jdc5294
04-06-2014, 18:14
Another little anecdote for y'all, thought it might be cool to talk about some of our crucible experiences on the trail.
I was in Virginia a couple days south of Waynesboro. At least, that's what I thought. There's a hostel in that area, I'm ashamed to say I can't remember the name. They had a TV in the bunk room with Forrest Gump on VHS and for an extra fee they cooked you dinner, and they had a guitar and piano in the living room which was pretty cool.
Anyway at the time I was hiking with a guy named Moses. Moses was a brilliant 6'4" Texas native with the body of a marathon runner, he's going to Columbia Med school now I think. Even though I had a pack light enough that I'd earned the secondary nickname Day Hiker, his made mine look like I was about to climb Everest. I'd been hiking with him for the past week or so and even though I generally hiked a little farther then I would have by myself he was a cool guy and I was having fun. We took up the hostel's offer of slack packing, which helped us complete the next (I think) 24 miles by around 2pm. While waiting for the owner to come with our packs we looked at the next couple pages of the guidebook that Moses had torn out, and as he pointed to the road crossing 21 miles north that takes you into Waynesboro he gave me a look. It wasn't necessarily a friendly look but more of a "if you're really a man you'll do this with me" look.
That's 21 miles with a pack on. After walking for 24 miles. During and after the fact I never regretting deciding to do it, but it was still hard. I liked hard, the AT hadn't really challenged me that much (not that hiking has to be challenging) but a little pain to break up the nirvana was a good thing for me. Knowing we were headed for the same place we took to our own paces, and leapfrogged each other as we took breaks along the way. About 3 miles from the crossing there was a shelter with a school or church group of about 30 staying for the night. At the end of a long day I'm not quiet and sullen, I'm usually talkative and giddy with how tired I am, Moses was the same way. Hearing two guys joking about hiking 40+ miles in a day must have been a little weird for all those people. I mixed myself the last crystal light energy pack in my water bottle and chugged it, and made it at 8:45 to the road crossing 10 minutes after Moses and a couple other hikers who had been ahead of us waited with a trail angel who drove us into Waynesboro.
As we rode in the bed of the truck with a warm breeze blowing over us the enormity of what we'd just done and the inherent weariness set in. 45 miles in a day is pretty cool. We stopped at Subway and gorged ourselves, then got dropped off at the hotel. It turns out about 8 friends I'd lost track of were there, and we stayed up late drinking beer and getting our sanity questioned. After that some of us decided to get our resupply out of the way at a 24 hour supermarket a couple blocks away. Not taking a zero the next day was a mistake, I only made it 7 miles into the Shenandoahs before stumbling into the next shelter. Moses didn't stop there, he was Moses and he also had a schedule to keep with meeting his girlfriend in Harper's Ferry. I think that helped.
I was in Virginia a couple days south of Waynesboro. At least, that's what I thought. There's a hostel in that area, I'm ashamed to say I can't remember the name. They had a TV in the bunk room with Forrest Gump on VHS and for an extra fee they cooked you dinner, and they had a guitar and piano in the living room which was pretty cool.
Anyway at the time I was hiking with a guy named Moses. Moses was a brilliant 6'4" Texas native with the body of a marathon runner, he's going to Columbia Med school now I think. Even though I had a pack light enough that I'd earned the secondary nickname Day Hiker, his made mine look like I was about to climb Everest. I'd been hiking with him for the past week or so and even though I generally hiked a little farther then I would have by myself he was a cool guy and I was having fun. We took up the hostel's offer of slack packing, which helped us complete the next (I think) 24 miles by around 2pm. While waiting for the owner to come with our packs we looked at the next couple pages of the guidebook that Moses had torn out, and as he pointed to the road crossing 21 miles north that takes you into Waynesboro he gave me a look. It wasn't necessarily a friendly look but more of a "if you're really a man you'll do this with me" look.
That's 21 miles with a pack on. After walking for 24 miles. During and after the fact I never regretting deciding to do it, but it was still hard. I liked hard, the AT hadn't really challenged me that much (not that hiking has to be challenging) but a little pain to break up the nirvana was a good thing for me. Knowing we were headed for the same place we took to our own paces, and leapfrogged each other as we took breaks along the way. About 3 miles from the crossing there was a shelter with a school or church group of about 30 staying for the night. At the end of a long day I'm not quiet and sullen, I'm usually talkative and giddy with how tired I am, Moses was the same way. Hearing two guys joking about hiking 40+ miles in a day must have been a little weird for all those people. I mixed myself the last crystal light energy pack in my water bottle and chugged it, and made it at 8:45 to the road crossing 10 minutes after Moses and a couple other hikers who had been ahead of us waited with a trail angel who drove us into Waynesboro.
As we rode in the bed of the truck with a warm breeze blowing over us the enormity of what we'd just done and the inherent weariness set in. 45 miles in a day is pretty cool. We stopped at Subway and gorged ourselves, then got dropped off at the hotel. It turns out about 8 friends I'd lost track of were there, and we stayed up late drinking beer and getting our sanity questioned. After that some of us decided to get our resupply out of the way at a 24 hour supermarket a couple blocks away. Not taking a zero the next day was a mistake, I only made it 7 miles into the Shenandoahs before stumbling into the next shelter. Moses didn't stop there, he was Moses and he also had a schedule to keep with meeting his girlfriend in Harper's Ferry. I think that helped.