6/29 The Doyle -- Duncannon, PA

A nice half day to get here...Two beers and a good meal! I stumbled into a work for stay deal. Free room tonight for helping them fix their computer. Usually work for stay is washing dishes etc...good to know my skills are useful out here!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/28 Darlington Shelter

Hazy hot and humid today. It struck me today just how much of a mental thing this hike is. In my mind I viewed this as a short day...18 and change, which really isn't a short day, but what tricked me was how it was broken up. I had 4 miles to do in the morning to Boiling Springs, PA, then 10 to a rest point where the ATC volunteers do trail maintnenance out of, then another 4 to the shelter. Tomorrow is an easy 11 to Duncannon. My mid was all set for a short day today, and by the end I was really struggling. Your mind can really rally your body to do amazing things, but it can also weigh you down. I guess I'll be more diligent in my mental preparations for the day.

The shelter is full of thru hikers, for the first time in weeks, it seems that I have pushed out of the buble I was in. For many weeks, there have been only a few other thru hikers around. It is a weird phenomenon where we all bunch up and leave these big 'holes'. I've been in one of those holes for a while now.

i heard from Churchmouse, he is 50 miles behind me, but successfully completed the 4 state challenge...with 6 minutes to spare. He went from VA to WV to MD and crossed the PA state line in 24 hrs. Congrats!....now catch up, we still have a 1000 miles left!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/27 Alec Kennedy Shelter

Too hot to hike very far today. Not only is it as hot as the hammers of hell, but we have a plague on our hands..Gypsy Moths, they seem to have made the switch from caterpillar to moth and are EVERYWHERE!
The plan is to hike out of Duncannon on Saturday morning with Kirk, so no need to rush.
--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/26 Pine Grove Furnace State Park

It is official! 1/2 done! Today I did 23 miles due to the allure of ice cream at the state park. But the miles were easy and I caught up with a person I hadn't seen since Erwin Tennessee which was nice.
On to Duncannon PA by friday to meet up with Oddjob (Snyder).

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/25 Pennsylvania!

Got back on the trail today at about 10am. I decided to take it easy and only do about 15 miles today. It looks like Churchmouse didn't pass me so there is no need to try and play catch-up. My friend that I saw down at Trail Days, may be coming out for a 70 mile section between Duncannon and Port Clinton, PA. He has always been in really good shape, so it shouldn't change my pace too much. 15-20 miles a day should be a sustainable pace and get my butt to Maine before winter sets in.
I made a major gear change while off trail, I ditched my sleeping bag and replaced it with a lightweight fleece liner. Luckily it is only supposed to go down to 65 tonight, it will be a good test. Also, swapped out some clothes, and got a fanny pack (that I wear in front) to hold camera, snacks, mp3 player etc. Base weight is now 11 lbs.
Speaking of weight...I started the trail at around 157 IIRC, when I weighed myself this weekend I was 139.5! Amazingly, by the time I was leaving this morning, I had put on 6lbs. I'm guessing I was a bit dehydrated, and/or that was reallllllllly good wedding cake!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/24 Home again, home again

Well, it is amazing how hectic things get when there are schedules to keep etc! The real world is a pain sometimes. Let me catch you all up, I continued hiking north from Front Royal after visiting with my dad and made it to the Pennsylvania/Maryland border before heading home to attend my mom's wedding. I was the 351st Northbound hiker at Harpers Ferry for this year. That is about 15% lower than the same time last year, but who knows what accounts for that. The hiking has been pretty easy, although I started to hit some rocks north of WV that are a precursor to PA...what fun! Back on the trail bright and early tomorrow!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/19 Hades

Oh my god was it hot today! At one point I startled a squirrel, he movved too fast and burst into flames. Luckily, he had paid attention in squirrel saftey class and "Stop, Drop, and Roll"ed. At this point I sat down and re-hydrated myself, because there is no way that that could really happen, squirrels don't roll. Which is why they are no good to use as balls in Forrest Bowling...but I digress.

So long Virginia! I'm in West Virgina now! Just short of Harpers Ferry and about 2 miles away from the 1000 mile mark. Looks like rain and cooler weather tomorrow so I may spend some extra time in Harpers Ferry at the ATC headquarters.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/18 Rod Hollow Shelter

Wow, I guess because the Shannys were so full of day hikers that I didn't notice how few thru hikers there were. I'm here alone tonight and only saw 2 other hikers today. Looking at the register, it seems like there aren't alot of folks around. I guess the numbers dwindle the farther north you get, but it is a big change!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/17 Still in Front Royal

Well if there is one thing the trail teaches you, it is to be flexible. A car accident has prevented my dad from getting here until today so a double zero it is! I hit the outfitter yesterday, but the selection was pretty poor, so I wasn't able to get any of the gear changes I wanted done. I'll just do that when I'm home in 5 days and can hit my local REI.
Bob and Tim were able to come out and we spent the evening knocking back Coronas and catching up. It was great to see them and I hope to see them a couple more times because the trail goes right by the town they live in. Who knows, they may come out and do the 'Roller Coaster' with me which would be fun.
Speaking of hiking plans, I'm planning on hiking out of Front Royal tomorrow, doing about 15 miles then a couple 20's to Harpers Ferry. I've decided to not do the 'four state challenge', while it sounds fun, I want to visit the ATC headquarters and not just rush through. Harpers Ferry is the psychological half way point, the real half way point is some 75 miles further north, which it looks like will have to wait until after I get back on the trail.

