same thing. Those low ups and downs really just wear you down. Near the Belter’s Campsite we saw our last timber rattler on the trail. I heard the rattle first and stopped trying to figure out where it was when we saw three weekend hikers warning us of the rattler. We just kept on moving to get out of its way.
At U.S. 7 we were supposed to take a detour that would add some miles to our day but we’d heard from a few people that avoiding the detour was do-able. The only problem was that it was on a bridge that was being worked on and they had one-way traffic heading down it. We ended up timing the lights right and then making a mad dash down the road before the traffic got there, but then we got seriously confused because the regular trail was marked a bazillion different ways. After walking up and down one road a few times and then realizing we were definitely not on the trail we finally figured it out, only to get down the trail to another intersection and see more signs warning about a detour. We got a little worried but then finally when we came to the hydroelectric plant (where you can take an outdoor shower) and knew we’d gone the right way. *phew*
After going up Prospect Mountain we came to the Limestone Spring Lean-to, which is .5 off the trail and down a steep hill. We weren’t sure if anyone was going to be there but we saw Caboose and Spark there and eventually Merf showed up. We met an AMC-CT trail runner who told us about some people he knew in the White’s that we could name drop to maybe get a free night to stay at a campsite.
Also camping with us were a Boy Scout troop who were a bit rowdy and were throwing a football a bit too close to our tent. I know, I’m a cranky thru-hiker.
Rand’s View. Caboose and Spark convinced us that we needed to stay at Upper Goose Pond on Massachusetts so the following morning we had to detour into Salisbury to pick up an extra day of food. Salisbury is also a very nice and affluent town but the people were very friendly. After grabbing some extra food and a second breakfast in town we made our way for Lions Head.
Lion’s Head. The climb up was quicker than expected and we found the other three already there, though we thought they would have been long gone.
A humid, overcast day.
Friendly dog tolerating a bit more of the horsefly than I would!
We hit another Bear Mountain just south of the Mass/CT border where several day hikers were asking questions about our hike.
We spent all of 3.5 days in Connecticut before we crossed into Massachusetts.
When we arrived in New York we did not hear Frank Sinatra singing to us the ode we all know, instead we were dripping with sweat and moving along slower than we were expecting. We had though we’d passed the Village Vista Trail which would signal we had about 2.7 miles to the road where more ice cream was waiting, but when we arrived at the sign we were greatly disappointed. Luckily the trail smoothed out a bit and we breezed down to the road and had ice cream before dinner. The Bellvale Creamery was heaven 0.2 miles off the trail and it was also packed. We got a few curious stares by everyone eating their cones, but after awhile you just tend to ignore the weird looks. We had about two more miles to the Wildcat Shelter where we were going to stay for the night and when we arrived we heard a lot of chatter at the shelter and thought it was a rowdy group for the weekend. A few minutes later we saw Merf come down to see who we were and we were thrilled to have caught up to her, Snack Attack, Caboose and Spark and a new guy named Speaker. Well, he wasn’t new, he’d started in Harpers Ferry and was flip flopping but this was the first time we’d met him. Also at the shelter was an Appalachian Mountain Club group from New York doing a short section. They shared pudding with us, so we liked them!
The next morning we left out of the shelter with a destination of just under 20 miles to the William Brien Memorial Shelter. It was a hot, muggy day, just about when the heat wave in the northeast really got going. It was miserable but we were happy to have a trail magic of water somewhere near one of the Mombasha Roads. It was cold and that was all that mattered. We went up and down a serious of PUDs, and seemed to be doing a weird weaving pattern on the trail which was greatly annoying. The heat really got serious when we were on top of Arden Mountain/Agony Grind as it was bare rocks with some scrub on top and the blazing sun in the pre-afternoon hours.
The heat was really bothering me by now and I was having a doozy of a time keeping up. We decided to stop and eat lunch somewhere near the large pond in Harriman State Park and took some time to cool down. Just as we were finishing up lunch a thunderstorm moved in and drenched us, but it felt so divine considering how I felt.
Our next goal was to hit the Lemon Squeezer, a trail infamous set of boulders that we had to navigate through. It is very tricky to squeeze through, but we made it.
And then we found out about the secret part of the Lemon Squeezer, a doozy of a section that we had to pull ourselves up and onto the rocks. Did I mention it was raining??? Try doing this when it is slick! Merf had to show me how to do it and once Chris and Merf made it up I was able to follow. Yes, I’m a bit of a weenie. The rain ended up clearing out and we started drying off. Somewhere near the Fingerboard Shelter we came up with the idea to talk in an accent until we arrived at Tiorati Circle. I wish I could tell you what accents we chose for each other, but I’ve forgotten. I think I was an African man or something like that. Very hard to pull off!
A Tiorati Circle is a big park with a lake. Our intent was to relax for the afternoon and see about getting sodas and ice cream out of the machines. It was Father’s Day and the park was packed. We were also hoping to try to Yogi some food off of the people grilling, but unfortunately the wrong grouping of people were there—they were mostly Spanish speaking folks. Drat. Communication barrier and probably a completely lack of knowledge of the trail just up the road. I’m sure we looked like homeless people sitting around all day. The restroom here was disgusting; give me a hole in the woods any day!
We left Tiorati Circle for the William Brien Shelter (which has no water btw) to find trail magic left in the shelter. It was a bit sketchy, though, raw hamburgers and other assorted goodies. The hamburgers were individually wrapped and still sealed in the original box and were still semi-cool and had only been left the day before. Yes, yes, under normal circumstances this would be a no-go, but we were hungry hikers and willing to try anything. Since cooking the meat meant killing the bacteria we started a fire and made sure it was well done. I let the boys go first and if they ended up with stomachaches then I knew not to eat it, but the meat was find and we settled in with some burgers.
Caboose making food!
William Brien shelter
The next morning we got up to head almost 16 miles with stops at Bear Mountain and to pick up a mail drop in Fort Montgomery, NY. This photo is from somewhere on Black Mountain. When we got on top we were looking one direction and saw a bunch of buildings and thought it was NYC until we looked a bit to the right and were blown away with Ohhh, THAT’S NYC! You can’t see it in this photo, but it is there and it is the closest the trail gets to the city.
I really wish I had a video or a photo of road at the Palisades Interstate Parkway because I would say if I ever felt my life was in danger this would have been it. I can only compare it to crossing I-95 or I-35 at rush hour. Yes, my friends, we backcountry hikers had to cross a major thoroughfare that runs into New York City smack dab during rush hour. There were four of us standing there on the side of the road patiently waiting to find some speck of an opening in which we could dash across to the median and then cross the other side of the highway. Eventually we made it, laughing at the idiocy of it and found the other side very quiet since no one was leaving the city. We filled up on water on the other side and started making our way for West Mountain.
Eventually we came to Bear Mountain where on top is an observation tower and a soda and candy machine. WOOHOO! Merf performed for us….
and showed us her backpack putting on technique. On Bear Mountain a major trail renovation was going on and construction rerouted us up the mountain on a road instead of in the woods. On the way down we found that section of the trail completely in order in the form of a nicely formed staircase. This is a big tourist area so I know that is why it was well manicured but, dang, what a nice, nice piece of trail—too bad some of that money couldn’t have been invested in parts of the trail that really needed it. At the bottom of the mountain we found Snack Attack and Caboose and Spark waiting for us. Caboose and Spark were meeting family for the night as was Merf. Snack Attack ordered a deep fried Twinkie for a snack and Chris and I split something. The park was a trashy mess from the previous day and the bathrooms were again, disgusting.
The trail goes through the Bear Mountain Zoo and we took our time to check it out.
We split off from everyone else at this time in order for us to walk 0.7 miles to Fort Montgomery to get our mail drop. We ate at a deli while waiting for the post office to open and then we still had to wait for a bit for them to open.
After lunch and the mail drop we crossed the Bear Mountain bridge and started making our way for the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, our campsite for the night.
At U.S. 9 and N.Y. 403 we spotted a gas station practically on the trail and were pleasantly delighted to see it there. We also saw that Merf was sitting with Speaker and another lady who was doing a short section hike. Merf was going to be picked up from the Graymoor so she finished walking to the center with us.
