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GoldenBear

Trying to get the worst out of the way

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I've done pretty much all of The Trail between Rockfish Gap and Hanover NH. Thus, to continue adding to my miles, I have to hike either south of Waynesboro or north of Hanover. Also, my start and end points have to both be places (1) I can easily travel between OR (2) accessible by mass transit. And, as always, obligations invariably mean I can spend no more than five days hiking -- when my daily mileage struggles to reach even ten miles. All these considerations mean I end up looking for places about fifty miles from each other, with nightly stopping points along the way, each about ten miles apart.
What I'm finding is that the cost of using mass transit, to get to my start point and back from my end point, is rarely significantly less than the cost of a rental car, even if the latter just sits at a trail head for a few days. This gives me a lot more flexibility, but it also means I have to park my car at a safe place AND find a ride from my car to my start point. Taking advice from shuttle drivers that I find quite logical, I've concluded that my approach should be to park my car at a safe spot, ride the shuttle to the other trail head, and then walk back to the car.

Fortunately, both Waynesboro and Hanover make the last two criteria easy to reach. So now the question becomes: is there a start point fifty miles south of Waynesboro or fifty miles north of Hanover?
Looking at Thru-Hikers' Companion, the bad news I found was that making U.S. 60 (near Buena Vista) my starting point would result in a hike one day further than I honestly think I can handle. Yes, REAL backpackers could do this without breaking a sweat, but I'm honest enough to conclude that I can't. A start from Hog Gap Camp (HGC) would work perfectly So what do I do?

What I decided was to do an overnight between U.S. 60 and HGC (aka Wiggins Spring Road).
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...king&p=1887966
Start from the parking lot at U.S. 60 (Long Mountain Wayside), hike to the Cow Camp Gap Shelter, set up camp, continue hiking (much lighter) to HCG, turn around and return to Cow Camp Gap, spend the night there, return to the car the next morning, and then return home. This mini-backpack also had the advantage of a lot of flexibility of avoiding bad weather.
Note that one type of bad weather just about impossible to avoid in Virginia in the summer is a high heat index (or high dew point, as the two are related). This means I would have to do as much climbing of Bald Mountain in the morning as possible. Since it's a six hour drive from Philly to Buena Vista, I'll have to spend the night, before my hike, as close to the start point as possible. While I gave some thought of staying at the town's campground
http://www.bvcity.org/?page_id=530
I concluded that sleeping outside in air that never really gets comfortable would not be the best way to spend the night before a hike. I thus decided to spend the night at a motel. The place I chose
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._Virginia.html
is not exactly the Waldorf Astoria, but it is cheap and close.

Got to my start point well before sunrise and began my climb. Yes, it was a long climb (2000 feet), and humidity was a problem even as I started. But, to my personal amazement, I got to the crest of the hill in 2.5 hours -- MUCH faster than I expected. I thus had no problem going down to the intersection at Cow Camp Gap
http://rohland.homedns.org:8008/at/a...19-5164601.jpg
where I met a group of backpackers discussing snake bites. I pointed out that snake bites in North America are VERY RARELY fatal
https://www.imba.com/resources/nmbp/...ng-snake-bites
and added
The most likely bite victims are white males between the ages of 18-28 who try to handle the snake. Commonly, they have been drinking, which raises issues related to assessment and rescuer safety. While there have been reported cases of people bitten on the face while trying to kiss a snake, the most likely strike zones (95%) are on the arms, then legs, respectively.
The reason we were discussing snakes was that one of the guys had killed a snake with his slingshot just the other day.

Here's my notes on the shelter:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...lter&p=1887936
I got there sufficiently early in the day to get to HGC and back by early evening. One thing I WISH I had known is that Cole (Cold?) Mountain has a large bald. I don't like hiking in the sun -- I have too many risk factors for skin cancer as it is -- but there I was, without my sun hat. I did get a great view, however.
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=59944
I had my usual small dinner and, after realizing that mosquitoes were causing me more misery than anything else, I decided to just lay down inside my tent. I slept quite well for a day on the Trail, perhaps because (to my surprise) I was the only one there. I saw lightning in the distance as night was falling, but (BELIEVE me!) I have learned my lesson of 2011 June 28th!

I should also mention that, despite a life-long problem with correctly tying knots, I had little trouble getting my new Ursack{R}
http://www.ursack.com/product8.html
to get strung onto a heavy log.

Woke up sufficiently early to get back down Bald Mountain by mid-morning. Felt a little bad about interrupting a young woman (apparently changing) in her sports bra and skirt slip, but she WAS right on the Trail as she was doing so.

Drove home in plenty of time to head for a challenge I've thought about for quite a while -- the Belly Buster at Barnaby's
http://www.barnabyshavertown.com/blackboard.htm
It is a physiological fact of mine that, while I am on the Trail, my appetite vanishes. Yes, even though I'm burning up calories like crazy, I just don't want to eat. So, to save time, trouble, volume, and weight; I eat about half as much as I normally do, even though my calorie consumption is way higher. Which generally means that, when I get back to home, I'm famished. When I first saw the description, I said, "I think I can do that;" when I got there I said, "I'd like to try." I was a LITTLE nervous when I started
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=59994
but, to the (I'm sure) surprise of the server, I made it.
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=59995

Unless and until I can get the right combination of freedom from obligations AND lack of rain where I want to hike, I'll continue to do fill in gaps as needed.

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