Happy Father's Day dad!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/15 Front Royal

Knocked out a 24 today to wind up in Front Royal. The plan was to pull up 3 miles short, then go in early tomorrow, but the third rule of Hike Club, is that the plan is written in jello. Hoping to see my dad tomorrow, as well as two friends from the real world, Bob and Tim. Should be a busy day, resupply, outfitter run and visiting. I may get outta here Sunday, but may double zero. Church leaves tomorrow for home, Maybe I'll just take a couple easy days, short mileage wise, we'll see!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/14 Stealth campsite

We ended up doing a little over 21 miles today, basically the whole day was spent inside a cloud. It gets old hiking in drizzle and chilly weather, but we have been fortunate so far so I won't complain too much, yet.
A friend of ours, April Showers, had to get off trail for a bit due to injury today. She is going to hit Front Royal and see if some rest can fix the problem. She aggrivated an injury she incurred in 2004, on her previous thru-hike attempt. She had hiked all the way up north, only 200 miles short of Katahdin, when she blew out her ankle with a bad step. She waited 2 weeks (in 2004), did physical therapy etc, and tried to press on, only to have to admit she couldn't continue. She is one tough cookie. Personally, I couldn't imagine how upset I would be to get so close and have something like that happen. And then have the gumption to start all over back in Georgia! I hope this story will have a happy ending, we'll see.
Anywho, we continue to hike hamburger to hamburger in the Shenendoahs. I had breakfast at Big Meadows, bacon,eggs etc, a cheeseburger for lunch at Skyland lodge, then packed out a bacon cheeseburger, and fries for lunch. Life is rough out here, but we are surviving somehow. Looks like we may hit Front Royal a day early, the miles are pretty easy. We are hitting 20 miles by 4pm with a 3 hr break for lunch.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/13 Big Meadows

Nice easy 20 today, saw 2 bears, neither of which hung around long enough for a picture. 1 skunk that was just hoofing it down the trail, to tell yopu the truth I was more worried about the skunk! 2 bunnies, frolicking around until they saw me, then they froze and did their best impression of frozen bunnies (very convincing). 1 big old box turtle heading for Georgia (SOBO). And about a bajillion deer. A bajillion is defined by Websters as the number of deer in the Shenendoah National Park....go figure.

Apparently we had quite a thunderstorm/rainstorm last night, I slept through the whole thing. It was raining when I set up my hammock, so I knew my rain fly was set fine, I guess my brain decided sleep was more important than checking my fly at 2 am....go figure.

In case you all are wondering, there are tons of pay phones in the Shannies, so updating the blog is pretty easy.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/12 Hightop Hut

Well, the rain finally got us! Church and I have been able to dodge daily thunderstorms for about 4 weeks now, but today we got rained on for several hours. But on the bright side we had eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast, a cheeseburger for lunch and a ham and cheese, with a side of chicken tenders for dinner. You see, the Shannys have these things called 'Waysides' that are basically a souveneir store and short order restaurant. They are a great way to lighten your load because you carry minimal food. Unfortunately they also lighten your wallet, not quite as bad as eating at a ball game, but close!

Speaking of lightening loads,
1) I'm sending home the rain gear

2) swapping the fleece and town shirt for a long sleeve shirt

3)swapping the long underwear for a pair of zipoff pants

4) swapping the thermarest for 1/2 length foam pad.

5) getting rid of the sit pad

6) swapping 30deg sleeping bag for a something cooler

Grand total should be about 2 to 3 lbs less in the pack. Call it a base weight of around 10 or 11 lbs. That is half what I started with. Granted, it is summer now, but I would only add about 38 oz to get back to a cold weather load.

The key is: the less you carry, the happier you are hiking, but less comfortable camping.