When we walked up to the ball fields at the Graymoor we saw Snack Attack running towards us with an urgent message that we had to order food NOW in order for it to still be delivered. *phew* we hadn’t missed ordering pizza! It was nice to order pizza and drinks to be delivered. The Graymoor Spiritual Center is a monastery that allows hikers to camp at their ball field or stay under their shelter. They have a log book and some things to read and even a shower and sink. The shower is COLD, but it was nice to rinse off and be semi-clean again. That night proved to be very crowded as several groups caught up to us including the Traveling Circus, Moose & Tetherball, Cubbie & Dilly Dally and a few others. It was one of the larger groups we’d been around for awhile.
The following day was fairly uneventful as we walked through the Clarence Fahnestock State Park and some other areas near there. Near Sunk Mine Rd we saw a coyote run up a hill. We hoped to see it when the trail turned back towards the direction it went, but we never saw it again. It spit rain a few times but nothing major and was mostly overcast the entire day. We got a nice view of Canopus Lake on top of Shenandoah Mountain and made it to the RPH Shelter before the bottom dropped out of the sky. The big group followed to this shelter and it was packed as well, including Caboose and Spark who showed up that night and a newcomer Sly Jangle a French Canadian who’d started in mid-April and was boogeying down the trail at this point. We took the time to ask him who he’d passed in recent days and to figure out where everyone we knew happened to be.
Ringleader from the Traveling Circus
At this point we thought that we were all splitting up because Moose & Tetherball were planning on doing shorter days to delay getting to Connecticut by a certain day to take some zeros and we were all going to be doing different mile days.
The RPH shelter. You can also order food here, too, and we all put in big orders from a deli.
The walk the following day was easier than the previous few days, not as many ups and downs. We stopped at a few shelters along the way and saw Sly Jangle a few times throughout the day.
At West Dover Road we met up with the Dover Oak, the largest oak on the trail. We gave it a big hug!
We stopped for the day at the Native Landscapes & Garden Center located on the trail on N.Y. 22. There is also a train stop to New York City at this location but only stops on certain days. The plant nursery allows people to tent in their garden at the back for free and to use their showers inside if you get there before they close. The only problem with this site is that the trains run all through the night and you can feel the whoosh of the train as it speeds by during the night. Not the best nights sleep, but if you don’t want to do another ten miles to the next shelter it is best to stop here. Plus, you an walk .6 miles to a deli for dinner. Sly Jangle and Cubbie and Dilly Dally showed up for the evening and we had a good night eating food and chit chatting for awhile.
After leaving the nursery and walking through a few farm fields, back into the woods, up and down and around a few roads, we entered Connecticut.
Our crazy chipmunk video near the William Brien shelter. Skip to about 47 seconds for the best parts.
New Jersey is a state that most people don’t equate with mountains and nature, but it is a very beautiful part of the trail. When we left Delaware Water Gap we stopped at Sunfish Pond, the only part of the trail that Chris had been on previously. We ran into the Traveling Circus, Moose & Tetherball and Cubbie and Dilly Dally while there. It’s an easy hike up to the pond and the pond itself is a popular day hike destination.
It was sprinkling a little that afternoon but we made a nice day out of it. We were planning for camping somewhere after near Blue Mountain Lakes Rd and Crater Lake. Somewhere near the Herbert Hiller plaque, which we never saw, we stopped for lunch with Moose and Tetherball. It was a late lunch since we had a late start. We were debating where to stay for the night since it was a bit tricky with the camping being that you were supposed to be a half mile from Blue Mountain Lakes Road, however we saw a lot of camping sites within that zone anyway.
Near Camp Rd we found trail magic left by Dreamcatcher and his mom and this note from Monkey of the Traveling Circus. At this road you can walk to the Mohican Outdoor Center to get sodas, which Chris did so we would have some for dinner.
After stopping at Blue Mountain Lakes Rd to fill up on water at the pump Cubbie & Dilly Dally joined us in finding a camping site to stealth for the night. Moose & Tetherball were supposed to have dinner with friend but they ended up having some problems getting the guy to find the right spot to meet them and they ended up coming to the stealth site later that evening. It was nice to sit around and listen to music, cook some dinner and then we dashed in the tent since it was starting to rain a bit.
The next morning on our way to the Brink Rd shelter for a snack we ran into our first Jersey bear. The Jersey bears, well, they don’t trot off into the woods when they see you. This one stared us down a bit, watched us walk away. I basically walked right up to it, not even seeing it until we were on top of it. Very freaky! We had some easy walking that morning and afternoon and stopped at Culvers Gap to try to get some sodas. We’d heard a deli there at the road was not very friendly but Chris had good luck and we were on our way, however a note across the street warned that many hikers had a very bad run in with the owner of the shop.
We ended up splitting off from the rest of the gang due to various reasons, some visiting friends, others doing shorter miles to delay getting to cities so they could take zeros, so we took our lunch at Gren Anderson Shelter and lounged around taking a little nap. We decided to push on for 24 miles to the Rutherford Shelter.
The Rutherford Shelter is .4 off the trail and down some steep rocks, but it was quite cozy down in there. We met Weenail here, we’d been reading some of his funny journal entries back in Pennsylvania. Weenail’s real name is Brad, hence “wee” nail. We ended up hiking with or around him for about two days until he held back late in New Jersey and we kept pushing on.
The next morning we walked through High Point State Park, but did not get close to the monument. We came across the Circus and a few other hikers who were nursing a hang over in the middle of the trail. That was a very interesting few moments!
On our way to Unionville, NY (the trail weaves in and our of NJ and NY at this point) we passed a bazillion roads and attempted to count roads in order to determine how far we had to go to get to lunch and resupply. The problem ended up being that there were several other non-named forest roads that got in the way. This can present a problem to very hungry hikers! We eventually made it to Unionville and resupplied at the small grocery there. There is a hostel here that several people stayed at called the Mayor’s house, which I think was originally run by the mayor but someone else runs it now. Since we’d just stayed in the DWG we bypassed it. Hostels start becoming very thin here until you get to Dalton, Mass, so we were quite stinky for longer periods of time. Once we resupplied we ended up walking a mile down the trail and jumping onto NJ 284 to another deli that offered up internet access and more food so we killed a few hours there! WOO HOO FOR DELI’S! We were literally on the border there as a few steps down the road was the sign announcing you were entering New York.
We walked in the woods for awhile until we started a precarious road walk along Oil City Road on our way to the Wallkill National Wildlife Refuge. This was an awesome little section of trail, a nice change of pace.
It reminded me a bit of the impoundment wetlands in Palm Beach county.
We hit up the Pochuck Mountain Shelter after stopping at the house at the base that is owned by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection to fill up on water at the spigot. A few seconds after getting back on the trail is when we saw two more bears!
A section hiker playing some harmonica for us.
I guess we didn’t take too many pictures on our last day in New Jersey, but we spotted these lilies on the Pochuck Creek Footbridge. Moose & Tetherball were taking it slow to meet a relative to hike for the day so we went on ahead so we could stop at Heaven Hill Farm .1 off the trail at NJ 94. This is a must stop for baked goods, fresh fruit and veggies, ice cream and pie. We split a strawberry rhubarb pie with Weenail and another hiker and then wandered off for Wawaywanda Mountain. This is a bit of a doozy section from this mountain to the New York border.
After Wawaywanda Mountain we had lunch at 12 miles at the Wawayanda Shelter where we left Weenail for the last time. We were aiming to hit the first shelter into New York, a 24 mile day. This section was preparation for New York itself, a series of low rolling ups and downs, lots of PUDs. We walked along a rocky ridge in the blazing heat, hearing motorboats in the lake to the east and wishing we could be swimming. New York would prove to be a more difficult state the previous few states, but still very pretty.
Pennsylvania is one of the most talked about states on the trail. In fact, I’m wondering why more people don’t talk about New Hampshire; they seem to wait until Vermont to warn you about the Whites. Everyone knows that Pennsylvania is synonymous with rocks. My overall impression of Pennsylvania was that it was beautiful. We happened to be there when the mountain laurel was at its peak so that made it even better. The rocks….well, they just added a lot of pain mostly.
