[at-l] hike report, journals, thruhikers spotted

[daveh at psknet.com (Dave Hicks)]

Looks as if I missed you by a week.

I worked the Chestnut Ridge area this past weekend.

I've just missed a lot of folk, this year.  A couple weeks ago, I worked
three days from Big Horse Gap to the top of Pearis Mountain and never saw a
thru.  Read entries, read journals, etc of folk who I should have seen; but
must have been just ahead of them, or just behind them.

Chainsaw

BTW -- The old privy at Chestnut is being replaced by a newer composting
privy.  One of the reasons the old one was so minimal is that the soil up
there is so thin that we had to move it once, or twice, a year.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nicole Markee" <nicole@astrogirl.com>
To: <at-l@backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 9:33 AM
Subject: [at-l] hike report, journals, thruhikers spotted


Over Easter weekend, I closed a break in my Virginia mileage around
Bailey's Gap Shelter.  I left the section near War Spur in 2002 because
I got food poisoning from some road food. The next fall I left from the
other end (Dickinson Gap) because of a wardrobe malfunction (shoe fell
apart) as well as the spectre of Hurricane Isabelle approaching my
home.

I saw thru-hikers Tucker, Pachu and Bacchus in the area and sheltered
with Pachu and Bacchus (and a section hiker named Trashman).  My entry
with pictures is here:

http://astrogirl.com/blog/Backpacking/archives/000247.html

After that, I moved on to do Bastian to Atkins.  On that leg, I met
thruhikers Red Beard and Shadowman and sheltered with them at Chestnut
Knob.  There was another sectioner there named Deaf Don.  The entries
are here:

http://astrogirl.com/blog/Backpacking/archives/000248.html
http://astrogirl.com/blog/Backpacking/archives/000249.html
http://astrogirl.com/blog/Backpacking/archives/000250.html

The first entry there also contains a picture of my tarp set-up, for
those of you who are interested in that sort of thing.  My man saw that
and was mildly freaked out.

Tino:  "But there's no protection?!"
Nicole:  "from what?  It's not like nylon will stop a bear, and there
aren't any bugs yet."
Tino:  "yeah, but it looks so....provisional"

It's really odd how we perceive some "protection" from a tent, isn't
it?  I used to feel that way myself until I tried the tarp and now a
tent seems claustrophobic.  I have no idea what I will do in mosquito
season.  I don't hike much at that time of year anyway, but the hiker
bug net I tried last year wasn't workable.  I'm still thinking about a
solution.

Felix - I saw your name in all the registers I opened.  It would have
been fun to run in to you, but I missed you by a couple of weeks.
Since I live between the Chester Gap and Manassas Gap trail crossings,
I stomp around on the AT here quite a lot.  If my timing had been
right, I could have met Ma and Pa (I met them on their thru in 1999
also).  I'm sorry I didn't know y'all were in my neck of the woods.

I saw some thru-hikers at the grocery store in Front Royal this last
weekend.  They are already here!  I couldn't offer rides, unfortunately
(Chester Gap is a long roadwalk).  I usually do, but we were using both
seats in the wee-tiny-car.  I often drive home from work crossing the
trail at Linden/Manassas Gap and I always look for hitchers.

-Astrogirl

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