Back at It
It’s Friday, June 7, a little bit after 7 o'clock in the evening, and I’m in my new tent, hiding from the bugs. I'm very glad to have this new tent, because the bug netting on my old one was compromised in literally dozens of places. So with the oncoming summer, I think that having not only more resistance against rainstorms, which I suspect will keep getting stronger, but also secure bug netting is paramount. Interestingly, this tent allows me to keep the fly open — the rain fly, I mean, not the zipper fly — so I can look outside a lot more easily than I could with my other tent. A little earlier, I heard some rustling around and noticed that two deer were just hanging out maybe 15 feet from my tent, munching away at some brush. That was kind of interesting.
But one final note on my tent before I proceed to summarize my day. It’s considered a two-person tent, and I'm really not sure what the NEMO company considers a “person” or what they think the size of the average person is, but two jockeys might fit in here together. I mean, I'm comfortable, and there's even a little bit of gear in here with me, but this tent will in no way accommodate two normal-sized grown adults. So, try again, NEMO. But I do actually like the tent, and my plan is for only me to be sleeping in it, so I guess it’s not a big deal.
This morning, I woke up in my bed at home, which was delightful but also a bit sad, because I knew I was going to be leaving. S. and I walked the dog, I ate some breakfast, and then I took yet another stab at packing my gear, trying to get everything to fit well. And then we left for Shenandoah National Park. S. dropped me off at about 10 o'clock, and I was on my way.
So today was my first day back on the trail with a full pack since June 1. And coming out of Rockfish Gap with a full pack was a bit of an adjustment, but it wasn’t too bad. According to the Far Out app, I did 12.2 miles today. And it was a really interesting day for me, because over the years, S. and I have come up to Skyline Drive and done lots of little day hikes here and there. And today, I actually crossed over several of the trails we’ve day hiked, and it was kind of neat to connect them.
I did a snippet above Beagle Gap, where S. and I have been a million times, and a snippet around Jarman Gap, and then finished up here where I am now at Turk Gap. There's a little parking area at the Turk Mountain trailhead — it's a pretty popular day hiking spot — and just north of the parking area is a tenting site. So I can actually still hear the traffic on Skyline Drive, which doesn't bother me at all, though I know some hikers really don’t like it.
Overall, it was a nice day, and fortunately, the weather worked out. Since I was off the trail for a good three days and then did some slack packing, the other thru-hikers I’ve kind of been crossing paths with regularly aren’t really around anymore. I’m assuming they’re ahead of me on the trail, but I don’t know by how much. I saw maybe five or six other thru-hikers today, but I only had a chance to talk to one of them.
That was at the top of Bear Mountain, which is just above Beagle Gap, where I noted that S. and I like to hike often. Actually, there's a little area up there where we like to sit, have a snack, and look at the view, and we used to take our dog Avery up there. She absolutely loved hiking. After she passed, we actually took a little bit of her ashes and sprinkled them up there. So that’s a very special spot for us.
I guess they haven’t been doing the usual mowing, though, because it was totally overgrown, so I couldn’t really stop there as I’d expected. But not too far down the trail from there are these painted tractor seats that someone put on poles so you can sit on them and take in the view.So I stopped there instead to have a snack, and while I was there, a thru-hiker named Skillet came through. She stopped just long enough to have a snack, too, and then asked me whether I’d mind taking her picture with her phone for her because she only had selfies. I did, and then she took off down the trail.
So that's about it, I guess. I got to my campsite at about 5 o'clock. And nowadays, there's still plenty of daylight at that point to keep going, but after 12.2 miles and having taken a significant break for a few days, I decided that was good enough for today. So we'll see what tomorrow brings.