After we left MC at the PenMar park, we started heading for the Tumbling Run shelters with a brief stop at the Deer Lick Shelters, seen here. Yes, there are multiple shelters, mostly for non-snoring and snoring. It was here that we ran into Dreamcatcher, a younger guy of around 18 or 19, who we’d only met right after Harpers Ferry. He’d gotten stung by a bee and had an allergic reaction suddenly and had to hitch a ride to the hospital in Waynesboro, PA. He got back on the trail that afternoon, stating that he was even allowed a shower in the hospital—-stinky hikers!
The walk to the Tumbling Run shelters was really easy and smooth going. We got there at 4pm after putting in 18 miles. We’d debated going on to Chimney Rocks but decided against it after hearing thunder in the distance and chose a nap instead.
This privy came stocked with its own tp!
After lounging in the shelter for awhile reading old magazines, we got up and made dinner. MC rolled in a little bit later and while we were eating dinner in rolled Merf with two others. They turned out to be Cubbie and Dilly Dally! They’d started on April 2nd and we’d found out that they were hiking while on their honeymoon. Merf enticed us with her deli sandwich she’d bought back in Maryland while resupplying earlier that day and we all drooled as we ate our Knorr sides with packets of chicken.
Chris thought it would be fun to video people hanging their bear bags….Merf attempting hers.
MC hanging his bag.
Of course the next morning is when we woke up to a rattlesnake keeping an eye on my boots…that was the last time I left them down on the ground!
Our next supply was at U.S. 30 in Fayetteville and we had 9 miles to go in order to resupply and hit the Italian restaurant for lunch. We wanted to get in and get out. The walk up Chimney Rocks was pretty easy and I didn’t even see the Chimney Rocks. It was a little foggy at the top and I was intent on getting to food as soon as possible. We rolled in to the road pretty quickly and made a beeline for the west to Henicle’s grocery. This was an easy resupply, a bit of a pain to walk along the road, but .7 wasn’t too bad to walk. Cubbie and Dilly Dally had to do the same thing so we ran into them while there. The problem with smaller grocery stores is that they tend to really jack up the price on some items that normally wouldn’t be too bad, like packaged tuna. We managed to put together a decent resupply and set off for the Italian restaurant where we had lunch with Cubbie & Dilly Dally. There, we learned all about how they had met and how they’d been working in Thailand teaching English to kids. They had so many stories and it was awesome to get to know them a bit. We ordered subs to go after seeing Merf’s sub from the night before and headed on our way back to the trail.
This shelter is the Birch Run Shelter, but after getting back on the trail at U.S. 30 we went through Caledonia State Park and ended up at the Quarry Gap shelters. Somehow we didn’t end up with a photo of these shelters, probably because it started pouring the minute we got there, but they are the nicest ones I’ve seen on the trail. The trail maintainer comes up often and he has a little garden of container pots and keeps lanterns. He said he even had a lined trail of solar lights to light the pathway around the shelter but someone said something to the local ATC chapter and they made him remove them because it was taking away from the outdoor experience.
Anyway, we go to the Birch Run Shelter just in time for the bottom to fall out again. Merf and MC stayed there that night along with Cornpatch and Dreamcatcher and two other section hikers. Cubbie and Dilly Dally kept going to the next shelter since they were trying to make Duncannon by Cubbie’s birthday.
After a brief stop with Merf at the Toms Run Shelters….
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we hit the half way point for the AT! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!
Our next stop was Pine Grove Furnace State Park, home of the Half Gallon Challenge, being completed here by Cornpatch. It isn’t an official challenge, and you get a little wooden spoon for your efforts (and a stomachache).
Our initial intent on getting to Pine Grove Furnace State Park was to get there in time for the AT Museum opening. We’d heard from Baltimore Jack in Harpers Ferry that there might be free food involved and anytime food is involved, a hiker will walk faster.
I was surprised that there were so few thru-hikers there, maybe 10 of us, and there wasn’t free food, but at least there was food to buy.
We were disappointed that during the speeches that went on that there was no mention or asking about thru-hikers in the crowd. There were a few politicians patting themselves on the back, and Earl Shaffer’s brother and Grandma Gatewoods daughters, which we loved, but it wasn’t the celebration I was expecting. We had a good time anyway, meeting past thru-hikers like Pi and K’ache.
One of the shelters Earl Shaffer built.
Sporting our new ‘tattoos’.
About to head out after lounging around for much of the afternoon. Pi & K’ache said they would hike up to the Jame Fry shelter to bring beer for the night and camp out. We had about 8 more miles to go to get there and they turned out to be pretty easy. Pine Grove Furnace State Park was bustling on a muggy summer afternoon.
We got a little creative with the shelter register that night…ah, we should have done that more often.
James Fry shelter…packed house. At this point we were doing the shelter thing so we had to set up our tent instead.
Pennsylvania held our record for the longest day hiked….26.3 miles, a smidge over a marathon. The reasoning was to either stop at 12 miles at the hikers campsite in Boiling Springs or to go all the way to the Darlington Shelter at 26.3 miles because in between those places was the Cumberland Valley, where farms and houses back up to the AT.
The Cumberland Valley, very, very flat. It’s even hard to make out any mountains for a long time.
In Boiling Springs the ATC Mid-Atlantic Office was closed, but it provided a porch for sitting and a water spigot in the back to fill up with water before crossing the Cumberland Valley. We detoured into town a bit and had pizza for lunch. If we’d known about this bed and breakfast in town we would have stayed at it…for the life of me I can’t place the name, but apparently it was the sweetest deal on the trail with some of the best food and rooms for very little money. Instead, we kept on going, dodging a rain storm and the day turned out to be pretty nice. We ran into slightly strange/weird people #1 while crossing an interstate bridge. They were truckers, I got a weird vibe from them, Chris didn’t, and I couldn’t figure out where they had parked their truck to walk down on the trail. The friend of the truck driver had a disposable camera and after talking about the AT to us for awhile, asked to take a photo of us. We obliged and found out later Merf and MC, who’d stopped for a longer lunch in Boiling Springs, got asked the same thing.
Oh, I guess I should also mention because I will forget one day, that we took a break near some railroad tracks to call home. This is when mom told me that they had to put their cat Yoda down. She’d been going downhill for awhile and the previous day had been really sick.
We stopped for a quick break at the ATC Scott Farm Trail Work Center to fill up on water, passed the northern terminus of the Tuscarora Trail and arrived at the Darlington Shelter well after dinnertime. This is the view of the Cumberland Valley from up near the Darlington Shelter. Once we arrived at the shelter we saw two faces we hadn’t seen in a long time, Missionary and Boston. This shelter boasts one heck of a privy. It’s got two seats and could double as more sleeping space if it was really miserable weather (if one wanted to sleep in a privy). Merf and MC still hadn’t shown up by the time it was dark and just when I thought maybe they’d decided not to arrive that night, they showed up. Down below they’d gotten asked if they wanted to be taken in to someones house for food, shower and relaxation but they declined because Merf had to get to Duncannon the next day to meet as friend. See, you never know what kind of trail magic you might get.
The next morning we slept in since we only had 10 miles to go and weren’t in any rush to get into Duncannon, only to get there for lunch. It was an easy going morning and we ran into our second creepy dude near the Cove Mountain Shelter. As a back story two people were murdered here in 1991. First, this guy offered us Quaker Oat Squares to snack on as “trail magic”. Ok, not really too weird, but it was more of take a few out of his bag and eat them. They he proceeded to talk to us for forever. We just got a weird vibe, but he did give us good trail advice stating that the AT takes a turn to the right instead of going an easier, local way, which we found out later. MC said the guy bought him an entire box of cereal when he got into Duncannon.
Our room at the Doyle Hotel. The Doyle is trail renowned. It partly reminds me of a tenement from 1900, a hotel ad from 1920 and a bit like the hotel from The Shining. The walls are thin, the windows get held open with books or fans or other items, and a few people actually live in the hotel.
The food at the Doyle is really good, though. There aren’t too many places to eat in Duncannon, in fact the town was very run down. It used to be a big manufacturing town but all of those have closed down and the paint peels on most buildings. It was the first town that made me feel like I was in the North. The local grocery store also hosts a shuttle for hikers to resupply in the afternoon and they come by the Doyle to pick you up free of charge. You could walk, but you might be risking your life on the busy road to the grocery store. Trail Angel Mary also lives in Duncannon and will go above and beyond to help out hikers. Definitely toss her some money if you end up calling her!
