Locutus
06-17-2008, 16:28
Couple of weeks ago my father and I headed off to SNP for a planned week hike. After the 8 hour drive we pulled into Front Royal looking for the entrance to SNP, after not finding it for a little while, we saw a backpacker walking down the street in town, so we pulled over and asked him if he knew where the trailhead was. He said he did, and that he was actually headed that way and asked if we would give him a ride. Traditionally, I don't give rides to strangers, but I thought "what the heck", need to get into the AT spirit. :)
Well, he threw his back into the back of our SUV and climbed into the backseat. The first thing he said was "You'll have to excuse me, I've been drinking a bit"..... great.
Well, turns out he was toasted, homeless, and broke. We drove all over town and he took us way out of our way. Finally, I had a enough and I dropped him off at a 7-11. Where he proceeded to bum money and food off of me. I most likely will not be picking up any hikers again unless I am in my truck so they can just ride in back.
Well, it was getting close to dark. So we figured we would just find a motel and start off in the morning (we had planned to at least hike a couple of miles and then setup camp). Unfortunately for us, it was Memorial Day weekend and every motel was booked. No vacancies. No luck for us.
We spent the night sleeping in the car in a hospital parking lot.
We wake up about 4am (sleeping in a car is miserable, hadn't done it for years) and head out to McDonalds for breakfast... that was pretty good, the day was looking up. :)
We get to the entrance to SNP, and the signs say that all backcountry campers must register and receive a permit, and it was $15 to park. Well, there was no one at the gate, so I was worried about just parking and hiking without paying and getting the permit. I didn't want my car to be towed or to receive a ticket. It says that the permits are available from sunrise to sunset, and the sun was just peeking over the horizon. So we pulled over and waited for a ranger or whoever was supposed to be manning the booth. We waited until 8am and no one ever came, so tired of waiting and wasting anymore of the day, we decided to park at Comptons Gap and then just hike the mile or so north to the AT self registration thing on the trail (even though we were hiking SOBO).
So finally we set off around 9:30am SOBO from Comptons Gap. Immediately we ran into a thruhiker, really nice guy and we talked for awhile. I didn't catch his name, but he said he was a retired consultant from TN.
What I wasn't prepared for was all the rocks. I am from Ohio, all of my hiking has been in the Ohio/Indiana region, and we don't have a whole lot of rocks here. I had read on here that boots don't really help keep you from twisting your ankle, so about a month prior I switched to a pair of trail runners. By the end of the day, I ended up twisting my ankle (I had never twisted my ankle before). It just hurt for a few minutes, and I thought all was well. We had planned on stopping at Gravel Springs Hut for the night, however, we somehow went right past it. Never being on the AT before, I assumed the shelters would be hard to miss. I guess I was wrong. We ended up going about 2 miles passed it before I realized it. I kept thinking it would be right around the next bend, until we finally hit Skyline Dr again and then I knew. So we crossed Skyline and went about another half mile and just setup camp off the trail.
The next morning all seemed good, packing up I even spotted a wolf up the trail. As soon as I made eye contact, it bolted. Unfortunately, as soon as I donned my pack, and walked about 1/2 mile, my ankle started killing me. I hiked through it for most of the day, but at the end of the day, my ankle was hurting so bad, I was miserable and not enjoying myself at all. So the next Skyline crossing, we hitched a ride back up to the car and I headed home.
Just I thought I would share my brief AT experience. Ankle is OK now, and I will be back shortly with boots and a lighter pack. :)
Well, he threw his back into the back of our SUV and climbed into the backseat. The first thing he said was "You'll have to excuse me, I've been drinking a bit"..... great.
Well, turns out he was toasted, homeless, and broke. We drove all over town and he took us way out of our way. Finally, I had a enough and I dropped him off at a 7-11. Where he proceeded to bum money and food off of me. I most likely will not be picking up any hikers again unless I am in my truck so they can just ride in back.
Well, it was getting close to dark. So we figured we would just find a motel and start off in the morning (we had planned to at least hike a couple of miles and then setup camp). Unfortunately for us, it was Memorial Day weekend and every motel was booked. No vacancies. No luck for us.
We spent the night sleeping in the car in a hospital parking lot.
We wake up about 4am (sleeping in a car is miserable, hadn't done it for years) and head out to McDonalds for breakfast... that was pretty good, the day was looking up. :)
We get to the entrance to SNP, and the signs say that all backcountry campers must register and receive a permit, and it was $15 to park. Well, there was no one at the gate, so I was worried about just parking and hiking without paying and getting the permit. I didn't want my car to be towed or to receive a ticket. It says that the permits are available from sunrise to sunset, and the sun was just peeking over the horizon. So we pulled over and waited for a ranger or whoever was supposed to be manning the booth. We waited until 8am and no one ever came, so tired of waiting and wasting anymore of the day, we decided to park at Comptons Gap and then just hike the mile or so north to the AT self registration thing on the trail (even though we were hiking SOBO).
So finally we set off around 9:30am SOBO from Comptons Gap. Immediately we ran into a thruhiker, really nice guy and we talked for awhile. I didn't catch his name, but he said he was a retired consultant from TN.
What I wasn't prepared for was all the rocks. I am from Ohio, all of my hiking has been in the Ohio/Indiana region, and we don't have a whole lot of rocks here. I had read on here that boots don't really help keep you from twisting your ankle, so about a month prior I switched to a pair of trail runners. By the end of the day, I ended up twisting my ankle (I had never twisted my ankle before). It just hurt for a few minutes, and I thought all was well. We had planned on stopping at Gravel Springs Hut for the night, however, we somehow went right past it. Never being on the AT before, I assumed the shelters would be hard to miss. I guess I was wrong. We ended up going about 2 miles passed it before I realized it. I kept thinking it would be right around the next bend, until we finally hit Skyline Dr again and then I knew. So we crossed Skyline and went about another half mile and just setup camp off the trail.
The next morning all seemed good, packing up I even spotted a wolf up the trail. As soon as I made eye contact, it bolted. Unfortunately, as soon as I donned my pack, and walked about 1/2 mile, my ankle started killing me. I hiked through it for most of the day, but at the end of the day, my ankle was hurting so bad, I was miserable and not enjoying myself at all. So the next Skyline crossing, we hitched a ride back up to the car and I headed home.
Just I thought I would share my brief AT experience. Ankle is OK now, and I will be back shortly with boots and a lighter pack. :)