Slacking Two Ways

[Wife update: During Rob’s zeroes at home, he of course washed his laundry, took a couple of multi-hour naps, and did some gear management. He set up his new tent in the yard and treated it and his boots with permethrin, in hopes of keeping at least some measure of ticks at bay. He also tried out his original sleeping pad to see whether he should switch it out for his new, apparently super slippery one — which I believe he did.

He got a new, much lighter sleeping bag, and we made a run to Public Lands so he could get a pair of pants that actually fit. He was happy to learn before his first shower that he hadn’t lost any more weight since the last time he was home.

We celebrated our 24-year wedding anniversary at our favorite restaurant, the Alley Light, went on a couple of long walks with Thistle Bean, and took Rob’s dad out for lunch.

On the 4th, we were super excited to spend the evening at Decipher for the release of our collab beer with them — which turned out great — and Rob got a chance to see and catch up with a bunch of friends and former coworkers (turned friends). A couple of them even brought him a pair of cool AT-themed Darn Tough socks.

And then it was time to start hiking again...]

So, I took June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th off from hiking, and it was glorious, but by the 5th, it was time to start getting some miles done. Since we live within a reasonable commute of the miles I still needed to cover to get to Rockfish Gap, l was able to do some slack packing. I had about 30 miles between where S. picked me up at the base of The Priest and the entrance of the Shenandoah National Park, so I kind of split that in two. We could caravan in two cars, and we’d drop one off at my end point for the day, and then S. would drive me to my starting point and head home. That way, she didn’t have to make two trips.

By the time we went through all the logistics of getting up in the morning, having some breakfast, walking the dog together, driving out there, and then doing the car dance, I didn't get on trail until around 11 o'clock, so I needed to get hustling. I planned to head southbound the first day, so S. drove me to a little parking area on the side of the Blue Ridge Highway at around mile 850 called Dripping Rock Overlook. I have no idea why they call it an “overlook,” because it’s literally overlooking nothing.

But anyway, while I was getting my stuff organized, two hikers showed up going northbound, and S., of course, with her “always prepared” philosophy of life, had brought some Trail Magic with her. She offered them some sodas and frozen peppermint patties, and they seemed to enjoy those. [Wife note: One of the guys told me that when they were approaching the road, they heard a car door shut, and he said to his buddy, “I really hope that means there’s some Trail Magic up there!” to which his friend said, “Don’t get your hopes up.” So I was especially glad I’d brought some goodies.]

Then, while we were waiting for the hikers to finish up their drinks, another hiker got dropped off there. He was going to be slack packing northbound. He said one of his friends is a pilot and that he had originally planned to be “aeroblazing” that day in his friend’s plane but that the weather turned out to be too bad for them to go up.

Eventually, we all headed out, and I’m glad I chose to go south. That section of trail is not particularly noteworthy. There really aren’t a lot of great views, and there are a ton of rocks. So it was just a great section to slack pack. But immediately after I started hiking, I began sweating profusely because of the humidity. It was pretty thick up on the Blue Ridge, and I was super grateful that I didn't have a full pack on.

[Wife note: The humidity made it majorly foggy up there. This was the view for much of my drive back to the highway.]

The forecast for the day was a little bit dicey, calling for some rain in the afternoon. I got a little bit of a view early on, but then the clouds started moving in, so it was really just about putting my head down and getting the miles done. And of course, when I'm slack packing, I can cover the miles a lot faster.

On my way down a mountain called Three Ridges, I saw a hiker named Guidebook, and I might have mentioned him before, but I first met Guidebook back in Hot Springs, outside the outfitters. So that was mile 275. Then I saw Guidebook again in Erwin, Tennessee, where he was doing some slack packing. And that’s like mile 350. And then I saw Guidebook again when I was doing a slack pack in Damascus when S. was visiting.

But whenever I cross paths with him and say, “Hey, Guidebook,” he looks at me like he's never seen me before. So he was coming up Three Ridges as I was going down, and we had the exact same exchange. I said, “Hey, Guidebook!” And he just looked at me with bewilderment, like, Do I know you? Clearly, he doesn't ever remember me, but I kind of get a kick out of it now. Maybe I'll see him again.

Shortly after I saw Guidebook, the skies darkened, and I just got hit with rain. I don't think I've ever walked through a harder rain in my life. I mean, it was just this instantaneous total soaking of everything, and it rained for a while at that pace. There was no point in even trying to maintain any sense of dryness. So, I got completely drenched, and every step I took, I could feel the water squishing in between my toes. Thankfully, I only had about five miles to go at that point.

So I just kept trudging until I got to the car. It’d taken me a little under seven hours, which is a pretty fast pace for me for roughly 15.5 miles. And I was at least smart enough to bring a towel and a dry t-shirt with me in the car that morning. So I changed my shirt, covered the seat with the towel, and drove home, which was a wonderful way to end the day.

I woke up the next day, fully intending to get back out there and finish the rest of the distance to Rockfish Gap, but it was already storming out and pretty dark. I wrestled with what to do for a bit but finally decided to make those miles up later. S. said she’d do them with me in the fall, after I get home, and I technically have until March 18 of next year to do it for it to count toward my thru-hike. I’ve actually hiked that section before, so I know it’s not a big deal. It’s less than 15 miles, and obviously, I can cover that in a day.

So instead, I worked on getting my pack together, which is a lot more complicated and time-consuming than it sounds. My new food choices are working out for me, but they’re much heavier and bulkier than what I was carrying before, so I struggled to get everything to fit in my food bag. I had to keep unpacking and repacking it, and even after all that, it was still a tight squeeze. S. had to keep reminding me that I’d have less stuff to fit in after just a day or so, which is true. Also, S. got me a custom food bag for our anniversary with photos of her and our pets all over it, so I wanted to use that. It worked better for me as a clothes bag, though. But it fit differently in my pack than my previous bag, so that required some adjustments, too.

And all day, I kept trying to dry my boots out as much as possible. They had gotten absolutely soaked in the rainstorm the day before, and it wasn’t sunny enough for me to be able to put them outside to dry that way. So I stuffed them with newspaper, which seemed to help a bit.

It was good to have another day to take care of all the different odds and ends and of course, to just be at home. I tried to help S. with as much as I could, too, since I don’t know when I’ll be back again. It might not be until after Katahdin, which is still a ways away. So tomorrow, I’m definitely getting back to the trail. And I guess we’ll see how things go from there.