Page 2

Date: Saturday, Feb 18
Start:  Gravel Springs Gap 
End:   Elkwallow
Today's miles: 6.3
Total (cumulative) AT miles: 15.9
Time: 5hrs


Saturday was "page 2" for a couple of reasons. Jen and I are now on the second page of the Shenandoah National Park pages in the AT data book. There are about 5-1/2 pages total that cover SNP. Making progress!  The second reason it was a "page 2" day, is because my good friend Tanya's dog Travis started page 2 of his journey. He left us with good memories, and we will miss him terribly, but he earned his wings and is off on another adventure. He has lots of friends and family waiting to show him around, so he's in good hands.


The day started for me at 4:30am. After a couple of snoozes, my day really started for me at 4:50am. Jen and I have decided that early starts are better, even though it means getting our butts out of bed so early. We were set to meet at Elkwallow at 7am to drop off the Escape and then shuttle to Gravel Springs Gap. We ran into each other in Front Royal, so we ended up driving into the park together. Neither one of us realized that sunrise is coming earlier and earlier...so we almost missed the 7:01am sunrise. We made it to a halfway decent overlook and got some sunrise shots on the way to Elkwallow. I noticed the sunrise was reflecting off the ice on the other side of Skyline, and I think it made for more interesting pictures. How many pictures of a sunrise do I need anyway?

We made it to Elkwallow and dropped the Escape off in the picnic area where Jeremy's Run trail intersects. Then we shuttled back to Gravel Springs Gap. We started out around 7:55am. Temps were in the upper 30's, but promised to get into the 40's later on. There were lots of cars in the GSG parking area, but (thank goodness) they were doing the Big Devils Stairs hike and we had the AT all to ourselves. Jen and I were noticing there were NO other fresh tracks on the trail. This section of the AT doesn't connect with any popular out-and-backs or circuits, so it is less traveled. So less traveled, we had at least three very large "trail strainers" to navigate. We had to bushwack around them they were so huge! 

We eventually crossed over Skyline Drive onto the western side of the road. This started the Little Hogback trifecta. Turns out there are three summits of Little Hogback mountain...and we had to climb all three. Each one was slightly steeper than the previous. This side of the mountain still had some pretty significant patches of snow. We found some coyote tracks in the snow. We knew they were coyote because there were no people prints on the trail, and most of the tracks were running across the trail instead of following the trail. We also saw what we think were old bear tracks. They had melted and re-frozen a couple of times, so not enough detail to be sure. But they came down the mountain, across the trail, and on down the mountain.

By the time we arrived at the Little Hogback parking area, the trail had seen a lot more traffic, so we could no longer distinguish dog tracks from coyote tracks. At this point, we were hiking parts of the AT we had hiked last year with Tanya. Then I got a text message saying that Travis had lost his fight to stay with us, and was moving on to a new adventure. It was so sad. Jen and I sat there and got all teary eyed. We spent the rest of our hike reminiscing about Travino and all the adventures we had together. I think it took our minds off of the fact we were climbing a mountain. We stopped at the "Pigeon prize" spot (1st summit of Little Hogback), and even made it up the "Bob" (3rd summit of Little Hogback) without too much belly-aching.

After climbing up Little Hogback, it was inevitable that we had to come down the other side. Ugh! What a beating our knees took. We crossed Skyline again, then hiked the Piney Branch section. We ran into some backpackers since Piney Branch is a real popular backpacking area. There are tons of good campsites, plus a stream provides a great water source. One couple asked us for a weather update. They had camped the previous night, and were staying that night also. They were relieved when we told them the snow forecast had changed from midnight to 10am Sunday morning. We finally arrived at Elkwallow, then the last 1/2 mile around the back to get to the picnic area and the Escape.


We seem to have a few "themes" that seem to occur on our hikes. We've noticed that time moves slowly at first, then when we check again, we seem to have jumped an hour to two all at once. Oh well, I guess it means we get into a rhythm and them time just flies. The other is that I always climb a rock. It started with a rock we passed on the Compton Peak trail, and I jokingly pretended to climb it. Then, we found a big rock on North Marshall mountain on our second hike, which I also pretended to climb. Then on this hike, we found a smaller rock that I actually DID climb. 

As usual, we did a post-hike nature photography expedition. It didn't yield much wildlife. I calculated and we've increased our pace from 1.22 to 1.27 MPH. Not bad considering all the stops we made along the way.


We finally called it a day and headed to Front Royal for lunch/dinner and a large fountain soda. On the way out of the park, we passed the "Travis spot" where he had gotten lost and then found during a hike last year. I got all misty-eyed again thinking about the little guy. Fly high Travis!