Smudgy Cheeks Day 56 (Sunday, May 22nd, 2016)

I hiked 8.5 miles today.  I passed by the William Brien Memorial Shelter and am staying at the West Mountain Shelter.  When I was hiking I could see New York City from different points on the trail.  Now, at the shelter, I can see both the Hudson River and the New York City skyline.  It's pretty cool.

I also had a deer cross right in front of me on the trail today.  

I stopped at the Palisades Visitor Center.  It is right in the middle of a four lane highway.  While I was there I plugged my phone in to get a charge.

Now I'm at the shelter and I'm getting ready for bed.  I've got a couple of long days ahead of me!

I snapped a picture of the deer before he got all the way into the brush

Trail today

New York City Skyline

That's the Hudson River.  I'll be crossing it tomorrow.

Had my sister send me GPS coordinates to get to the shelter because it's not well marked here!

Day:  56

Miles hiked:  8.5

Total Miles hiked on the trail:  462
Bear: 1
Deer: 1
Snake: 1

The Sprout Day 15 (Monday, April 11th)

We got on the trail early again today, starting around 7:00.  We did 14 miles and finished the roller coaster!  It was a great feeling walking out of the coaster.   I think we all did a great job! Our first seven miles today was in the roller coaster and we crushed it!

I saw a lot of animals on the trail today:  five big butterflies, a bunch of deer ran off when I came over a hill, a turkey ran in front of me and flew off, and last but not least, a skunk!  It would be horrible to get sprayed by a skunk out here, haha!!

Moss covered rocks

Huge boulder

More huge boulders!

We are getting very close to an area of the trail that is very rocky.  It will be interesting!

We completed a huge milestone in our journey today.  We crossed our first state line!  We walked into West Virginia!  One of my goals has been to walk into West Virginia and play John Denver’s Country Roads.  The funny thing is that I was so focused on hiking, because there were so many rocks on the ground and I didn't want to twist an ankle, that I missed the state border sign! I realized it about a half mile past the sign and debated about going back so I could see it but that didn't happen!  I couldn't add another mile to the day just to see that sign.  Luckily, Maggie took a picture of it and that'll have to do!

The rest of the day we focused on the hike and lived in the moment.  It's a peaceful experience to wake up and have nothing to worry about except walking.

Snicker's Gap

Another picture of Snicker's Gap

Bubbles at Snicker's Gap

We passed another busy highway today.  It is so weird to hike through sections of the trail where there are no roads or traffic and then suddenly see the white blaze across a busy highway!

We love coming across signs with information about the trail and the area where we are hiking!

Hello there highway in the middle of the trail!

We are staying at David Lesser shelter tonight.  It felt great to end the day here.  The shelter has plenty of room to relax and we are getting ready to head into Harper’s Ferry tomorrow!!

A local announcement board for the ALDHA (The Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association)

These rocks on the trail can tear up your feet fast!

We could have sat here forever relaxing

Almost to Harper's Ferry!

More spring

Can you spot Bubbles in this picture?

We haven't had any problems finding water!

I wonder what this will look like once leaves are on the trees

Living peaceful on the trail!

Day:  15

Miles hiked:  14.2

Total Miles hiked on the trail:  152.5

Bears:   0

Butterfly:  7

Chipmunk:  1

Crawfish:  1

Deer:  20

Really Big Dog:  1

Mouse:  1

Skunk:  1

Snail:  1

Squirrels:  11

Turkeys:  4

Woodpecker:  1

The Sprout Day 10 (Wednesday, April 6th)

Goodbye for now SNP!

Today was an awesome day, we reached our 100 mile mark!!!  We ended the day with 104.9 miles! It's such a great feeling to have gone over 100 miles!  We walked out of the Shenandoah National Park today.  I have nothing but positive things to say about SNP!  It is a beautiful place!  

It was a tough ten miles to get to our hut, we're staying at Tom Floyd Wayside shelter tonight. It has been cold the past few days and that always makes it harder to get moving in the morning. It's been down to at least the lower 20s. One night it got down to -5!