After a breakfast at the diner across the street we left Duncannon and crossed the Susquehanna River and climbed up onto a ridge that provided an insight into the rockiness that lay ahead.
Cyren and Mo. Why yes, that is an iguana. This guy was walking south from Massachusetts. I have no idea if he finished or not.
Table Rock View
Peters Mountain Shelter. The shelter that is in the AT museum used to be at this location, now it is a double decker.
We found a cozy tenting site with Boston and a ‘section hiker’ (turned out to be someone who was probably homeless) at PA 325, Clark’s Valley, next to a really nice stream. Chris tried fishing to no avail. You know, one thing I remember about PA was that we heard a lot of gunshots. A lot. I think Pennsylvanians really enjoy their right to bear arms. I don’t remember any other state having that many gunshots. The following morning we woke up to overcast sky and a chill in the air. The weather back in Duncannon had said it was going to rain today and as seen in Rocksylvania, New Bearsy, New Deli?, it ended up raining. The bottom fell out around Rausch Gap Shelter just after we’d passed Cubbie and Dilly Dally getting water and though we’d done 14 miles by lunch it was miserable and I had no interest in eating in the rain. So, we ended up under the bridge for the day. I think some people get a kick out of us staying under a bridge for the night, but you know, I wasn’t wet and miserable so I really didn’t care. It wasn’t like it was a major street corner with cars passing by, it was mostly quiet and enjoyable. We were visited by Chewy who was looking pretty awful himself, but luckily his house was nearby and he was going home to get dry and earn some extra cash. Lightning and Ring Leader from the Traveling Circus came by soaking wet; they were slackpacking Pennsylvania. Monkey had had enough of the rain and hitched a ride to their hotel. I think…wait, I know…this is the day that made me despise rain on the trail and to always keep a wary eye on the clouds.
We left Swatara Gap and entered the most overgrown and poison ivy infested part of the trail. It didn’t help that everything was still wet from the day before, but we made it through.
At the 501 Shelter for lunch we ordered pizza from a nearby deli; I think this might be where one starts eating their way down the trail instead of hiking. Food is everywhere for several hundred miles after.
Inside the 501 Shelter. We leapfrogged Cubbie and Dilly Dally the entire day and while we finally stopped to camp at Black Swatara Spring, they kept going to meet friends in Port Clinton. The campsite was nice and quiet except sometime later we heard low singing or humming. It was very creepy but I am guessing someone else was camping nearby. I really loved the campsite and I recommend stopping there instead of heading to the Eagles’ Nest Shelter a bit further. The next morning our destination was Port Clinton to pick up a mail drop and eat some lunch. We stopped near the Sand Spring Trail and saw a sign for trail magic in the spring. We almost passed it but Chris decided to go down and see what might be there and boy were we glad he did. Sodas! Sodas galore! On our way down to Port Clinton I realized that sometimes trail maintainers are idiots. They would weave you off a nice path onto the worst rocky path possible. And then the trail down into Port Clinton is incredibly steep and rocky, but it was just a preparation for New Hampshire. I think everything is prep for NH!
In Port Clinton we walked down to the town pavilion where they let people sleep. We didn’t stay, just went to see who was there and what was going on, and we met this little kitten we decided to name Katahdin. The outfitter in town was closed so we hit up the Port Clinton Hotel for lunch. By the way, do not order the large fry; not even hikers can finish this! We grabbed our mail drop from the post office, made a restroom pit stop at the barber shop across the street and bought sodas from the guy and made our way out of Port Clinton for the Windsor Furnace Shelter.
Windsor Furnace Shelter. We were the only thru-hikers there, though we thought Cubbie and Dilly Dally would show up, but they had decided to stay in town with their friends for the night.
The next morning we set out for The Pinnacle. It looked to be threatening rain and was overcast. We could hear roads for quite awhile that day and I remember thinking it was annoying to be so close to roads. We thought this pile of rocks was what they used to ply the trail with rocks in PA.
On the Pinnacle. Chris went exploring a bit and ran into a group of teenagers who were camping for the night. He said when they found out he was a thru-hiker they treated him like royalty. They were making bacon for breakfast and gave us some as trail magic.
For lunch we made it to the Eckville Shelter. The caretaker came by once and told us a few things but we didn’t get any popsicles like other people mentioned in the shelter register. Chris took a shower here and ended up leaving a pair of underwear behind.
The trail from the Eckville Shelter to the Allentown Hiking Club Shelter was rough and rocky. I fell once and got extremely frustrated with the rocks everywhere. Luckily after we hit the Allentown shelter things smoothed out a little and we were able to cruise down the trail.
We heard thunder rumbling in the background as we approached the New Tripoli Campsite. When we arrived we found a Boy Scout troop. Boy Scouts on the trail are generally disliked, mostly because the leaders don’t seem to control the scouts. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good troops like the one at this campsite, but sometimes the troops take over the shelter (the shelters are supposed to be for thru-hikers first), leave trash everywhere and are generally rowdy and disruptive. If they have good leaders they are very respectful and will end up asking questions on the trail and general gear questions which is what this group did. They gave us some insight on the next day of Knife Edge and Bear Rocks.
Knife Edge. We had planned 12 miles to get to Palmerton for lunch to meet our friend Rich for lunch. It was a bit slow going at first because of the Knife Edge, Bear Rocks and then losing the trail on Bake Oven Knob. The trail was not well marked on Bake Oven Knob. We stopped for a second at the Bake Oven Knob Shelter and kept on going. We ended up having some nice, smooth trail on our way to Palmerton. We started seeing our first blueberries before descending into Palmerton and we resisted the urge to eat them, however, because of the Palmerton Superfund Site issues. We made it to Palmerton in time to for lunch and we ended up at McDonald’s and eating ice cream at a local parlor. It started threatening rain and we debated staying at the police station in Palmerton for the night instead. Yes, you can stay at the police station in Palmerton, get a shower and a bed with a proper id….no handcuffs required. We ended up opting out of it and decided to continue on despite more threatening rain.
The mountains around Palmerton are completely deforested from a century of zinc smelting that occurred in the region. Exposed rock is everywhere and it looks like another world. When we descended into Palmerton we saw a rock cliff and knew that we were going up it. It is called one of the first tough climbs south of the Whites, and it was the first time we were pulling ourselves up rocks and squishing through places. It happened to be extremely humid and thick and I ended up feeling very queasy. We ended up getting poured on at the top and sat under a tree for twenty minutes or so. My shorts were soaked from sweat and rain and I felt like I was walking with a wet diaper.
More rain seemed to be coming our way so we found a slightly sheltered place on top before Little Gap and made camp in hopes of drying out a bit. It was early so we dozed in the tent and generally loafed about. We woke the next morning to more overcast skies and headed for an unknown destination somewhere near Wind Gap. This section from Palmerton to the Leroy Smith Shelter, 16 miles, is primarily waterless. We attempted to find water near the Delps Trail to no luck, never saw the Stempa Spring trail, but if you are desperate you can walk 1 mile west to a house on Smith Gap Rd if you can’t make it to the Leroy Smith Shelter. That shelter even has three springs to try; we had to go to the second spring to get water. In this section we’d gone I think it was two days without seeing any northbound thru-hikers and all of a sudden we ran into everyone it seemed. We saw Cubbie and Dilly Dally first, then met Spark and Caboose for the first time and Moose and Tetherball walked in shortly after. It was a mini-reunion!
We made our way for Wind Gap where we filled up on water at the Gateway Motel and picked up some sodas to carry up. We made camp somewhere after Wind Gap because my feet were hurting pretty bad from the rocks, getting squished and pinched every which way. This was the night of our 8th wedding anniversary and we had Mountain House! WOO!
When we were eating breakfast the next morning we met Maple who’d started in early April. We passed her fairly quickly after we left as we made our way for Delaware Water Gap. Chris and I put on the mp3 player since we knew it would be charged soon and listened to Pat Green, U2 and others as we finished the last miles of Pennsylvania. We passed a few people that morning, a lady taking photos and others our for exercise. When we reached the Kirkridge Shelter everyone was talking about leaving the rocks behind but only Beefstick who’d hiked the trail before, uttered the true words in his usual sarcasm that we were definitely not seeing our last rocks on the trail. Rocks would continue, only in a different form. On the last descent into Delaware Water Gap we met some section hikers who warned us about rocks going down into town, but we found them not hard at all and warned them about Palmerton.
