Appalachian Trail Section Hike #10 –U.S. Route 522 (Front Royal, VA) to ATC Headquarters (Harpers Ferry, WV)
Dates: 11/3/06 – 11/7/06
Participants: Tim, Jeff & Mike
Friday November 3rd
Mike and Tim opted to fly down from Boston to Dulles on Thursday night, avoiding a long car ride. I was on the road by 04:45 and arrived at the ATC headquarters around 06:45. Reminiscent of our spring hike, Tim & Mike had some issues getting to the meeting point and didn’t arrive until close to 08:00. Tim: Yeah I was busy getting pulled over in Sheapardstown by one of the West Virginia’s finest. “Boy we don’t drive that fast down here”. I called his wife/sister/clerk later that morning to find out the ticket was $180. Started the hike in fashion. After shifting packs to my truck, we headed off for Front Royal and the Route 522 road crossing. At 08:58, we shouldered our packs and headed north on our longest section hike to date.
All of us had put a great deal of effort into training for this hike. Unfortunately, I was battling a nasty cold that had me coughing and gasping for air on the climbs. Despite my condition and the leaf-covered trail, we all made good time and didn’t take a pack-off break until we reached the Jim & Molly Denton shelter at mile 5.2. It was the perfect time and place for lunch so we sat in the sun and enjoyed the subs that I had bought earlier in the morning on my way to Harpers Ferry. Since it was already past noon, we pulled ourselves away from the comfort of the shelter and set off to finish the last 5.5 miles of the day.
The final part of today’s hike included a climb out of Manassas Gap to the shelter. I was getting dehydrated which led to cramping in both of my calf muscles. The guide book landmarks appeared slowly but confirmed that I was making slow progress towards the shelter. With 0.5 miles to go, I exhausted my water supply and had to further slow my pace to prevent any more cramping. At 16:10, I finally saw the blue-blazed shelter trail ahead and stumbled in to find Mike & Tim feeding a welcome fire. Tim: Given Jeff’s illness we were worried he might never make it, Mike tried to call, we were almost ready to head down the trail to check on him (almost).
After a brief rest, we filled up our water bottles from the excellent piped spring and I began to set up my home for the evening. Tim had pitched his tent just past the shelter and Mike had chosen to set up his tent inside the shelter to provide a little extra protection from the dropping temperatures. I followed Mike’s lead but had to use rocks to anchor my tent as it isn’t free standing. My exhaustion had me moving in slow motion and it was all I could do to pull items out of my back and get them into the tent for the night. Without warning, I turned around to find a hiker standing outside of the shelter staring at me. He was wearing a tie-dyed sweatshirt with the hood cinched around his pudgy face, complete with Coke-bottle glasses and pouting lips.
The first thing out of his mouth was the comment “I have a problem with people who set up tents inside of shelters.” And he didn’t stop there. I recovered enough to make a comment that five minutes ago, there was no one else at the shelter that needed to be accommodated. Mike and I did our best to make plenty of room for this guy but he didn’t like the fact that my tent was set-up along the back wall of the shelter. I explained that I needed the extra length due to staking out with rocks but his reply was “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” He eventually mellowed out a bit and almost apologized for being so surly. His explanation was that he is legally blind and gets stressed out about reaching a shelter before sundown. And he travels without a tent so he depends on finding room in a shelter each night.
Once his angst dissipated, he did thank Mike & Tim for making a fire and we began introductions. He told us that his name was Mark and that his trail-name was Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. For some reason, we all heard it as ‘Derby Deeds’ but he made it clear that it was from the AC/DC song. When we asked Mark how he got that name, he replied that he had given it to himself because he had been listening to that song on his Walkman. Our guess is that he didn’t like any of the trail names that other people had given him, as we certainly came up with more than a couple of derogatory ones in the short time that we were together. While describing his job he referred to himself as a ‘people person’ and his outlook on the AT was “been there, done that’. I could write a full short-story about the 14 hours that we spent with Derby Deeds but I’ll summarize by say that he is now the #1 character that we have met on the trail.