I'm really happy we started our hike here because it has been a great experience.  The views and the people I've met in the park have been my favorite things. Tomorrow we stay at a cabin/hostel.  We will get our food drop box and we will be going into town to eat some restaurant food!

We're out of coffee so we might get two this time.  We've been trying to think of food and other supplies we need from the store.  We're going to wake up early tomorrow and get to the hostel as early as we can. It's only three miles away!  I want to get into town and order a pizza or get some burgers! I want some Mountain Dew or a Coke.  Probably both!

Throughout the hike I've been watching and looking for a bear or other big animals.  I know they're out there.  Yesterday I was pretty close to the shelter and saw something big off in the distance... and it was getting closer!  I was watching this animal running through the woods and getting a little nervous, because its path was coming straight towards me!  It turned out to be a big dog!  Ha, a really big dog!!  It changed course before it got to me and kept going through the woods.  I thought I was starting to see things but everyone at the hut saw it too. I don't know whose dog it was, or where it was going, but it looked happy.

Yesterday we were staying with these two guys at Gravel Springs Hut.   One lives in Wisconsin and the other in Indiana.  They were really cool guys and one gave us a Mr. Goodbar! We melted the candy bar on the graham crackers that were left at Gravel Springs.  All we needed was a marshmallow and we would have had our s’mores!

At one point today I saw two huge deer (five today in total).  They were practically on the trail and didn't really mind seeing me.  

When we flip flop our hike, and start to head south towards Georgia, I want to take a day to see the waterfalls. I think one is around 70ft and the others are pretty big falls too. Hopefully it will be right after a big rain so they're really pumping some water! I'll be coming back to SNP again for some side trails too!

It's an early night, only 7:45 and I'm already in my sleeping bag!  I can't wait to get to the cabin tomorrow and get a ride into town to see what front Royal has to offer!

We are getting great views because of the lack of foliage on the trees

We wouldn't be able to see all of the features of this rock in the summer

Bubbles traversing through the trail

This looks like a good place to sunbathe

One of the five deer I saw today

Time to climb some rocks!  Bubbles is in this picture.  Can you spot her?

Compton Gap, last large mountain before we left SNP!

Another Where's Bubbles shot? You can see why it was a tough hike today!

Thankful my hiking partners are enjoying this experience as much as me.

Compton Gap view

We have been lucky because some people get too much fog to see anything!

Day:  10

Miles hiked:  10.5

Miles off trail to shelter:  0

Total Miles hiked on the trail:  104.9

Blisters:  0

Real Bears:   0

Really Big Dog:  1

Deer:  18

Squirrels:  8

Chipmunk:  1

Snail:  1

The Sprout Day 6

Waiting for Bubbles

Here she is!

I woke up to the alarm around 5:00 a.m. and looked up from my sleeping bag.  It was raining. I immediately laid right back down and thought to myself, “I’m not walking in the rain this early, lol!”  Maggie woke up about an hour later and it was still raining so we both decided to wait it out.  

One of the Gaps

We got on the trail around 9:00 a.m. when the rain had pretty much stopped.  It was the perfect chance to get moving.  We had our rain gear on so now I know my pack cover doesn't leak!  We did 11 miles today.  We have a ton of miles to go but I think 65 is pretty good for our 6th day.

We are all happy we have each other for support out here!

After trying the cowboy coffee or jet fuel (another name White Walkers gave it) I threw the funnel and filters away.  More space, less weight is the motto out here!

Two Best Friends

Even with the rain most of the morning coals were still hot so we just made coffee over the fire. We had a raging fire last night!  This was the hut we stayed at on our shakedown hike a few months ago and heard a bear.   This time we were here with other people, plus White Walkers dogs would have chased off any bear that tried to come around camp.  A few hikers camping up the hill said they saw some sort of scratching post!  There was definitely a bear in that area but we didn't hear him last night.  I saw 6 deer today right on the trail.