We made it to the Presbyterian Church of the Mountain Hostel in good time for lunch and met up with Moose and Tetherball, the Traveling Circus, MC, Snack Attack, Maple and others. We’d missed Merf by a few hours as she’d kept on going and Spark and Caboose kept on going as well. Cubbie and Dilly Dally were staying with relatives for the night. Delawater Water Gap is a good place for having a package mailed to you as there is not a formal grocery store in town. You can pick up enough at the outfitters and gas stations to get you a few days down the trail into New Jersey, but you might want to try to find the bus to get you into Stroudsburg, PA for a better resupply. Definitely eat at the apple pie place while you are there. It’s a farmers market/apple pie bakery that is absolutely delicious. We also ate at a nicer restaurant in town for our anniversary dinner: scallops are much better than Mountain House. The hostel does not have laundry so you will be doing everything in the sink and hanging it to dry. Washing clothes in the sink is really gross; you never realize how much dirt you have in your clothes until you see it first hand. We had a good breakfast at the Delawater Water Gap diner and then mosied over the Delaware River and into New Jersey.
What can I say about Maryland? It is short and sweet and I really enjoyed it. Only 41 miles of the trail go through Maryland from the C&O towpath to the Mason Dixon line in Pennsylvania.
Along the C&O towpath; a very nice walk along the Potomac on one side and the towpath on the other. There is no camping along the river, but I’m sure that doesn’t stop some stealthy hikers.
After we left Harpers Ferry we went about 10 miles to the Crampton Gap shelter. It was easy terrain so we stopped at the Ed Garvey shelter to check out the pretty sweet shelter design, a double decker loft type shelter. The late afternoon sun was peeking through the forest from the west and we kept on hiking to Gathland State Park where we stopped to refill our water because it was rumored that water was not good at the Crampton Gap Shelter. There were also coke machines but they were eating money instead of giving anything and we stopped for a nice bathroom break, too. Once we got to the shelter no one else was there but that wasn’t for long when Apollo and Major Chafage showed up. MC as he became to be known, was a bit of a legend in the log books. I honestly imagined an older guy, but he was our age and sported a 70′s-esque mustache. We could hear people in houses or on a lake down below; we weren’t quite sure what we were located next to.
The mountain laurel was blooming profusely in Maryland and in southern PA which made it so beautiful to walk through. I think that also helped in my esteem of Maryland. We had a relatively easy walk the following day of 21 miles. We passed by the Dahlgren Backpackers Campground where you can get a shower and kept on going for the Washington Monument.
What? You were envisioning the tall white monument in D.C.? Nope, this one is even older than that one and probably a little more unique.
We climbed to the top of the monument and talked to a southbound section hiker about what was coming up.
The rest of the day was pretty easy. We took an extended lunch at Pine Knob shelter and talked to a hiker named Hobbit who was attempting the 4 state challenge. (Va, West Va, Maryland, PA in 24 hours. It’s something like 50 miles or so). He was taking a long nap and was hoping to finish the challenge later that night. We did eventually find out he stopped about five miles short because of exhaustion.
After Pine Knob shelter our goal was the Free State Hiker Hostel so we could order pizza for dinner. I have to say I was very impressed with this hostel. The walk down the road was a bit hairy; a two lane road with no shoulder to walk on. When we arrived we followed the signs asking hikers to walk around the rather large house to the back entrance which led to a separate section of the house just for hikers. The place was immaculate and housed a lot of bunks, a computer, sodas, and a phone to all the owners of the hostel to let them know you were there. We were able to order up our pizzas, check our email, probably could’ve taken a shower if we’d wanted and flipped through some of the postcards and thank you notes from previous hikers. Two section hikers came in later and we chatted with them for awhile. Cornpatch, another thru-hiker ended up order pizza here as well. My recommendation for thru-hikers is to stay at the Bears Den south of Harpers Ferry, jet in and out of Harpers Ferry and then stop at the Free State Hikers hostel and then go all the way to Duncannon, PA after that (or, well, there’s another stop in between, but more on that later).
After filling up on grub we went to the Ensign Cowell shelter which was .2 off the road. MC, Merf, Cornpatch, Apollo and a few other hikers were there, including some very strange southbound hikers. Apparently the three of them, two hiking together and one was alone, had started the northern section the previous fall and were trying to wrap up a thru-hike in a year. I say they were strange because, well, they were. One of them was carrying a blow gun and was ex-Army. Someone told us he killed someones pet rabbit with it. The woman and her brother also were strange, telling all sorts of warning stories about Pennsylvania, an anti-pitbull rant, smoking up a storm with no regard for where the smoke was going and generally just obnoxious and loud. I slept horribly in the shelter that night because the ex-Army guy kept waking up, turning his headlamp on, making noises, and I swear I smelled pot. It was pretty miserable. MC got up in the night and set up his tent, I think because of how bad the noise was.
The next morning we got up and had 9.8 miles to go to hit the Pennsylvania border and the Mason Dixon line. We had a bit of a rocky climb up around Devils Racecourse and High Rock, but not as bad as we were expecting for being so close to Pennsylvania. After having lunch at Pen Mar County Park (soda machines…!) and watching MC Yogi* food from some senior citizens having a picnic, we mosyed over to the Mason Dixon line and officially left the south.
*Yogi: as in Yogi the Bear, begging food from people, giving puppy dog eyes, intentionally sitting next to people and talking about being a hiker and being hungry in order to get awesome food. Urban Dictionary reference
Shenandoah National Park is known on the trail as the point in which you can really speed up. Some refer to it as the Appalachian Highway. It isn’t ‘flat’, but the terrain is very smooth and there are lots of flatter, easier, miles. After signing in at the kiosk just outside of the national park boundary we set off for five days through the park. The first day was mostly non-eventful, a few mist showers but that was it. The park has mile markers very frequently especially at roadways and trail intersections so it is very easy to figure out where you are and how far you have to go.
Our first night in the park we stayed at Blackrock Hut (called huts instead of shelters in the park, but not like the huts in the Whites) and it was packed. We thought we’d have to tent but the tent sites were full so we ended up staying in the crowded shelter. Buckwheat and Peace-o-Cake were at this shelter. We hadn’t seen them since Fontana Dam. They’d take a week off to go their son’s graduation and had just got back on the trail. Also, we met Sideways D and Moonshine for the first time after having followed their journal entries for awhile.
After winding our way around Blackrock (no view because of fog) we crossed mp 84.3 and looked to our right and found a bear on the road! Little did we know we’d see a ton of bears in the park, 13 to be exact. The Shenandoah’s have Waysides and campstores that are fairly close to the trail. This offers up ample opportunities to fill up on sodas and candy along the way. We stopped in at the Loft Mountain store to eat some ice cream and drink soda before heading to the Pinefield Shelter for lunch.
Pinefield Hut; taking a break from a quick rain shower.
After a 21 mile day we rolled into Hightop Hut after seeing another bear on our way up Little Roundtop Mountain. We met Tup, a hiker from Scotland, here, someone else we’d been seeing in the journal registers.
Tup, Sideways D and Moonshine and other hikers at the Hightop Hut.
Hanging your food!
Ah, another type of trail angel, trail maintainers! There would have been a lot of spring growth to wade through if it wasn’t for some of these guys out there working to maintain the trail for us.
Somewhere near the South River Picnic Grounds is the 900 mile mark!
In a little over two months we’d walked 900 miles! It was starting to feel more real at this point, something more attainable.
We saw a plethora of deer in the Shennies, most likely because there is no hunting in national parks. We would walk for weeks sometimes and not see deer anywhere else.
A stop at the Lewis Mountain campground store for some grub! Right before coming up to the campground we ran into a momma bear with some cubs. We were able to ease on by without any issues, but it was fun to see the little babies scurrying up the tree. Momma didn’t seem to care, just eyed us a bit and kept on foraging.
Hippity hoppity! After a climb up Hazeltop and some nice cruising afterward we pulled into the Big Meadows Wayside at 3pm, wrapping up 20 miles.
Big Meadows Wayside
We had an early dinner with Tup and resupplied a bit for the next few days. I think it was mostly to supplement what we had coming out of Waynesboro.
We left the wayside and went 4.5 more miles to the Rock Spring Hut.