My goal for the evening was to re-hydrate and to eat as much of the food in my pack as possible. My food bag weighed 6 pounds at the start of the hike and I was determined to lighten my load for tomorrow’s 13.4 miles. I picked a Chicken Alfredo dinner based solely on its net weight of 6.8 ounces. It was terrible. I forced myself to eat all of it as I was not going to carry any leftovers in my trash bag. By 19:30, I was inside of my tent and sleeping bag enjoying a chest-pounding coughing fit and the challenge of keeping dinner in my stomach. Although I woke up on numerous occasions, I did get a good amount of sleep (much to the chagrin of my shelter mates). Mike’s comment on Saturday morning was that I definitely got a lot of sleep based on the number of hours that I was snoring. And he knew when I was awake because those were the only times that I wasn’t snoring. I think Mike was surly because he thought we were staying at the Man Asses Gap shelter…. Tim: you know the saying “what happens in the shelter stays in the shelter” that is why my tent was setup 20 yards away. Great first day for me, this was the first hike I felt like I could have done another 5 miles at the end of the day.
Saturday, November 4th
Before I fell asleep, I heard Derby Deeds telling Mike & Tim that he would be getting up at 05:00 to make coffee and get packed up for an early departure. It was past 06:30 when I could see daylight through my tent fly and decided it was time for a privy visit. Derby was still sleeping as I slipped on my boots but was awake when I returned to the shelter. It had gotten cold overnight – cold enough to freeze the water in almost all of our bottles. Fortunately, Tim had brought along a collapsible canteen and the larger volume of water had resisted the transition to ice. I started up the stove to boil water for my oatmeal and hot chocolate while Mike & Tim began the pack-up process. I should have done the same but I was still feeling sluggish. As a result, I was the last to leave the shelter at 08:13
While we were eating our breakfasts, two black powder hunters walked up to the shelter and took a break. The trail passes through the G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area and we would end up seeing a few more hunters before the end of the day. We also saw a couple of backpackers as well. I eventually caught up to Tim & Mike at the side trail to the Dick’s Dome shelter. They had taken the effort to visit the shelter (downhill) while I waited at the trail junction. The good news is that we had already knocked-off 4.4 miles and only had 9 miles to tonight’s destination – the Rod Hollow shelter.
We met up again at a park bench in the Sky Meadows State Park – a perfect place for a short break. I stopped to snack on GORP to make sure I had enough fuel to finish the last 6.6 miles. The problem was that I had packed tuna fish and tortilla wraps for my lunches but had no interest in eating them. As a result, I was carrying extra food weight with no benefit. Definitely an issue that will need fine tuning before my next hike. To this point, the trail was mostly rocky and leaf covered and my pace was deliberately moderate to prevent any ankle injuries. In Sky Meadows, the trail improved dramatically and I was able to crank out three miles in an hour just when I needed to make some progress.
The final 3.6 miles from Route 50 to the shelter went much more slowly but again the guidebook landmarks confirmed my progress. I reached the rocky shelter access trail just before 16:00 to record a respectable 1.7 mph day. Tim was setting up his tent and Mike was on a mission to gather firewood. We had just finished settling in for the evening when we heard voices approaching. A young man wheezed his way up to the shelter and dropped his overstuffed external frame pack onto the ground. Another youth and an adult followed behind. The adult introduced himself as Roger and explained that a total of 11 people from a Boy Scout troop would be arriving over the next hour or so. I provided him with fair warning about my snoring problems but they were fully prepared to tent out around the shelter. As darkness enveloped the hollow, we huddled around the fire and kept it blazing as a beacon for the rest of the troop. Roger had carried a pruning saw in his pack and was happy to let Mike use it to supply the firewood for the evening.
It was enjoyable talking to the kids and adults as they arrived and made camp. Mike did a great job with the fire and its warmth did wonders to restore my body after a challenging day of hiking. Still, I was not interested in eating and had to force myself to eat a tuna wrap for dinner. That took care of my lunch but left me with an extra dinner. I made it to 20:00 before bidding the group good night and retreating to the confines of my mummy bag. After a spirited coughing spell, I slept the sleep of the dead and impressed my new shelter mates with my cold-induced snoring prowess.
Sunday, November 5th
It was close to 05:30 when I heard someone sawing logs - literally. I opened my eyes and could see a lone headlamp through the woods bobbing along with the sawing motion. Apparently, the Scout leader was an early riser and was already working on resurrecting the fire and cooking breakfast. I was ready to get up anyway so I wiggled out of my bag and started packing up my gear. By 07:43, I offered my farewell to the scouts and set off to begin the difficult hike to the Bears Den Hostel.
