No Subject

Two hitches later we were back at the car. Wednesday we went canoeing on the Shenandoah River, our first experience canoeing anything but flat water.  Lots of riffles and one very small rapid; nevertheless, we managed to get stuck about 10 times. The last time we got stuck, Jon (despite my scared protests) stepped out of the canoe and drug us off the rock shelf where we were stuck.   I could not believe his balance and agility when he managed to step back into the canoe without tipping us over.  

The next day we did some civil war battlefields and museums.  As the drifting day wore on, I was feeling more and more uneasy.  About 3:30 that night, I woke Jon.  ?I don?t feel good about myself.  I think we need to go back to the trail.?   Jon said, ?Okay.?  Then he rolled over and went back to sleep.  At least with me, he has the patience of a saint. 

The next morning we repacked our backpacks and called Mike Evans, owner of the Terrapin Station Hostel in Front Royal.  Made it to Mike?s about 1:00, did some final packing, left Jon?s car at Chester Gap, and Mike shuttled us 8.5 trail miles away to Manassas Gap.   

It was hot.  It was humid.  It was uphill.  I was the slowest hiker out.  At one point it was so rocky and steep, I crawled up, but I was out trying again.  I felt better.  One southbound hiker passed us and asked, ?How?s it going??   Jon replied, ?Slow.?  I kept thinking about Anna ?Mud Butt? Huthmaker, like me, a ?woman of size,? whose trail journal I had been sporadically following.  I kept thinking about how positive she was and how she was back hiking despite having broken her foot 100 miles into her hike and having to take a whole month off for it to heal.   

Finally, we hit a relatively flat spot, an open meadow edged with raspberries and blackberries, a perfect reward for the uphill.  The sun was out, there was a bit of a breeze in the open, and life looked a whole lot better.  I loved all the wildflowers there and along the trail:   yarrow, milkweed, Queen Anne?s lace, jewelweed, horsemint, goldenrod, beebalm, and many others.  Jon had to warn me off of the berries; I think he was afraid I was going to have some intestinal problem from the number I was consuming.  

About 6:00 we chugged into the Jim and Molly Denton Shelter, a Hilton of a shelter.  Not only a shelter, but a large wooden deck with an Adirondack style ?sofa,? a pavilion with a picnic table, a clean privy, and an outdoor cold-water shower.   Luxury!  As I climbed the brick steps to the shelter, I knew the women there cooking just had to be ?Mud Butt? and her hiking partner ?Bumpkin.?  Sure enough, they were!  What a lot of gabbing then!  Tom, the fellow who had passed us, took a short cut down to a store to get some goodies for all of us.   

About the same time, Mike, another hiker just out for an evening stroll, came in via a blue blaze trail.  He pulled a beautiful mandolin out of his pack and proceeded to give us a whole concert of mountain music.  It was perfect?new friends, great music from the Blue Ridge, and dinner cooking.   We were joined by Frank, another hiker full of stories.  I gave out samples of my homemade beef jerky, which got rave reviews.  There was great conversation, smoked oysters Bumpkin has packed in for a celebration of Mud Butt?s 500th mile, and an all-around wonderful evening.   Even after crawling into our respective tents, Anna, Bumpkin, and I were still laughing.

The next morning, Jon relented on his plan to hike a while before breakfast, and we all cooked and ate together before departing.  We finished the 5 + miles in about 3.5 hours, horrible time, but I still felt good because I had gone back and done a little bit more.

Joan (from the Florida flatlands)
bluetrail@aol.com