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Mom, you should probably stop reading at this point!
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Oh, I almost forgot, we had a great bear sighting today! He was crossing the trail 100ft from us. I had Church grab my camera out of my pack, then I snuck down the trail to within 25ft of him....he just sat there looking at me (I'm sure contemplating what wine would go well with stinky hiker) I took a couple pictures, then switched my camera to movie mode, it made a noise and he moved off, but I got a really good short video of him from close range. After he moved off, Church grabbed his camera and tried to head into the woods after him, but the bear had had enough of our antics and moseied off. Next time, I'll head off to 'get the shot' and Church will video me, that way when a bear mauls me, at least we can get paid for the video!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/11 Blackrock Hut

Yeah, they are called huts in the Shannys. Dunno why, they are lean-tos up north...all the same, three sides and a roof, and mice. We stay at shelters, but not in them. In fact, there 5 thru hikers here tonight and none of them are staying in the shelter, even though the campsites are awful for tenters. Not so peachy for hammockers either as all the trees are too small or have too much underbrush between them. But, I got my trees, so I'm a happy camper!
The Shannys are the 'flat' Virginia we've been hearing about since Georgia. We did 20 miles today and only saw one up of 1000 ft. I guess hikers only have short term memory and forget the south and central sections. Of course, that makes perfect sense because we get up every morning and do crazy miles, forgetting how much our feet hurt the night before! Probably for the best otherwise we wouldn't be able to keep doing it day in and day out.
Looks like we will roll into Front Royal on the 16th. Then Churchmouse and I will part company, he is taking a couple days to visit home. I'll hike on until the 22nd when I get off trail for a couple days for my mom's wedding. Hopefully, we will sync back up pretty quick, we've been hiking together since 4/30 so it will be weird to be hiking alone!

It is weird being this close to home, but really being over 1000 miles from 'home'. I keep telling myself that the way home goes through Maine, but as I get closer to NoVa, the more my thoughts are occupied with home.

868.1 miles done, 1305.9 left to home.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/10 Waynesboro

Wohoo! Easy day today, tomorrow we start the Shenendoahs.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

Trail Magic

Virginia rules in terms of trail magic. Since leaving Damascus there has only been 1 or 2 days that we haven't found a nice little treat waiting somewhere on the trail. Today was cold beer and moonpies, yesterday hot dogs, beer and hoagies. Then for days we were finding coolers of soads, churches were running 'hiker feeds' etc.

Virginia rules!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/9 Long day

We did 25 miles today, which included 'The Priest' a nasty 3000 foot uphill slog. We did the Priest climb in 1.5 hours exactly which worked out to be a 3 mph pace straight uphill. It was a serious amount of exercise, but it felt good to really push hard. all told we did 25.8 miles in 8hrs and 45 minutes, with all our breaks etc. The terrain really starts flattening out for a while which will be nice, we should start toying with doing 30's once we are past Waynesboro. Crazy, but I want to pack away some miles so that there is time to spare when the going gets really tough towards the end. Plus we have to prepare for the '4 state challenge'. You cross 4 state boundries in one 24 hour period. Leave VA, cross into WV, then MD and into PA, 48 miles in 24 hours....ummmm now that's crazy.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/8 Dutch Haus Hostel

So plans change, boy do they change. We took our nice nap and woke up at about 3:00 whan a friend Buffalo Bobby showed up. We have been trying to get him to go inm for our crazy schemes, he usually gets sucked in. But, out of nowhere, Grizzle, Sideshow and Big Shanty walk into the shelter slackpacking south. It was one of those times when you barely recognize someone because they are out of context. Grizzle's family has a house in Lexington and they are slacking hundreds of miles to catch up. So we packed up, got in their truck, went back to Chez Grizz, had a nice home cooked meal, a bed, breakfast in the morning, and a ride back to the trail. More importantly, we got to catch up with our friends, I visited with Shanty for hours. He is doing well and they are all starting to feel anxious to make miles. Who knows, with Churchmouse getting off trail for 5 days and me off for a couple days for a wedding, they could catch up!

One thing that being out here has taught me is that plans are written in Jello!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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Random update

The box turtles are out in force, I must have seen 20 in the past couple days. Lots of snakes, mostly black snakes but a couple garters also. The flies are awful, they follow you around and run kamikaze missions at your head...it really drives us all crazy. Butterflies are prevalent and often land on our bright colored gear, many I have never seen before. The frogs are out, last night we camped near a pond and were serenaded all night by bullfrogs showing off there lungs. We are starting to see more and more deer. They are pretty fearless, and if you are sitting down eating or something, they will graze right up to you. They startle quickly, but don't go far, I guess we are in their 'mostly harmless' category.
Food, well I've been 'cold' now for a while i.e. no stove, while convienent to prepare every night, the menu is tedious and actually more difficult to shop for.
The blister is better, I'm back to not needing to bandaid and duct taping my heel every day. It really was amazing how fast the shoes went from OK to bad.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/7 Nap Time

