Our Appalachian Trail Hike: November 2011

I did the 4 State Challenge! I woke up at 2 am, started hiking at 3, and with only about at 30 minute break (not counting getting a little lost), I finished at 7:15 pm. Most hikers take about 18 hours to do it (if they try in the first place), and they do it during the summer months when they have more daylight to hike with. It's slower going at night, but I was still able to do it with a few new batteries for my headlamp. I didn't feel too sore afterwards, and my buddies Jon and Mark live near the area and took me out to a nice meal and gave me a comfy bed to crash in. It was a really nice way to end a really awesome day! Now I'm toying with the idea of doing a 24 hour hike to see what my true limit would be for a single day. I'll keep you posted on that, but I'm hoping that I would be able to break 60 miles!

Now I am in the great state of Virginia, home of almost a quarter of the entire AT. I am currently stopped near Glasgow, VA and headed up to New Jersey to meet with family and ohMEGA for Thanksgiving. Right before I got off the trail, I had a bad stomach virus that knocked me out for a day and I decided to leave early. I had planned on taking 4 days off, but will end up taking 7 off. I'll have to hike hard to make it back up and be able to finish by Christmas.

Near the beginning of Virginia, I went through the Shenandoah National Park. This is a very beautiful and scenic part of the trail that many tourists come to visit. They're also famous for their abundance in permanent residents, bears! Most thru hikers see a bear in SNP or New Jersey, but since I didn't see one in NJ, I was worried I'd go my whole hike without seeing one. Right now, they are in full drive to bulk up and eat every last bit that they can before winter comes. I'm not sure what their definition of winter is, but apparently the 20 degrees and freezing cold that we've been getting isn't enough. Remember, these are bears we're talking about and apparently significantly more badass than every other animal and especially more than homeless looking guys who try living in the woods.

In an effort to catch up to my ever elusive friends, I decided pulling a big day of 33 miles. The plan was to go into town for the night and resupply early in the morning. I got within 1.8 miles of the road when I decided to stop at the shelter there first. I met some cool weekend hikers, "Big Chuck" and Jim, who were out for a few days, but after a brief chat it was time to push on. At this point it was completely dark, but it was only 1.8 miles, and the call of a warm bed was quite a motivator. I was walking along the trail when all of a sudden, I saw something rustle on the trail. My headlamp was dim, but I could still see the motion. I froze in place, and my mind raced to try and identify what the unknown blob was. It too froze on the trail, and in a quick motion, swung its head directly in my direction so that its eyes were now reflecting a cold green light in my direction. I at once knew what it was.

A skunk. The little monster was maliciously blocking the trail so that I couldn't pass, while evilly mocking any attempt I made to advance. A bang of my poles to try and get him to run off resulted in a raised tail and a threat to spray in my direction. I couldn't walk forward and risk it all to be nearer him. I was thwarted in my attempt to reach town. Eventually he was gracious enough to carry on doing whatever it is skunks do at 7 o'clock on a Thursday, and I kept hiking down the trail. When I was about 40 feet from the road however, I heard another rustling. This time it came about 20 feet away and up an embankment of 5 feet or so. My headlamp was barely more useful than 40 fireflies in a jar, but I could tell that this was a bigger blob. I took about 10 more steps to get a better vantage, and sure enough, hugging a tree was a startled black bear. He looked uncomfortable and was trying to play off his tree hug in a way that made it seem like he wanted to say, "yeah, this is what we do all the time, just hug trees and hangout." For a first bear encounter in the wild, being 20 feet away from one in almost complete dark is a bit frightening, but somehow, I was the one less worried. I calmly talked to the bear to make sure I meant no harm, as I went for my camera to try and take a photo. Most people would never dare take a step forward in such a situation, but I knew the lighting (absolute darkness) was no good, so I wanted to try and improve my chances of getting the flash to work. I calmly kept chatting and when I got to a point in which I thought he would no longer put up with my proximity, I stopped and took a picture.

I wasn't able to get a hitch into town, so after an hour of standing in the cold, I gave up and decided to walk back to the shelter. This was going right by the area I saw the bear mind you. As I was walking near there, I startled one bear who was in a tree and decided that he was not comfortable up there, so decided to loudly descend, another who ran along a ridge while being illuminated from lights from behind. This showed me his silhouette perfectly, and had I not known better, I would have assumed it was a wolf or a large dog. It turns out that while I was busy keeping an eye on the bears, I got lost and had to walk back the way I came. My poor headlamp was really dying now, and as I returned to this bear interstate, all I could see were two green eyes from one on the trail I just walked on, but this time the bear was poised and not moving out of fear. This one startled me. In the end I startled 3 and 1 startled me, so I think I got the better end of the deal. I let him have the trail, and went off to find an alternate way. I eventually got back to the shelter where I woke the poor guys trying to enjoy their trip, and got some rest.

The guys turned out to be pretty cool and fun to hang out with, and I ran into them a few times over the weekend. They were really nice and helpful and it was a blast to have good people to chat with. However, I knew my friends were close, and I was ready to meet up. After going into town for my resupply, I ran into 2 different SOBO hikers who told me my friends were going to be at the next shelter only 10 miles away; also the same place my new weekend buddies were going to be. I was excited to hear the news, and decided to hang out with this couple and talk "trail" with them. Their names are Hatchet and Trailmix, and were a blast to hang out with. Unfortunately they don't do big mileage, but I'm hoping to run into them again. I pushed on to the shelter for the night and my friends... weren't there! I was very bummed, and didn't know why not, but they were not to be found. I did spend another fun evening with "Big Chuck" and Jim, but still was hoping to find my friends. The next day I pushed hard to try and catch up, as I assumed they had just pushed on. They weren't at the next shelter either! I was all set to start hiking 20 more miles, but decided to check my phone just in case. I got a text from them saying how they think I passed them! They were 10 miles back, so I told them to catch up, and I walked back to meet them.

I got to hang out some more with the dudes, and well after the sun had gone down, my friends from Maine finally showed up! After almost 1000 miles, I finally caught up to Scramblin Man and Tumbleweed (Jared and Tracy was how we first knew them in the 100 mile wilderness). It was a happy reunion that Big Chuck got a picture of, and we've been hiking together ever since. This is getting a bit long so I'll save the rest for another time. Here are some pictures!