Date: Sat, April 14 & Sunday, April 15
Start: Little Stony Man parking
End: Fisher's Gap
Today's miles: 8.1
Total (cumulative) AT miles: 40.1
Time: the weekend
Wow! So this is waaaaay late. It's been a hectic week. Dog-sitting for a friend, which turned out to be a major commitment. I've spent my week making home-cooked dog food, administering meds, applying lotion to a dog butt, and trying to keep my own dog entertained too! But anyhoosey, about the hike...
We took 1/2 day off on Friday (well, my 1/2 day ended up being more like a 1/3 of a day off thanks to some clueless co-workers). Jen got us a good site at Big Meadows (site #29 to be exact). It was a nice short hike-in site, with only two immediate neighbors. One neighbor was a very quiet couple, and the other was a small group that never seemed to be there. Yay! We used the Bean tent (aka, "The Taj") for space and comfort. We were discussing a night hike on Friday, perhaps to see the sunset from Little Stony Man, but I was running so late that it just wasn't going to happen. Instead, we just chilled on Friday and had a nice dinner at the Big Meadows wayside. Neither one of us had brought any food except snacks.
We got up early (pre-sunrise early) on Saturday morning for a wildlife photo expedition. We would hike after. We were running a tad bit behind, so we ended up watching the sunrise at the first decent overlook, which happened to be the Old Rag overlook. It was awesome! We were taking pics of the sunrise and Old Rag, when we heard, "Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!". Yep! My old tom turkey was baaaack! He was hanging out near the road making a fuss. We got some good pics, then moved on. We never saw anything better (aka, no bears).
We finally hit the trail at 11:15"ish". We dropped the Escape at Hawksbill Gap, and shuttled in the Yaris back to Little Stony Man parking lot. We had hiked the Stony Man trails before, so we knew exactly what to expect...A steep ascent with a quick payoff (Little Stony Man), then a slow steady ascent towards Stony Man. The AT doesn't go to Stony Man, but passes near it. We then descended from Stony Man mountain down into Skyland. The Skyland north crossing was very familiar. Then we hiked to Skyland south, which was an area I had never seen before. There were times when you didn't realize you were smack-dab in the middle of Skyland. I kept wondering where the two women that were murdered in 1996 might have been camped. It is sickening to think that there are evil people out there that would do something like that. http://www.barryyeoman.com/articles/murderonmountain.html
Once out of Skyland, the trail was all new to both of us. Lots of really nice views! We hiked underneath Timber Hollow and Crescent Rock overlook. We got the same views as the people up above, but without all the people. :) Rosie was along for this hike, she did really well except when she had a little "breakdown". She just turned around and put her front paws on me and refused to move. We gave her a snack, some water, and some love and kisses. She was fine after that, so we must have hit the problem. I started playing a game with my iPhone where I would use the self-portrait setting, and then do something cute with Jen behind me. She finally caught on to what I was doing. All those miles and you tend to get bored.
We finally made it to the awaiting Escape at Hawksbill Gap. Rosie was sooo happy to get in her crate and flake out. Jen and I were tired, but overall we felt pretty good. The total miles for Saturday were 5.1. Afterwards, we retrieved the Yaris and headed back to Big Meadows. I had the best cheeseburger EVER! We picked up some firewood and some ice & beer for later. After a nice hot shower, we headed back to our campsite to chill.
On Sunday morning, we were really waffling on what was the plan. Were we going to hike? Or photo expedition? Sunrise? Sleep in? We both woke up pre-sunrise, and I was thinking of sleeping in....but then I had to get up to pee and figured I might as well stay up. We broke camp quickly (and as quietly) as we could. We were on the road by 6:20am. We were a tad late for the actual sunrise, but got some nice shots a few minutes after at Thorofare Mtn. overlook. We were still trying to decide whether to hike or not. Finally, based on the fact we hadn't seen any bears at all the last few times, plus it was cool in the morning and promised to be a hot day, AND because I think we were both feeling guilty about NOT hiking....we decided to hike. We retrieved Jen's car from Big Meadows and dropped the Escape at Fisher's Gap and headed to Hawksbill Gap and were on the trail by 8am. Once we started hiking, we both realized it was a good choice. Rosie had her flexi-lead, so she was one happy pup. Running back and forth and back and forth and back and forth...etc.
