Checking in from a church hostel at the gateway of the Shenandoahs.

Shenandoah National Park

Since leaving Glasgow I’ve been hiking with two guys, Fyneous and Heads Up. We pushed out some big miles since town, but these guys love to take breaks. Four out of the five past nights I have gotten into camp after sundown.

The trail has been difficult, crowded and full of magic since Glasgow. Memorial Day weekend is now over, which means that the shelters will be much less crowded from here on out (even though we’re about to enter a national park). But the crowds also meant we could “yogi” (as in Yogi Bear) food. There is an art to yogi-ing, and Fyneous has mastered it. Over the long weekend we’ve scored hot dogs, hamburgers, beers, giant bags of M&Ms and Skittles, and a slack-pack and shuttle ride into Waynesboro.

We’ve met two great sets of trail angels over the past few days. After two hours of night hiking we came up on a group of teachers from Charlottesville who had come out to car camp and feed the hikers. It had been a hard day–up and all along the massive ridge walk of The Priest, probably the best named mountain on the trail. These folks called us over, fed us, shared their beers, and even cooked us breakfast burritos in the morning.

The other angel we met the next morning after saying goodbye to the teachers. Christi is from Lynchburg, and came out for the weekend to put toilet paper in the shelter privies and hang out with hikers. She tried to convince us to hike south to get to her campsite to hang out, but we ended up getting her to meet us 21 miles north. The whole day we were debating the odds that she would actually show up, but lo and behold, she was there when we emerged from the woods that night with cold beers and a stereo blaring death metal.

The next morning Christi took our packs into Waynesboro for us so we could hike the 14.5 miles without the weight. I’d had my doubts about slack packing before yesterday, but now I can see why people enjoy it so much. We were flying all day down the trail, carrying nothing but water and snacks. When we got down to Rockfish Gap, Christi rolled up ten minutes later to drive us down to stay in Waynesboro and get dinner at Ming Garden (which lived up to the trail hype).

I got most of my town errands done last night–laundry, shower, phone charge, short resupply. This morning I’m hitting Weasies for all-you-can-eat pancakes, and then heading into the park. Next update will be from D.C. on or around June 9.

Happy Trails!