Even though we only had 9.8 miles on tap for the day, we had to traverse the majority of the ‘Roller Coaster’ section of the trail. The Roller Coaster is a 14-mile section of the AT where an extremely narrow right-of-way was obtained. Unfortunately, the right-of-way does not follow any of the ridgelines for more than a few hundred yards. As a result, the trail goes up and down over viewless ridges with very little level terrain. My mapping software calculated an elevation gain of 4457’ and an elevation loss of 3743’ over this 14-mile stretch. Often, the right-of-way was not large enough to accommodate switchbacks, so the trail went straight up and down. Our plan was to meet my family at the Bears Den Hostel by 14:00, but our progress was severely affected by the terrain. I caught up to Tim & Mike at the Sam Moore shelter at mile 6.9 and saw that they were struggling almost as much as I was. I called Patti to let her know that our rendezvous time would be closer to 15:00 and that I would be well behind Tim & Mike.
I began to encounter several day hikers and knew by the landmarks that I was getting closer to my goal, but the last 0.5-mile climb was simply brutal. When the Bears Den sign appeared in my sight, I got a quick boost of energy and powered my way up the 0.1-mile connecting trail to the front of the stone hostel. Exhausted, I dropped my pack under a small pavilion and gulped down the last of my water while waiting for my family to arrive. They were just returning from a visit to see the cottage that I had rented and both my kids sprinted up the driveway for a jubilant reunion. It turned out that the cottage was really not that convenient from a hiker’s standpoint but it did offer a little more privacy and flexibility compared to the hostel’s hiker bunkroom. Tim: Once again ST came through, the cottage was clutch, except for that sick guy that kept snoring, brutal he moved the whole cottage. I agree this was a hard section. Looking at the profile on the map it looked more like 7 almost 1000 foot ups and downs. I felt great the first 2 days, this day I was tired.
Our first order of business was hot showers in the hostel then it was time to head out for dinner. I had read many complimentary reviews of the nearby Horseshoe Curve Restaurant so we piled into the van and headed out for a hot meal that did not require boiling water. In summary, the food was good but the service was almost nonexistent. When the owner came over and asked for our drink order, I made the mistake of saying that I was ready to order my dinner as well. He replied “I said, what do you want to drink?” Our bill would have easily been $20 higher if someone had offered to bring more beers and sodas when we were ready for them. Still, nothing beats real food after a couple of days of trail food. We even devoured the greasy lettuce garnish that was under the pile of fried chicken wings. That counts as a vegetable, doesn’t it?
Back at the hostel, we formally checked-in and settled up with our hosts. Tim and I each procured a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to take back down to the cottage as dessert. We bade goodbye to my family and walked down the dark trail to our indoor lodging. I commandeered the lone twin bed in a separate room while Mike and Tim found spots in the main room. We stoked the woodstove and relaxed in the relative comfort of the cottage until I got the call that my family had arrived home safely. Then it was lights out for a comfortable night’s sleep without long underwear or hats. Tim: At this point I vowed 20 yards away was not enough.
Monday, November 6th
I heard Mike & Tim talking around 06:00 and thought it was a good time to start packing up. We agreed to cook breakfast up at the hostel so that we could fetch water from a tap and make use of the indoor bathroom one more time. The creature comforts of the hiker room made it difficult to get motivated for departure and we got our latest start since the first day out. Tim left first and I followed at 08:40 with Mike just a few minutes behind.
The first four miles of the day concluded the Roller Coaster section. It was a true pleasure to finally reach a level stretch of trail. Mike was on a mission and had passed me on the first climb of the day. I caught up to Tim at the Devils Racecourse and he confirmed that Mike had blown by him as well. We all met up at the sign for the Blackburn Trail Center where the trail maintainers had thoughtfully provided a few comfortable benches. Our original plan was to fill all of our water bottles from a spigot at the Trail Center but no one was interested in tackling the steep 0.2-mile downhill access trail. We had completed 7.9 of the day’s 11.2 miles but again I didn’t have any appetite for lunch. I did finish one of my bags of GORP but wasn’t replacing the fuel I was burning. The result was another sluggish afternoon hike to the shelter.
To this point, I was pleased that I had not lost the trail (unlike some of my hiking partners). Then I reached a long section of trail without any blazing. First, I continued looking both forward and backward for any white blazes – nothing. Then I backtracked to the last blaze and confirmed that there were no missed turns. Finally, I continued and came upon a blaze about 100 yards past where I had turned around. Tim & Mike both noticed the same lack of blazing but I was the only one paranoid enough to turn around and retrace my steps. I openly cursed the trail maintainers for this transgression and resumed my journey. Tim: I am surprised Jeff does not accuse us of removing the blazes at this point. I lost the trail 3 times on this hike, one payback is okay.