We had some great views! There was this humongous rock slide that the trail went right across. Did I mention it was HUGE? We took tons of pictures. It was kind of unnerving to think what would've happened if one of the rocks let loose. Fortunately, none did.
Then we hiked on up to Rock Spring cabin and took the side trail to check it out. Ugh! The cabin is just below the shelter, plus folks tenting along the hillside. It was as crowded as a Wal-Mart on a Saturday afternoon! No thanks! I took Rosie to the spring to get a slurp, and we took some pics of the cabin before heading back up to the AT.
Once back on the AT, we hiked along underneath Franklin Cliffs and some more great views. If you ever stop at the Franklin Cliffs overlook, park the car and hike about 1/2 mile north on the AT. It's just view after view after view. Odds are, you'll have it all to yourself.
The hike was so enjoyable, it was over before we knew it. I looked up and there was the Escape. I think we weren't ready for it to end. Oh well, to go any further would have meant shuttling the cars again. Our total miles on Sunday was 3.2. Our next section will take us past Big Meadows campground. We'll probably shoot for Milam Gap on a day hike. We picked up the Yaris and headed to Thornton Gap. We had our cameras, but weren't actually doing a true photo expedition. Coming past the Stony Man overlook, we FINALLY saw our first bears of the season. A mama and two cubs. We managed to get some half-assed pictures before the bear jam started and scared them off.
Jen was considering a photo expedition after that, but I had to get back to check on Cheeky (my cat) who had just had 6 teeth pulled the previous Monday. I was worried he wasn't eating enough. We stopped at Burgers 'n Things in Sperryville (which has become a tradition) for lunch, then we both headed home.
P.S. Cheeky was fine. This is Cheeky.
Date: Friday, March 30 & Sunday, April 1
Start: Beahm's Gap
End: Little Stony Man parking
Today's miles: 11
Total (cumulative) AT miles: 32
Time: a couple of days
Wow! We had quite a productive weekend. Our plan was to take Friday off and hike from Beahm's Gap up past Mary's Rock, and then camp somewhere between Mary's Rock and Byrds Nest #3 shelter. Then, hike out to Pinnacles picnic area the next morning where my Escape was waiting. It was the inaugural backpack for my new REI Crestrail pack. Rosie came along and carried her food & water in her own pack. We started out a little before 10am. Feeling good, taking lots of pictures, and the new pack was the shiznit. We climbed Pass Mountain and barely busted a sweat. As we got closer to Panorama (where Rt. 211 intersects Skyline Dr.), we made a plan to stop for lunch and use the flush toilets. Well...just as we were crossing Skyline Dr. to loop around from the back, it started to rain. Ugh. Not a toad-strangler, but a steady gentle shower. We were sooooo close to Panorama, but we had to stop long enough to put on the pack covers to protect the gear. It wasn't supposed to rain, but thank goodness we brought pack covers & rain jacket/poncho just in case. We booked it to get to Panorama and the shelter of the breezeway. We didn't even get any shots or video of the "milestone" crossing of Rt. 211. We may have to go back and stage a "reenactment". :) Rosie was really getting pissed. She hates getting wet unless there's a bird or squirrel involved. She kept walking up to cars in the Panorama parking lot wanting to jump in and go. All three of us went in one of the open family bathrooms together (what the heck, no one was watching), and before we could stop her, Rosie started drinking out of the toilet. Eww, dogs can be gross.