Sunset at the Rockspring Hut. Walk down to the cabin a few hundred yards passed the shelter for this view.
Section hikers around the campfire at Rockspring Hut.
The next morning we stopped by the Crescent Rock overlook before bypassing the Skyland hotel for breakfast which some hikers stop in for. Our goal for the day was to make 23 miles by dinner to have food from the Elkwallow Wayside.
Another bear sighting! We stealthed somewhere in the middle of a tick field passed Elkwallow Gap and saw a bear on the way so we were sure to hang our food!
On our last day in Shenandoah we did about 20 miles of mostly non-eventful hiking. It became cloudy and a bit drizzly and there weren’t any views. After a brief stop at the Tom Floyd Wayside, a big misnomer by the way, it isn’t a wayside it’s a shelter, we powered on and stealthed about a half mile from U.S. 522. Houses were on the east side of us and a big, fenced field was to our west. It was thundering and lightning on our way down from the wayside so we booked it and the storm ended up fizzling out.
The next morning we were anticipating some trail magic from fellow hikers, The Traveling Circus at the Jim and Molly Denton Shelter, but we were a bit early and they hadn’t started cooking anything yet so we ate bagels, drank orange juice and hung out for about an hour until we decided that if we were going to make it 24ish miles to the Rod Hollow Shelter that we had better get booking it.
The walk along this route was historic and very beautiful. Several Civil War battles were fought around this area.
A resident copperhead at the Manasses Gap shelter. Everyone wrote about it in the logbook and sure enough there it was hiding out in the rocks. I am very glad we didn’t stay there!
The Dick’s Dome Shelter, a very interesting and tight design. Tup stopped here for the day and we kept going, passing through Sky Meadows State Park. I loved this park and am sad I do not have photos of the park. It was open and beautiful walking through the park. We stopped for the night at the Rod Hollow Shelter and it happened to be packed. I chose to go to this shelter because The Rollercoaster started after this. The Rollercoaster is a series of 13 straight up and straight down climbs over 13.5 or so miles. We heard from the weekend hikers that it was pretty rough. These same hikers also shared some hot dogs with us so we greatly enjoyed the trail magic even though the shelter and camping spots around it were packed. This shelter is also the only time we ran into a homeless person, or at least the only one we knew of. He got his checks in Front Royal and came on to the trail and went shelter to shelter. Once he realized it was packed for the night he moved on.
A blurry photo of the sign and me about The Rollercoaster. It’s a warning sign of sorts, half joking/half real.
Somewhere along the way we started carrying dog treats, mostly for the trail dogs who were with their thru-hiker owners, but eventually it became for the weekend dogs. Most people were very nice and let their dogs have treats, but sometimes you’d run into an owner who didn’t want their dog to have a treat! Poor pup!
A little more than halfway through The Rollercoaster is the Bears Den Hostel. We were there for lunch, too early to stay over, but if you get the chance this is a super awesome hostel to stay at. We were greeted by an intern who stays at the hostel and gave us some homemade soup. We used the internet for free, free phone calls, you can watch a movie, take a shower with a donation, they have sodas for donation; it’s an oasis in the middle of 13 ups and downs.
Finally, we were leaving Virginia and entering West Virginia!
Goodbye Virginia Blues!
We noticed this mark on a tree near Wilson Gap. We determined that was probably the 1000 mile mark. 1,000 miles walked! Almost half the trail was walked and it was so exciting to see in that later afternoon glow in the woods.
We stopped at the Blackburn Trail Center, which is a shelter/trail center run by the Potomac ATC. We’d heard that they often have dinner for hikers but that night we happened to arrive when everyone was elsewhere for another dinner. A trail volunteer was there later on to answer questions and to chat about the trail.
Catching up on the outside world by reading a magazine. You are also supposed to be able to see the Washington Monument from the trail center but it was much too hazy for us to see anything. I remember listening to NPR that night in the shelter, and Parliament was having their opening session. It was hilarious to listen to how raucous they get, quite entertaining to go to sleep by.
With only 13 miles to go to reach Harpers Ferry we were very excited and quick paced that morning. I remember there were some rocks covering the path, foreboding of Pennsylvania, and it frustrated me because I wanted to go faster to get to Harpers Ferry so we could meet Meghan and Jesse, our friends from college.
Coming down into the Shenandoah River valley I started crying a bit. They were happy tears, tears of amazement that I’d made it to Harpers freakin’ Ferry! 1,000 miles of trail had been walked.
We took the blue blaze into town to get to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy offices so we could get our photos taken and our official number.
#’s 153 and 154. It was fun flipping through to see who was ahead of us and by how much.
For being such a talked about town, Harpers Ferry isn’t as hiker friendly as one might think. Hostels and affordable hotels are lacking and there is not a grocery store in town. You can take a bus to the next town to get to Walmart, but if you want to pass in and out, shipping yourself a drop box to the ATC is a must. There are a few outfitters there which are worthwhile and the town itself is pretty cool and full of history.
Gig ‘em!
We stayed at the Townes Inn which has a hostel section, but we upgraded a bit and got a private room upstairs. They were very friendly and if you need to stay in town, they are worth checking out.
We stayed in town late the next day, leaving well after lunch in order to spend time online and to rest up a bit. And this is where we met Merf for the first time as she came in to resupply, check email and get her photo taken with the ATC.
And we walked passed the Jefferson Rock, across the Potomac River and into Maryland.
There are really two parts to leaving Pearisburg, a part one and a part two. The first part involved my dad coming to Pearisburg to hike with us to Catawba. We left out of Pearisburg late in the afternoon with a goal of seven miles and to hit Rice Field Shelter.
On our way to the ridge we passed a large black snake and several slipper orchids. My dad was the one to spot them so we we were quite excited to see our first orchids on the trail. Dad had a bit of a hard time not being in the trail shape we were, but we took lots of breaks and made it to the top in plenty of time.
The Rice Field Shelter is situated just inside the trees and right out front is a spacious grass field that offers up a beautiful view of West Virginia to the northwest and a nice sunset back to the west.
This shelter also happened to have one of the better privies with a view, as in there was only one wall behind you to block your view from the shelter. The only problem with this was that the path down to the water was right by the privy so you’d better hope no one would be coming up from the opposite direction!
A super awesome sunset!
We left out the following morning intending to do 12 miles to Pine Swamp Branch Shelter for the night. It was a beautiful morning and we took our time going up and down the ridge.
And then somewhere between Dickinson Gap and Peters Mountain we heard the phone ring. That wasn’t normal because we didn’t leave our phone on during the hike. Chris had left it on by accident while getting water in the morning and when it rang I knew something was up.
Prior to leaving for our hike we’d found out that my brother and sister in law were going to have their second child. It was anticipated to be born in late April and we were going to miss the birth of who we would later find out to be Ashleigh. Well, God and Ashleigh changed their minds and she arrived early in late January instead and spent 104 days in the NICU until she left us that evening before during that beautiful sunset over Rice Field. The post above titled Angel Ashleigh chronicles some of how we got off the trail that day. We all flew home that evening and Chris and I spent five days at home. It was incredibly hard to leave to get back on the trail again. My brother even asked me to stay, but I couldn’t and I think he knew that.
Up until this moment quitting the trail was an option in my head. I know it wasn’t for Chris, but for me, it was. It was long, it was hard and I missed the hell out of everyone. But, going home I realized that I had to finish.
While I was home I went wild and dyed my hair pink!
We got back on the trail around lunch time five days later and thought we’d only do three miles and go to sleep since we had an early morning, but we kept on going and did 12 miles to War Spur Shelter for the night.
Remember the Captain’s place in the previous post? Well, we found his place and Chris zip lined across the stream and got some sodas for us.
Bailey Gap Shelter
Azaleas
At War Spur Shelter we slept in until a very late 9am and this ended up being lucky for us. Oh, I should mention when we got back on the trail Trail Days was going on and the place was quiet. Everyone we knew was ahead of us by a week and we were planning on meeting completely new people. We stayed in the shelter at War Spur with one other person and he was gone when we woke up. By lingering long enough that morning we met Moose & Tetherball, our first April starters. Initially I thought they were a couple, but found out they were old highschool friends who’d just graduated college and were out doing something awesome before they began ‘real life’.