The last 0.5-mile had me exhausted even though the terrain wasn’t too bad. I stopped and loaded my mouth with Swedish fish candy for a quick burst of sugar energy. It worked, and I crested the last small knoll to find both the shelter turnoff sign and a white ‘1000 MILE’ marker. The shelter was visible from the trail and I shuffled in to find Mike and Tim swinging together in the cooking pavilion. Really. These northern Virginia / West Virginia shelters sure are deluxe.
After we got unpacked in the shelter, we had to pay the price for passing on the water spigot at the Blackburn Center. The spring was down a steep 0.25-mile side trail and turned out to be a small pool with leaves and debris. We hadn’t even considered this possibility and didn’t bother to bring the water filter with us. As a result, we filled up with dirty water and filtered back at the shelter. It was fortunate that this was our last night and we didn’t have to worry about contaminated water containers past tomorrow’s breakfast.
For the second day in a row, I ate my lunch for dinner. That left me carrying two unused dinners for the entire trip. The temperatures today were warmer than the previous days but the breeze and a bit of dampness in the air made it feel cooler. I ended up crawling into my sleeping bag by 19:30 and setting an alarm on my cell phone so that I could wake up for my nightly call home. At 20:00, the alarm woke me up and I made my call without leaving the bag. Lying on my side, I tucked the phone under my headband so that my hands wouldn’t get cold. My wife (and my shelter mates) confirmed that it was a less than coherent conversation on my part. I hung up and immediately fell back to sleep.
Tuesday, November 7th
I have to give credit to Mike and Tim for putting up with me each night. Tim: If Jeff only knew I checked the trash bag my sleeping bag was in, if it did not have a hole in it he might not have made it out of the woods. My cold had left me run down to the point that each day’s hike left me totally exhausted. And the congestion amplified the level of my snoring somewhere close to intolerable. Maybe it was an unconscious attempt to bring them down to my level by preventing them from getting a full night’s rest. Surprisingly, I woke up on Tuesday morning ready to go and feeling better than any of the previous days. The fuel canister for the stove wasn’t reacting well to the cool temperatures and it took quite a while for the breakfast water to boil. Still, I made my earliest departure of the trip at 07:20 with a mission to make it to Harpers Ferry by lunchtime.
Tim passed me sometime in the first two miles and I caught up to him at the WV Route 9 road crossing. I was in a good hiking rhythm and didn’t stop. Shortly afterwards, the top of my pack got snagged on a fallen tree and I turned around to see that Tim had witnessed my unsuccessful attempt at the limbo. I made a comment to him that it sucked to get caught in such an ungraceful pose. Apparently, Tim stopped there to check out an injury to his leg and I didn’t see him or Mike until the hike was almost over.
Tim: In the last 4 miles of this hike I hurt my leg, first time ever shin splint, wow they hurt. I suspect Jeff did something to my boots just so he could make it Harper’s Ferry first.
I was making outstanding progress and was excited to see a sign listing the distance to the ATC headquarters at 1.9 miles. From there, it was all downhill to the bridge across the Shenandoah River. My only goal at this point was to prevent a fall while descending through the leaves and rocks. Through the entire day’s hike, I had been looking forward to the last mile. In reality, it was the toughest part of the day. First, I had to descend under the bridge via concrete steps and then ascend on the other side. Then it was close to 0.5 miles across the bridge with cars and trucks flying by only a few feet away. Then the worst part was the ascent along the cliffs to the ATC side trail. I kept looking down through the trees and finally saw Tim & Mike emerging from the stairs onto the bridge. I took my time over the last steep ascent and finally emerged onto the grounds of Storer College and followed the brick walkway towards the ATC headquarters building. At 11:30, I dropped my pack and poles in front of the building and took my last picture of the trip. Inside, the volunteers offered me a tour of the facility and some welcome spring water from the cooler. Tim and Mike walked in ten minutes later and we made a few purchases before heading downtown for lunch. Tim: Yeah he checked his watch. As if on queue, it started to rain once we were out of the elements. I had been looking forward to this triumphant arrival at the ATC Headquarters but it was a bit anticlimactic. I’m guessing that 300-mile section hikers are a dime-a-dozen and that even thru-hikers are getting more and more common. No matter… I’m glad we were able to stop in and visit while we were in town.