We did an easy 10 miles from Punchbowl to the next shelter. I then suggested, somewhat jokingly, that we take a nap until about 5pm and then hike 18 miles to Montibello. Quicker than you can believe, Churchmouse had his hammock up and was ready for a siesta! So, now committed to this plan, I followed suit. It is now about 2p, I just woke up, and the heat is on, it probably was a good idea afterall, it seems our reprieve from Hazy Hot and Humid is over. This shelter is right before Bald Mtn which entails a 3000 ft uphill slog over 5 miles. The plan is to hike on once it cools down, do the big up while it is still light out, then do a night hike along the ridge to a campsite just outside of Montibello. We will probably get there before dawn so we will lay up before heading into town for breakfast and a night at the Dutch Haus. Before we leave though, I'll be taking a dip in the creek that runs next to the shelter, the water is about 60 degrees and nice and clear.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/6 Punchbowl Shelter

Well, another nice day, we did 18 miles and stopped in Glasgow for a resupply. We packed out some hot dogs, built a fire and chowed down. We've got 28 miles to Montibello, probably a full day tomorrow, then walk in Friday morning.
The pack isn't working out great right now, I really have to figure out how to pack it to get the weight balanced and not pulling my shoulders.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/5 Marble Spring Campsite

Great weather today courtesy of Tropical Storm Barry. Low humidity, breezy and cool. We should get another day or so before it gets sticky and gross again. We're headed into Glasgow tomorrow for resupply, then onto Montibello. It is Tennessee Jed's Birthday today!

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/4 Bryant Ridge Shelter

Well, day 1 in the new pack. It is a GoLite Jam2, it is rated to 30 lbs, but there is no way you could make me carry that much in it. Unlike a traditional pack there is no system in it to transfer weight to your hips. There is a bit of foam in there, but that is more for padding as opposed to structural. Because of this, how you pack it becomes very important. At first I packed based on how often I used things, ie frequently used items went in pockets or at the top of the main compartment. In my old pack this was not a problem because I was under utilizing its carrying ability. The new pack really needs you to pay attention to getting heavy items close to your back and centered vertically. Once I got that figured out, it was pretty comfy. And it is 28 ounces lighter than my old pack :)...And btw, if I could have gotten a ULA in my size, I would have done that, but they were back ordered. I like sending business to small companies, and I like sticking with a company!
if I'm happy with the product.

Next on the list is a summer sleeping bag, my 30 degree Marmot is very hot and is almost uncomfortable now. I'm thinking maybe just a fleece blanket would do...we'll see.

Of note today, we passed the 1/3 mark...woooohoooo!! and we are done with over half of Virginia. Tomorrow we visit one of the tallest waterfall cascades on the east coast. We also begin to encounter some larger climbs. The big climb on the horizon occurs at an area called 'The Priest'...I guess it brings you to your
knees? 3000 foot elevation change in 5 miles...then drop 3000 feet in 3 1/2 miles.

Remember, Virginia is flat! :)

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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6/3 Troutville, VA

OK catch up time, Church and I knocked out 18 to roll into Troutville and meet up with my mom and Jeff. It was great to see family and visit, also a much needed zero day. It is a real boost to get visitors from home, my dad comes out next then a buddy I've know for years... It will be busy, but it really is refreshing to touch base with folks on the homefront.
During my zero, I got a new pack, I really wanted to stick with ULA but they are backordered and I needed to make a move. I ended up with a GoLite Jam2. It is a tiny little glorified bookbag, but it holds everything well enough and is pretty comfortable. While testing it out I had the chance to weigh my base weight....13 lbs!! incredible considering where I started, and there is still about 2 lbs that may get cut if I have the guts. We'll see if I do it or not.
Today we had my mom drop us off at Buchanan, VA and we slackpacked back to Troutville (21 miles) in the leftovers of Tropical Storm Barry. Pretty uneventful day, but it was a good day to be 'slacking'. :)

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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5/31 John Spring Shelter

Wow, tomorrow will be 2 months. I really can't believe it has been that long. The days seem to be a blur right now, just miles, lots of them. It is hazy, hot and humid, everyday. And contrary to popular belief, Virginia is not 'easy', nor is it flat.
Right now I'm laying in my hammock after an all you can eat dinner in Catawba, VA. It has the reputation of being the best meal on the trail, but I'm not too sure about that. It was good, but just basic food. Tommorow is a 19 mile day into Troutville, VA where I'll meet my mom and Jeff who are coming down for a visit. That will be great, it is a real pick me up to see folks from home.
I got my new shoes in Catawba, I won't be making the mistake of letting them deteriorate that much again. I really ripped up my feet trying to get an extra 100 miles out of the old shoes. Oh well, live and learn.
I'm also moving to a different pack, my Catalyst is just way too much capacity now that I have sent so much extra gear home. The pack just doesn't sit right with such a small load. I'm guessing here but my base weight (excluding food and water) has to be 15 lbs or less at this point. I'll also probably move to a 50 degree bag as I'm sweating every night in my 30 degree. I might even just move to a fleece blanket.

--Brian
aka "Bytecode"

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