We leap frogged Moose & Tetherball that day, dropped by the Keffer Oak for a hug….
and Chris posed with the Eastern Continental Divide sign. We got some rain on a very rocky ridge and were glad it wasn’t too slick. We ended up staying with Moose & Tetherball at the Niday Shelter that night.
Our third day back on the trail we had to climb up 1500′ to the Audie Murphy monument. I remember we took a break on a switchback not realizing how close we were to the top and to a bench. Yes a bench. It’s really annoying to climb mountains that have roads on them. Sometimes you feel cheated knowing others can just drive on up a mountain and you walked your butt up it.
We were rewarded after coming down from the mountain that at Va. 620 and Trout Creek was some trail magic! Ahhh, yes!
The biggest thing looming was Dragon’s Tooth. I’d heard it was steep and slick and a bit scary. Since it was cloudy with off and on rain that day I was even more nervous, but the climb up from Pickle Branch Shelter was not too bad. We knew we’d arrived at Dragon’s Tooth when we saw it crawling with Virginia Tech students. They were bouncing all around like it was no big deal and wearing random clothes not particularly suited for the weather or terrain. Chris went out to the Dragon’s Tooth but I didn’t and we didn’t get any photos from it. I think if there had been a view I’d of taken the opportunity.
Coming off of Dragon’s Tooth. Little did I know that this was a mini-preview for the Whites.
We ended up stealth camping somewhere after Va. 624 near a creek as per what was recommended in Moose & Tetherball’s guide book. They kept going and since they were much faster than us I thought I’d never see them again. Little did I know that the trail has a way of bringing people back around to each other.
We had a plan the next morning to get into Catawba where we had a mail drop at the general store. It was a mile downhill to the store and we spent twenty minutes trying to hitch to no avail so we walked. Catawba hosts a restaurant called The Homeplace, which is renowned for being the AT hikers best buffet. We were bad hikers and did not go, instead we stayed and ate lunch at the general store. While at the store we met several long distance bicyclists who were coming from Pennsylvania to Oregon. Apparently there are trails all over the US for long distances bikers. We had no luck hitching out of Catawba, so it was another mile walk back up hill to the trail. 2 bonus miles, yes!!
On our way up to hiker renowned McAfee Knob, we stopped in at the two shelters prior to the knob and found chocolate at the Catawba Mountain shelter. More trail magic!
Finally, we were at McAfee Knob!
It was a very easy hike up and we spent a good while on top snacking, making phone calls, and getting more trail magic from a day hiker and his dog. If you see that ridge in the back there, that is the ridge we walked on after McAfee Knob in order to get to Tinker Cliffs. Unfortunately we got to Tinker Cliffs and a lightning storm was coming and we wanted to get off the cliffs before it got closer so we raced down to the Lamberts Meadow Shelter which ended up being a packed house. It was also a miserable nights sleep because of noseeums and it was too hot to be completely covered up in our sleeping bags, but that’s what we had to do. I think everyone tossed and turned that night.
We headed 10 miles the next morning to Daleville, Virginia where we got a motel room for the night. A few miles outside of town we ran into TinTin and Fredo, two people we hadn’t seen since the Smokies. In town we caught back up to Moose & Tetherball at the outfitter as they were heading out of town. We lazed about the town eating Mexican, bar-b-que and resupplying at the grocery store before we left town the next morning. We were about to start paralleling the Blue Ridge Parkway.
After a brief stop at the Fullhardt Knob Shelter to check out the weird water cistern system that the shelter hosts, we stopped at somewhere near Curry Creek for lunch. We stopped for the day at Bobblets Gap Shelter where a few section hikers were staying but also our friends Moose & Tetherball who had done shorter miles because Tetherball had caught some stomach bug. We got to chat and catch up on the past few days and then it started to rain where it rained most of the night. The next morning along the Blue Ridge Parkway was cloudy, drizzly and foggy for most of the day.
At the Bryant Ridge Shelter for lunch we’d already done 14 miles. It was a bit chilly and we took some time to heat a hot lunch. We met Angela and Sweet Tooth at this shelter. I originally thought they were brother and sister but found out they were actually married. I guess people do sorta resemble each other after awhile! This shelter is a triple decker and sleep 20. The section hikers we were with the night before chose to stay here, but we were glad we were moving on because we passed two groups of an Outward Bound type group.
A little down time reading at the Cornelius Creek Shelter. Oh, I will say that the Natural Bridge Trail Club has built some really nice privies in this section, privies large enough to move around in and change clothes and with a lot of light from the outside. Some of the best ones on the trail, I think.
Apple Orchard Mountain
The next day we went up Apple Orchard Mountain, we stopped to take photos at the Guillotine.
It was a pretty cloudy day, but luckily no real rain as we came down into the James River near Glasgow, VA.
Before descending into the valley we met up with Angela and Sweet Tooth again and talked about splitting a shuttle to Glasgow for our resupply. We called the shuttle listed in the book and split a ride into town. We found out that it was a very tiny place and a small grocery store and Dollar General would be our resupply. Dinner was also going to consist of a gas station burger, which does well when you are hungry. Luckily we only had 1.5 miles after dinner and resupply to walk to the Johns Hollow Shelter.
We saw a bear very near the shelter when leaving the next morning. It is very wise to keep hanging your food and not get complacent about bears in the area.
Punchbowl Shelter, where apparently the ghost of Ottie Powell, a kid who got lost on Bluff Mountain in 1890 and perished, haunts.
Sunning ourselves on Cold Mountain after staying at Brown Mountain Creek the previous night. This section involved a fun 3,000′ climb from the creek up to Bald Knob and Cold Mountain. It was a gorgeous day so we didn’t mind too much.
Seeley-Woodworth Shelter, well, where we camped there!
After leaving the Seeley Woodworth Shelter our next goal was to go up Main Top Mountain and The Priest. At the Priest Shelter the log book becomes a confessional sort of book, with people ‘confessing’ their trail sins. Some were funny, some were anti-Catholic, some were just regular old logs. Luckily we got to go down the Priest into the Tye River valley instead of up it, but we got ours on the other side climbing up Three Ridges.
Tye River; fun fishing for Chris.
On our way up Three Ridge we weren’t sure we were on the trail at times because the blazing was pretty terrible. On top we met a hiker who was staying on top for the night and told us he’d just left a mental hospital for depression and was out here to recuperate a bit.
We pulled our longest day thus far, almost 23 miles, to the Maupin Field Shelter which was completely packed with section hikers and weekenders. We noticed a great increase on the trail in popular areas during the weekend.
Chicken of the Woods
We had a rainy day from Maupin Field Shelter to the Paul C. Wolfe Shelter starting at the Humpback Rock area along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We made a quick lunch somewhere near Humpback Rocks just prior to the rain and we walked pretty quickly the rest of the way down to the shelter. On our way we passed a group of Mennonite women wearing full ponchos and full dresses with tennis shoes. They were doing a section hike south. We arrived at the shelter fairly early with plenty of time to stake out a place in the shelter and lounge around the whole afternoon. Somewhere around Three Ridge the previous day we met Big Fork and Little Spoon. They were hiking with another older guy and apparently along the Blue Ridge Parkway they made a sign saying Hungry Hikers and basically asked for food. They came away with some good stuff ranging from crackers and yogurt to shrimp and other good stuff. They ended up sharing some food with us and the other hikers in the shelter….hooray for hungry hikers! Sometimes you felt like a bottomless pit and nothing could satisfy you.
The photo above was from Waynesboro where we ended up spending a very nearo day. We arrived at the visitor center at Rockfish Gap along the Blue Ridge Parkway and called for a shuttle. A shuttle list is on the back of the visitors center so you can call a list of Trail Angels to pick you up and take you to town. When our shuttle arrived he was dropping off Moose & Tetherball! Our first stop for the day was to Weasie’s Kitchen for breakfast. While there we talked to a lady next to us for awhile about the trail and we paid up and left. We had to walk up the road to the hotel since the hostel was closed on Sunday (a church). On our way to the hotel a customer from the restaurant came to flag us down to tell us that the women we’d been talking with had paid for our meal and for us to go back and get a refund for double paying! Wow! That was so nice! Since our room wasn’t ready we just walked back down to the kitchen and then across the street to do some laundry. We had a relaxing stay in Waynesboro, ate at the wonderful Ming Garden Chinese buffet and overall had a great trail town experience in Waynesboro.