We opted for a barbeque joint next to the train station. It was almost comical to hear us place our order. I chose a full rack of ribs with two sides. Mike and Tim each ordered pork sandwiches but then added on a half-rack of ribs as well as extra side dishes. We washed it all down with several bottles of root beer while the owner described how his employees had an early morning encounter with poltergeists. While Tim settled up the bill, I searched out a store to buy fudge for my kids – a promise that I made before I left home.
Both Tim & Mike were interested in showering before flying home to Boston. We discussed visiting the Harpers Ferry Hostel but decided that the Bears Den Hostel wouldn’t be too far out of the way back to Front Royal. My GPS guided us there perfectly and we soon found ourselves sitting in the hiker room while Mike and Tim took turns in the bathroom. Then it was time to get back on the road so that I could get to my truck and Tim could attempt a meeting with his sister on the way back to Dulles. By 15:00, I was changed into clean clothes, sitting behind the wheel and heading for home. Tim called within a minute of my 17:25 arrival home to confirm that he and Mike were at the airport and that their flight was on time. Everything had come off perfectly and we had completed our longest section in our four years of hiking the AT.
Almost exactly a week after we had arrived at the Manassas Gap shelter, I was sitting in my doctor’s examination room to find out why I still had my ‘bad cold’. Turns out that it was pneumonia and hiking was not anywhere near the top of the list of recommended activities. My doctor just shook his head as I described my ordeals with ascents and sleeping in the shelters. He asked if he could relate my story to his colleagues without using my name. I agreed, and then went for a chest x-ray and a stop at the pharmacy to get a 10-day dose of antibiotics. While riding my motorcycle, of course.
I probably ended up passing my cold onto Mike as he ended up with sneezing, coughing and a fever after returning home. That will teach him to sleep in the shelter with me. Tim vowed never to sleep in the same shelter with me ever again and will tent at least 20 yards away if I hike with a cold. But he did give me credit for pulling off the hike in my condition. Tim and I did agree on one point: Mike has proven himself worthy to share in our exploits and the time has come to award him with his trail name. During our spring hike, Mike was laying next to the trail staring up at the trees in a pain-induced haze. He had commented that one of the branches in a tree looked like a sheep’s head. Tim and I looked but didn’t see anything even close to that description. As a result, Mike will now be known as Sheep’s Head unless he happens to listen to a really cool song on an .mp3 player….
Mileage Summary – 10.7 miles on Friday, 13.4 miles on Saturday, 9.8 miles on Sunday, 11.2 miles on Monday and 8.6 miles on Tuesday. Total AT miles: 53.7. Cumulative AT miles: 341.8.
Trail Summary – Lots of rocky sections covered with leaves but also a few really nice sections. Some of the rocky sections were reminiscent of New Jersey. The Roller Coaster flat-out sucked.
Hiker Count – One southbound female backpacker on Friday along with Derby Deeds at the shelter. On Saturday, I saw five hunters, two backpackers, a hunter’s wife looking for her husband, and the 11 Scouts at the shelter. Sunday brought one southbound hiker and a bunch of day hikers near Beas Den. On Monday, I passed a trail runner, a family of three on a walk in the woods and two southbound backpackers. And I met a lady walking three dogs on the trail a few miles outside of Harpers Ferry on Tuesday. At the HQ, a southbound flip-flop hiker stopped in to record his 2000-mile effort.
Wildlife Count – Lots of deer and turkey on Friday. I didn’t see anything on Saturday through Monday since I was coughing and wheezing my way up the trail. On Tuesday, there were deer all around the trail, including a dead one that I all but stepped on.
Blister Count – My old friend on my right big toe. It forms, it grows, it hurts, and then it just sort of remains without causing any problems. I also injured my right Achilles tendon in the Roller Coaster section and nursed it through the end of the hike.
Lessons learned – We nailed this hike based on the terrain and hours of daylight. Tim felt that he could have hiked further on Friday but I was fortunate to make it to the shelter. I could have hiked further on Saturday and Monday but it was nice to end the hike with a good amount of daylight remaining. The 9.8 miles over the Roller Coaster on Sunday was plenty and it was an omen on Tuesday that the rains came after we were done. For once, we learned well from our past hikes and completed reasonable mileage each day, especially with my pneumonia.
My biggest challenge is finding hiking foods that will be appetizing at the end of the day. I came home with two dinners, one package of tuna fish, and a full bag of GORP. That was a significant amount of weight to carry with no benefit.