Last seen, we were in Daleville, treating ourselves to a couple of days off. We spent the next ten days hiking to Waynesboro, VA. We hiked 133.8 miles for an average of 13.38 miles per day. If you check our spreadsheet, you will see we had some long days and some short days. We resupplied twice during the week and that can throw off a day pretty quick if you spend too much time off the trail, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
The first day out of Daleville was tough, due to the fact that we had two zero days back to back and the prospect of going back into the woods was not all that enticing. However, we got back into the swing of things fairly quick. The day after that, we hiked 17 miles to get to Middle Creek campground. We rented a cheap cabin for the night and got a good nights rest. It had been a hot day, so when we walked inside, the cabin felt like a sauna, despite the cool of the evening that we had been enjoying for a while. Fortunately, the cabin had an AC unit, but that was the only amenity the cabin had. The next day we got off to a late start so we didn't make it very far. Less than a quarter of a mile from the shelter, we got caught in a heavy downpour and got soaked. By the time we made it to the shelter, the rain had subsided. We met some new people, most notably was "The Dude", who was a living embodiment of Jeff Bridges' character in the Big Lebowski, in appearance and in the way he spoke. He was a character to say the least, and we enjoyed his "pontifications" that he shared with us.
This was the first week that I started waking up early and making coffee. Most mornings, I woke up around 6:45 due to my back hurting (the airpads are not easy on me). I walk like an old man for a couple of minutes since my feet hurt so bad. But by the time I walk to where I hung up our food bags, my feet are broken in for the day. I then undo the knot of the rope hanging the food and let it down from the tree branch it's hanging from. If we are camped at a shelter, you can bet people are up and at it early. It's fun to make coffee at the picnic table and chat with other hikers who are making breakfast. By the time I've had a cup or two of coffee, I go back to the tent to wake up Leap so we can hit the trail. On average, it takes an hour to get ready from the time we are both up until we are actually hiking.
Anyways, we hiked 17.7 miles to Matts creek shelter the next day. We got a great view from Apple Orchard mountain where we stopped to eat lunch. We also walked under a rock formation called the guillotine. The next day, we hitched a ride into Glasgow, VA to resupply for the remaining five days into Waynesboro. However, once we got there and bought our groceries, we decided to eat lunch at the restaurant across the street. We gorged ourselves on some pasta and talked with other hikers for quite a while. The cool thing about Glasgow is that the town has setup a shelter in the park that has electricity and a hot shower. We decided to go check it out and rest for a bit. We didn't end up leaving for another hour after that and by the time that we hitched a ride back to the trail, it was getting well into the afternoon.
After a couple of miles, I got startled by a rat snake falling from a tree that I was walking next to. We stopped to observe the snake for a bit and watch him slither back into the woods. This pause from hiking gave another hiker just enough time to catch up to us and create some conversation. He ended up telling us his life story. Some people are fun to talk to, others are not. This guy was not. We finally broke away from his conversation, which had only set us back more. On the bright side, we did end up stopping early to camp at a really sweet spot on the cliffs overlooking the James river and Apple Orchard mountain.
The next day was fun as we got to hike along what used to be a community of freed slaves back in the early 1900s. You could still see the stone foundations of their houses. That night, however, I had the most terrifying experience of my entire life. Around 2:30 in the morning, a tree fell in the woods very close to where we were tenting. The noise was so loud that everyone there woke up with a fright. My first thought was that it was a bear so I began shouting in a confused daze and we heard other campers doing the same. After being awake for 30 seconds, we finally reasoned that it was falling tree so I got out of the tent to have a look around. I never saw what fell exactly as there were already a lot of logs laying around. I talked with the other campers in the morning and we talked about what had happened. Falling trees have moved to the top of my list of fears of tenting (replacing getting bit by a bear).
The next day was warm and the water sources were far and few between. We knew a water source was coming up at around mile 8, but it was a bit off the trail. We came across a gravel road that had a sign pointing to the left that indicated there was a spring a half mile down the road. We ended up following it for quite a ways before we realized that we had actually gone the wrong way. The sign wasn't wrong, we just misinterpreted it. Once we realized the mistake, we also realized that if we went a mile further in our current direction, we would arrive at Three Springs hostel where we could buy some more snacks (we were running a bit low). Once we got there, we were immediately sucked in by ice cream and sodas. We ended up staying the night. It was a great decision. We got to go kayaking in the pond, eat copious amounts of food, and we got to sleep in a comfy bed while a thunderstorm raged outside. We were treated to a good breakfast in the morning before we set off. We began by hiking in the rain, but eventually it stopped but most of the day was enshrouded in fog.
That night, we ended up staying at a shelter called "The Priest". Every shelter has a log book that hikers can sign. They are always fun to read but this one was especially good. The book was called the confessional and it is tradition to confess trail sins in it. One person confessed that they didn't bury their poop 6-8 inches (which is the recommended depth). I confessed that I didn't use the privy at that shelter due to the overwhelming stench that about knocked me out when I opened the door. I instead opted to go in the woods.
That day, we had a 3000ft descent to start out the day and another 3000ft ascent immediately after that. We made it to the top of the ascent, but it took every bit of our energy to do so. We cut the day short by a few miles at the shelter and reasoned that we would just have to suck it up and hike 21 miles the next day to make it into Waynesboro on time for our B&B reservation.
We woke up at 6am and hit the trail by 7 the next morning. The terrain was good for the most part, but we did take an hour lunch since we each had to cook up a meal (we were out of lunches and we had an extra supper). The last shelter before town had notes about a bear that had been hanging around. We got about half way up the hill after that shelter and ran into a bear that was sitting down in the middle of the trail. This was only our second bear sighting. The first one was the day before and we only caught a glimpse of him before he ran off. However, this bear had absolutely no fear of us. We yelled at him, tried to make ourselves look big, and even threw rocks near to try to scare him. After a couple of minutes, he lazily stood up and wandered off a little ways. We hurried past and fortunately hit a switchback which took us in the opposite direction.
We ended the day with showers and a Chinese buffet in Waynesboro. We plan to head out tomorrow and start hiking in Shenandoah National Park! It should be lots of fun and I'm sure we will see many more bears there.
Until next time,
Leap and Frog
