Project Eveningland

5/17/2023 Wednesday

Last night I was kicking myself for blowing so much money on such a mediocre hotel room. Then the sunset views—and the pleasure of coming back to a softly lit, clean room after dinner—won me over. It was cold and wet this morning when I stepped out onto the balcony.

I put on my puffy and walked to the main lodge to eat breakfast. I ordered biscuits and gravy with two eggs over easy (they came over hard again), potatoes, fruit, and a big thing of yogurt. Nice, plain yogurt without a bunch of sugar. I love the little balls they make out of butter and stack neatly in a dish. I made sure to use all the butter on my rye toast. I pocketed some interesting jellies to add variety to my PB&J tortillas.

I walked back to my hotel room in high spirits. It has been a real pain to find a shuttler willing to take me into Front Royal from inside the Shennies, but I did find one. I fell a bit short and now I’ll have to do a dozen or so more miles of the Shenandoah when I return to the trail early next week. Fine by me!

I’m camped at Pass Mountain tonight, in a tiny little meadow with two other tents. The shelter is full of tween girls *shudder* who are full of young energy despite hiking nearly 20 miles. I guess maybe the dad or whoever should have hiked them farther? There’s gotta be a way to burn that energy off and quiet them down a little. There’s no giggling allowed in backpacking!

I walked through some very well known areas today. Very few thru hikers around, tons of day hikers about. I may have done one of the trails to a stone man. Or something. I dunno, I took one blue blaze to a viewpoint for an afternoon snack and it was spectacular, but I wasn’t in good enough spirits to fully appreciate it. Bit of an autumnal feeling with the cool and breezy conditions.

I had to do long miles today to stage myself where I need to be. Sometimes you just gotta do that. At the same time, some days you’re sorer than others. Today my feet were extremely sore. At times sore enough to command my attention. I did what I could to help and support them. I told my feet that they’re my everything (I said the same thing to my knees just the other day).

Jesus are my dogs barking! The last five miles were tough. The last ten, really. That’s when I stopped at that overlook. I was six hours into my day, with hardly nine miles to show for it. I did the math and the soonest I could arrive at the shelter was 8PM. Nothing like an 11 hour hike to get the blood pumping!

I tried to pay attention to my surroundings, which were stunning.

The trail hugged a slope most of the day. Some up and down but never a huge climb. Tons of rocky sections today. There were countless small rock “balconies” with incredible views of the farmland below. Also good places from which to declaim if you’re into that.

Pinnacle Picnic Area was an absolute Eden of afternoon-picnic vibes. I want to return there when I am not in a time crunch.

So many brown centipedes everywhere. Sometimes in piles. Sometimes beneath your things. Usually in your line of sight when you’re eating. If you pee on them they curl into a ball. Or so I’ve heard!

Up high the oak leaves are some of the tardiest of the foliage. There’s something intrinsically “old” about oak trees, such that it seems incongruous to see them with young yellowish green leaves.

Some of the rock work today was especially impressive, the kind of trail building that few land management agencies have the resources for. One human-built rock section snaked around a tight switchback, seeming to undulate.

Large ferns are unfurling to their full height. Soon the weight of their branches will open them up.

A huge hawk or raptor or something rode an updraft in a sweeping curve. I tried to get a picture but he had swooped out of sight.

Hiking can be a painful, uncomfortable, exhausting experience. But when you look back on it later, it seems a grand adventure—the kind of memory you just treasure, even if things went terribly! This hike has gone on so long that nostalgia has already begun to color my memories of the early parts of the journey. Today I found myself thinking fondly of Georgia in February!