The next day after picking up a new pair of boots at the post office we left for the Shenandoah’s.
Well, I did find a few photos from Damascus, this one being The Place, the hostel we stayed at. When we arrived in town we ran into Pirate and his friend at the outfitter and they told us where to find the hostel, next to the burning pile of rubble. Sure enough there was a pile of rubble as the house next door had burned down!
The trail goes straight through Damascus so it is easy to stop in and resupply.
Apparently after talking to a few other hikers we learned that the AT used to follow the Virginia Creeper trail. I think it would have been awesome for it to continue down the trail as the VC trail follows streams and is very beautiful. However, the AT is now rerouted off of roads and other trails, in most parts, and the trail only stays along the VC in a few points. After heading out of Damascus our goal was 16 miles to the Lost Mountain Shelter. We started gaining elevation and the trail was definitely easier than it had been the previous states. On our way to the Saunders shelter we got a bit lost, following a blue blazed trail after the white blazed one hadn’t been properly painted. We wandered around down on the VC trail for awhile before realizing our error.
We had a beautiful day climbing up the highest point in Virginia, well, almost to the top of Mt. Rogers. The trail bypasses the viewless summit and we had lunch at the Thomas Knob shelter. It wasn’t long after we finished lunch that we realized a storm was brewing and we still had five miles to go to get to the Wise shelter and make it across the Grayson Highlands.
The Grayson Highlands are such an awesome place, covered with ponies and awesome rock formations. It was a magical place that I’d love to explore with more time.
The park was also extremely busy with hikers crawling over it everywhere.
We go to the shelter at a decent hour and in time for the rain to start. We met up with a section hiker who was doing Pearisburg to Erwin and it was interesting the next morning when he told us “Have a nice life!”, which is basically how it is out there, you won’t see anyone ever again, much less know their real name.
Our next day was to be our biggest, 20 miles, and also a milestone of passing the 500 mile mark on Pine Mtn.
Comers Creek Falls.
Trimpi Shelter.
Trimpi shelter, one of the shelters that have fire places.
There were a ton of morel mushrooms at this campsite, verified by others in the shelter log, so we picked some and ate a few for dinner. We also had an extra dinner from the section hikers the night before so we ate that as well, but either the mushrooms or the extra dinner made us a bit sick.
A nicer privy in the south. I loved being able to breathe! The privies that are more enclosed tend to be dark and suffocating. Half the time I’d leave the door open and hope no one would walk around. It is common courtesy to shout at the privy and ask if anyone is in there!
Rain was on the agenda for the next day with drizzle and some downpours that ended up soaking my pants since I decided not to put my rain pants on. Luckily we made it to the Mt. Rogers Visitor Center where the Partnership Shelter is located. This is one of the first places on the trail you can order pizza for delivery. The shelter is located about a quarter mile down the trail from the visitor center, but the visitor center has a pay phone, restroom and soda’s to buy. Pretty nice place to break! We took our leftovers to the Chatfield Shelter for the night where a full shelter forced us to pitch our tent.
Packing up the next morning. Our next goal was to hit up the town of Atkins four miles away for a resupply and a stay in a motel.
The Exxon and other gas stations on the road intersections are a great resupply and the Exxon has internet for customers. We stayed at the very cheap, but moderately clean motel next door.
The barn restaurant has the best food and for cheap! We ate there for every meal.
Heading out of town we ran into the Traveling Circus at various locations as we headed for our destination on Lynn Camp Mtn for the night. We also were lucky to come across some trail magic near Va. 42, peanut butter sandwiches and sodas!
Several stiles to cross farm fields.
This section is plagued by a series of mountains that are generically called Brushy Mountain. You’ll go up one and down another and they aren’t even near each other! It’s similar to the Low Gap’s and Deep Gap’s you run into in the south.
After going up Chestnut Knob and across a rocky ridge we passed Jenkins shelter in favor of a campsite that was in the middle of a stream. A little water crossing and we were there!
Making jello in the stream. We learned this from another hiker and thought we’d give it a whirl. It was the only time we made it but really delicious!
The next morning we got up early to go into Bland. It wasn’t our initial intent to go into the town but we’d only resupplied a few days back in Atkins so we had to go into town. Luckily Dark Star’s grandparents were meeting him and graciously allowed us and another hiker Beefstick to tag along and get some food in Bland.
Since our goal was to the Helveys Mill Shelter only three miles past Bland we carried out some food to cook over a fire! Nothing beats eating ‘real’ food for dinner.
At that shelter was where we first met Bulldog the blind hiker. I wonder if he finished?
Jenny Knob Shelter for lunch. This is where we last saw our friend Red Hat who was making her way south to Damascus for Trail Days. I remember my lunch from that day involved some cheese dip in a can with pepperoni and tortillas. Mmmm!
Good ol’ switchbacks!
That day was the day we saw our first bears (see post above), not too far before…
the Kimberling Creek suspension bridge. At Va. 606 we took a detour west to have dinner at Trent’s grocery. We thought about staying but heard some sketchy things about the cleanliness of the showers and so we decided to eat dinner and make our way back for the bridge where we pitched our tent in the rain. We ended up pitching it in a place where water was running and Chris’ pack ended up with a bunch of water and some ants who found refuge and some crumbs.
It was a fairly relaxing morning walk to the Wapiti Shelter, lots of flat ground and water sources everywhere. There was a side trail to Dismal Creek Falls which we bypased.
Wapiti Shelter for lunch.
Shortly after we left we ran into a dog and his companions, one of which said his name was The Captain. He told us that he lived outside of Pearisburg on the trail and to stop by when were near, that we could get sodas and pitch a tent in his yard. I was skeptical about it at first because no one had even mentioned this guy before.
Once we got on top of the nameless mountain, or at least in our book, we got a nice view of the valley in which Pearisburg resided. At Sugar Run Gap we could have easily taken the road down to the Woodshole Hostel, but since we were planning on meeting my dad in Pearisburg the following evening and staying at the hostel we thought it was pointless to skip the 8 or 9 miles into Pearisburg so we kept on going to the Doc’s Knob Shelter.
Doc’s Knob Shelter. I just remember asking Chris about two minutes before we saw the shelter if he thought we were close, to which he said we were. He got so good at determining our speed and time that he was usually on target about our arrival! This however changed in the northeast when we slowed down and seemed to be in a time warp. The privy at this shelter is kinda dark and spidery, ick!
We had a drizzly morning to walk into Pearisburg, but it was peaceful. Once we arrived down into the town we had to walk off the trail and uphill to get into town. We were walking along the not hiker friendly roadway when a car pulled up and we saw hikers we knew, Turkey & Thrasher and Sheryl and Diesel (the ones who taught us about jello) with Neville, one of the owners of Woodshole Hostel. She asked if we needed a ride and we told her our story and she knew right off the bat who we were. We kept walking up the hill to the post office where we had a package and stopped in at a Chinese buffet for lunch. Eventually we got picked up from the post office by Michael, Neville’s husband and we made the trip out to Woodhole.
It’s such a beautiful, quiet place.
Group shot of some of the hikers.
Dad finally showed up later that night with his ride from the Roanoke airport. Unfortunately the airline lost his bag and so all he had was some toiletries and a carry on bag. Leaving early the following day was out of the question so we had to wait for quite awhile the next day for the courier to deliver it in town. After that we headed out of Pearisburg and into the Virginia hills.
Merf said she saw some fireworks from the shelter but we were tucked in our tent for the night. There was an amazing sunrise, though. We were planning 20 miles that day and were hoping that Jim could keep up with us. We were going to climb to nearly 4,000 feet on Stratton Mountain and weren’t sure how tough it would be. The morning went pretty quickly with a short stop at the Story Spring Shelter and a trail magic soda cooler near the Stratton-Arlington Rd. Ahhh, refreshing! Then we started our climb up Stratton. It didn’t seem too bad, just kept plugging away until we met some people coming down from the top. I was a bit disturbed by some dogs that appeared out of nowhere and weren’t too friendly and then their owner, a woman, came around the corner. I don’t mind people hiking without their dogs on a leash if they know the dogs are friendly to others or aren’t scared of people, but if they are I don’t understand why they let them off their leashes! 