Happy to be camping with Maggie

Brotherly Love!

2 more deer for the count

So far the average hiking day for us has been waking up early, getting into our hiking clothes, grabbing our food bags, and getting on the trail.  We've been walking a few miles and then stopping for breakfast.  While eating we make a game plan for the day and get moving. It’s better to get down the trail, especially if there are other campers in the hut. We're probably going to start to use our tents more but we've already planned the first couple hundred miles and we basically just planned hut to hut.  Then, once we get to camp we start to filter water. We always fill our platypus in our backpacks for the next day first.  We hike with 3 liters of water (I think that's 6 pounds) and we usually filter 9 more liters for cooking and drinking water while we're at camp. Next, we make dinner and we set up our tents, or if we're sleeping in the hut, we just put our sleeping pads and sleeping bags out.  Finally, we organize our bags and get our sleeping clothes ready. 9:00 p.m. is hiker's midnight!  Then we remember to check our bag for food wrappers from the day's hike, hang our food bags and go to bed!

Hanging our Food Bags (with other hikers also) 

Baba Ganoosh enjoying the views

Very Peaceful out here

Day:  6
Miles hiked:  11.6

Miles off trail to shelter:  0

Total Miles hiked on the trail:  66.4

Blisters:  0

Real Bears:   0

Deer:  11

Squirrels:  8

Chipmunk:  1

Snail:  1

I have no idea what this is.  Hopefully one of the Three Amigo's can explain it later!

The Sprout: Day 5 (Friday)

Jeff not too far ahead of me

We got an even earlier start today than yesterday.  We were on the trail at 6:00 a.m.  Word on the trail was that it was supposed to rain throughout the night.  We didn't get any rain but it was super windy.  It was pretty dark when we hit the trail and about 45 minutes in it started to thunder and lightning off in the distance.   All I really wanted to do at this point was to get off the mountain and get into the valley before it started storming!  Luckily, the lightning passed but we did have to deal with a little rain.  At least now I know my rain cover works!  At the top of Bald Gap the fog was rolling in the mountains.  It looked like something out of a movie.

Tree down

The White Walkers taught us how to make cowboy coffee so we made a batch when we got to Swift Gap.  Cowboy coffee is just boiling the water and dumping the coffee grounds in and let it sit for about ten minutes off of the fire.  Fortunately, we had service at Swift Gap so we called everyone in the family to let them know we were safe.  

Another great view

There were so many squirrels on the trail today, at least 5 that I counted, one chipmunk, and a huge deer too.  Every morning while we're walking I always hear woodpeckers off in the distance.

Spring is poking through

The nats have been bad lately.  Maybe it's because we smell now haha.

If you look closely we are at the red dot

We did 12 miles today that puts us at 54! A mile from our hut we stopped at this camp store it was the best thing ever. Jeff and I got there before Maggie.  I got a cinnamon roll and a 20oz Coke. Jeff got a Yoohoo and a blueberry muffin and we split a sleeve of Oreos! It hit the spot!

White Walkers Dogs.  Hence why White Walkers has a plural trail name.

They had showers there and we definitely took advantage of that!! $1.00 for five minutes. I washed my clothes the first five and took a shower the second round. I can't even tell you how much we needed a shower, lol!!

Maggie carefully walking the trail

Today was a good day. Since the hut was so close we bought some hot dogs and hot dog sauce. We bought some other things for the rest of the week too.  Ramen, pop tarts, and trail mix. We're all set and ready until our next drop box.  We gave White Walkers a couple of hot dogs too. We all had a good time and he showed us a few natural fire starters.  I think this is his third time on the trail so he knows a few tricks!

Happy Hiker

Day:  5

Miles hiked:  12.4

Miles off trail to shelter:  0

Total Miles hiked on the trail:  54.8

Blisters:  0
Real Bears:   0
Deer:  5

Squirrels: 8
Chipmunk: 1
Snail: 1

We smell!