After lunch, it was STILL raining. There was nothing else to do but put on the rain gear & covers and keep moving. Our only bailout option would have been to hitchhike...eh, no. We headed off to conquer Mary and her rock in the rain. She was a real bitch too! Lots of baby rocks & pebbles thrown in our path, and she was torturing us with the almost constant view of her summit rock that never seemed to get any closer. But we trudged upward through the rain and fog. We ran into lots of hikers bailing down in the rain, and only saw one other lone hiker that was going up. I think he got gas bombed right before he passed us. Wellll...we didn't know he was back there. We FINALLY made it to the side trail to the actual summit of Mary's Rock. We debated for a hot second on whether to skip it, but after all that work, we deserved the payoff. I swear, as soon as we hit the side trail to the summit, the rain stopped and the sun came out. We laid out our rain gear to dry out, had a snack and posed for pictures. I scampered up Mary's big-ass rock for the obligatory "rock climbing" pics. The one good thing about the weather was that everyone else was coming down as we were going up. Which means we had the entire summit to ourselves and didn't have to share. Once we were ready to go, us and our rain gear had mostly dried out. We packed away the rain jackets, but put on the pack covers just in case.
On the way up Mary's Rock (in the rain), Jen mentioned getting a room at the Quality Inn in Front Royal. As Mary and her rock beat us down on the way up, and the rain & sweat soaked us to the skin, that hotel idea started sounding better and better. Hmmmm...a hot shower, take-out food, comfy & toasty bed...hell yeah! We descended Mary and her big-ass rock and headed down to the Byrds Nest shelter. We would decide what to do next once we got there. We found a dude already at the shelter that seemed a little sketchy. A real jumpy guy...telling us how he had hiked 30 miles through the night because he couldn't sleep. Really? Is that normal? He was twitchy and even "accidentally" threw his lighter in the fire. Really? Is THAT normal? Jen and I looked at each other right then & there, and without saying a word, we both knew we were pushing straight through to Pinnacles. We had another snack, offered the guy our matches to replace his exploded lighter (since we didn't need them now), then shouldered our packs and headed out.
So we have one more mountain to climb, 'The Pinnacle', before we make it to the finish. Going up that last mountain and heading down the other side, we came up with a new theme song for The Gimpfoot Sisters. It goes like this: "Ouch!", "Oww", "Ouch!", "Owwwie", "Ouch!", etc. Seriously, we were HURTING! We were limping through the picnic area at Pinnacles, just trying to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and bitching because we didn't think to park the Escape in the FIRST parking space next to the AT. We didn't even get any "finish" pictures. We were so over it. We did a total of 8.7 miles in ONE day, and climbed three mountains in the process. We kicked off our boots and drove our tired asses and sore knees & feet to Front Royal and that cozy hotel room.
We got up on Saturday early enough to get into the park before sunrise. Not a problem since we were both out on Friday night by 9pm. We decided Saturday would be a photo expedition day. We picked up Jen's car at Beahm's Gap, made our way south to Big Meadows and got a campsite for that night. We had a big (but somewhat healthy "healthy hiker") breakfast at the wayside, then headed out for more picture taking. Not a single bear all weekend. Blah! We had dinner at the wayside since we didn't bring any "real" food with us and were too tired/lazy to cook. We had a cold six-pack by the campfire. Sweet! On Sunday, we got up early and packed up before sunrise, but it was so cloudy and foggy we didn't really get a sunrise. We drove around looking for more wildlife anyway and the catch of the day was a big old tom turkey "Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!". I loved him! Wish I could have gotten him on video.
We did another short "recovery hike" on Sunday to pick up another 2 miles. We went from Pinnacles to the Little Stony Man parking lot. It was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy compared to Friday's torture. Jen took her fancy-pants camera, and I had a packless Rosie on a flexi-lead. We all three had a blast! The views along that section are pretty awesome.
Next stop Skyland! And maybe even all the way to Big Meadows!!
