Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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June 8, Curry Creek - mile 717.9

For the first time, the desire to quit hiking actually crossed my mind today. I think I'm still surprised by the fact that it hit me but I'm glad the feeling has not lasted. In fact, I am happily settled into a lovely campsite near a stream tonight, with no one but the birds for company and I feel quite content.

However, it was a bittersweet day. I stayed up nearly all night working on last minute projects at home: trying to organize my next mail drops, answering emails, dealing with our insurance company and a million other tasks. After about 3 hours of sleep, I was back up so that Tony could drive me down to Daleville, to pick up the trail where I left off. We had lunch together at the Country Cookin' and I finally hit the trail around 1PM. He walked me down the first few steps to say "goodbye" and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Being at home for 3 days was enough to make me realize how much I've missed it. Before I finally got moving, I asked him to wait half an hour just in case my leg started hurting like crazy after half a mile down the trail. Nothing would have upset me more than feeling the return of the pain just after he left to go back home.

That first half hour was horrible! My mind swam with doubts and questions. Does my leg really hurt? Is it enough to turn around? Should I be resting another day? How do I know if this is something to be worried about or not? Finally, I just prayed for a sign if I was supposed to turn around. I figured if I tripped and fell flat or experienced excruciating pain or some thing significant, I would know that more rest is in order. Once I stopped worrying so much, I found that my tendon is still a tiny bit sore, but overall, I seemed to do very well. I don't believe I have ever place my feet so carefully! I did every thing I could to avoid tripping or jerking on that muscle, and I took a lot of rest breaks. Tonight I promised myself that I would stop when I reached this stream, regardless of the fact that the next shelter is only an hour away. It will add two miles to my day tomorrow but I don't want to over-do it on my first day back on the trail.

Even though it was hard to say goodbye to Tony and to the comforts of home, I must say it is also wonderful to be back. It took me almost an hour to feel comfortable on the trail again - at first, I was overwhelmed with the strangeness and newness of it all. And this is after only four days off! I now understand why people who take a week off feel like they're starting from scratch. At the first shelter, I read the register for a while to try and figure out where every one is. The people I was hiking with last week are now 4 days ahead, of course, including Max, who I doubt I will catch again for at least another month. Of the few people who I knew behind me, one has now passed me by 2 days, one quit the trail at Daleville and I seem to still be ahead of 3 others. So I feel a bit like a loner right now! Hopefully I will start meeting some new folks in the next day or two.

Despite losing a little momentum from four days off and going home, I do believe the rest did me a lot of good. Certainly my shin needed time to heal, but I also noticed today that my knees moved a little smoother and I feel like I had a lot more energy tackling the hills than I've had the past 2 weeks. I don't know whether to attribute that to several days of mega-calorie infusion, rest, or the iron boost from my sirloin burger right before I started, bit it was a nice feeling. Too bad I can't get a sirloin burger for lunch every day!

Speaking of food, I cooked an amazingly large amount of it these past few days. Not only was I eating like a whale, I also needed to replenish the stock piles for my mail drops, too. I made 7 loaves of bread, 5 pans of energy bars, 4 pounds of pork ribs, 5 pounds of beef roast, a pound of bacon, half a pound of fish, an apple pie and two pans of rolls. All of it washed down with a gallon of chocolate milk.

June 9 Cove Mtn Shelter mile 734.2

  What a strange and wonderful day it's been. Strange because I haven't seen another thru-hiker since noon yesterday, and wonderful because I'm so excited to be hiking on my "home turf." I started crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway today (6 times I think) and it made me happy because we've driven the Parkway through here before and every thing looks familiar, even though I've never actually hiked here. In a hundred miles, the Parkway enters Shenandoah National Park and then becomes Skyline Drive, which is serious home turf for me!

As I write this, I am accompanied by the sounds of raining caterpillar dung from the voracious critters eating the tree leaves all around me. I wasn't sure it was serious when I read about it in the shelter log, but I can hear (and see) it for myself now. It's hard to believe that creatures as beautiful as butterflies come from smarmy caterpillars. I guess at least they become butterflies. Mosquitos are completely smarmy all their lives.

Despite the complete lack of thru-hiker company today, I did meet a couple groups of very nice day- hikers. The first was a couple from North Carolina camping up here for a few days. We met going opposite directions on the trail, and a mile after when I came to my first crossing of the Parkway, there they were again! They had parked there for the short hike and got back to their car at the same time I reached the road. We talked for a while and they gave me a Coke, which was so nice. It gave me the perfect boost for getting up the next hill. An hour later, I met another group of Dad, 2 sons, and Grand-dad. I learned that Granddad is planning on thru-hiking next year, at age 72. So we chatted for a bit, too, I'm so impressed by how many "older" people are thru-hiking. In my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine doing this in my 70's! I'm having a hard enough time in my 20's.

The rest of the day has been spectacularly beautiful. It's so nice to have a break from the rain, although I do hear it's supposed to return by Monday. It's amazing that in this season of wetness, I actually had to pack water in tonight, from about 3 miles away. For whatever reason, the shelter is not built near a water source, and the closest one prior was 3 miles. So I lugged a gallon up here (8 pounds) because it will take me that much to get through tonight and tomorrow morning, plus I drank a liter of it on the hike in! Come to think of it perhaps that's why I'm alone here tonight. The register shows 4 hikers passed on to other shelters today and maybe everyone else behind me has stayed back a shelter, to avoid the task of carrying all that water. Whatever the reason, it looks like just me and the mice here tonight.