Mountains Under Foot

Hi MUFooties,

The guys made it to Front Royal, VA yesterday and found WiFi, so I posted three more journal entries for Days 50-52. I also finished uploading all of the previous photos (through Day 49). We’re caught up for now, blog wise!
They’re really going to have to hustle to make it to Harpers Ferry, WVA for July 4th. According to my calculations they’ll have to hike about 50 miles between now and then. I have every confidence they will make it considering how hard-headed Hazard is about making things happen. They’re almost to the ‘psychological’ half way mark on their trek to Maine!

On another note (and since we are nearing the half way point of this journey) – Maybe you’ve been wondering how we manage to make this blog so ‘awesome’? Well then, I’ll fill you in on the actual mechanics of running this outfit…   Basically, Hazard emails me his journal entries from his iPod when they can find WiFi. His entries are well written, but still need some editing before I can let the rest of the world see them. I have to proof read each one before posting them, making sure that they’re uniform and make sense to the readers, and format them for the blog. Spoon usually writes his entries, when they have computer access, saving them to the blog until I can proof read them as well. The guys just don’t have the time to worry about whether or not the spelling, etc. is correct, they leave that detailed stuff to me. Time consuming? You betcha. Do I mind? Not in the least!

When the guys reach a town with a library, or somewhere that has an actual computer, that is when Hazard can upload the photos from his cell phone to our Web Host. I then download them to my computer to begin the editing process. The photos are so Gi-normous (3264×2448 pixels) that each and every one of them needs to be sized (800×600) to fit the gallery… Also, Hazard has taken so many photos that I have to decide which ones will be posted and fit well with the journal entries. Then I have to upload them to the blog gallery and organize them in chronological order.  Next I have to caption the photos with as much information that I can decipher from the journal entries since they don’t actually provide me with the direct details. This is also uber time consuming, but I really don’t mind.  After that I have to update the ‘photos’ page link with dates/ info to reflect the updates made to the gallery. Perhaps now you will understand why it takes me so long to make image updates to the galleries! Thus far I’ve re-sized, adjusted, captioned and published 659 photos! Whew!

Hazard uploads the blog videos via his YouTube account when they have computer access. I’m glad he takes care of that since I would be even more tied to this computer! LOL! I’ve already been sitting here for hours and hours (and hours)!

The ‘trail’ page also needs updating every time I receive new journal entries from the guys. I have to change the map coordinates to reflect their current location, plus add the link that corresponds to the latest journal entries…

Well, that’s about the crux if it, there’s more, but I won’t bore you with the rest of it… I didn’t mean to run on so long, but I just wanted to give you all a little peek into the awesomeness that is ‘Mountains Under Foot’…

This blog was all the their (Hazard & Spoon’s) idea, I just got roped into being the blog ‘caretaker’, blog ‘mommy’, blog ‘mistress’? Sincerely, I’m just glad I have the time to do this for them, it’s going to be a great legacy for them to reflect on when the do complete their journey.

As always, thanks for following our ‘trail-blazers’ and happy trails!

-K

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 52: June 30, 2009
Travel:
From: Bearfence Mountain Hut, VA
To: Byrds Nest #3 Hut, VA
Beginning: 8:00am
Ending: 7:45pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 22.4
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 928.6 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Awesome weather per usual.
PM: Dark cloud dropped the temperature a lot after lunch but that was short lived.
People: Met a guy with his wife on the way up to Stony Man that did the AT in ‘04.
Animals: More bears and more deer. The bears are just too fast for me to get a decent picture. Four skunks in the middle of the trail. Owls this morning.
Money: $17 for lunch, $827 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Slept really well last night thankfully, so I felt pretty good waking up. Apparently there was three owls last night all fighting to be the loudest, but I was sleeping like a rock and never noticed. But the other guy sleeping in the shelter with us got up in the night and was throwing rocks in the dark at them to try and scare them off. It clearly didn’t work as they were still making noise in the morning. We ate and left camp to go straight up to Hazeltop where we captured a video and continued down the trail. Pretty boring trail, only had a cemetery to break things up a bit. I think we might have just been excited to get to Big Meadows for some food. We got there around 11:30am and the restaurant didn’t open for lunch until noon so we decided to hang around in the public sitting area in the lodge and work on catching up on journals. At noon we were seated.

PM: I was starving so I wanted an appetizer of quesadillas and added pork BBQ to it and shared that with Spoon. We both ordered chocolate milk which was frankly a little light on the chocolate. For the main course Spoon ordered chicken fried steak and I had the chicken club which had Virginia ham piled on it. To top it off we both indulged in SNP’s signature blackberry ice cream. I had it in scoop form and Spoon had it with a graham cracker crust, meringue, and a blackberry syrup. So we spent a ridiculous amount of time there buying overpriced food, but it was well worth it. Didn’t leave the area until around 1:30pm. That pretty much put us behind schedule enough where we couldn’t make Pass Mountain Hut and had to stop short at Byrds Nest #3. We passed the Skyline area, which had horse stables, and resisted the temptation of food there and continued on. Stopping short of schedule bums me out, but I can’t wait for blackberry milkshakes at Elkwallow Wayside tomorrow and I’m confidant we can push the 30 miles to Front Royal tomorrow. As I’m going to sleep there are a ton of deer stomping around in the leaves in front of the shelter looking for food I guess. They should really keep it down…

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 51: June 29, 2009
Travel:
From: Loft Mountain Campground, VA
To: Bearfence Mountain Hut, VA
Beginning: 6:00am
Ending: 8:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 26.4
b) other -
c) AT Mile Marker – 906.2 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Beautiful all day. Sunny and clear.
Animals: Apparently we scared a bear out of the woods and across the road because four people were standing around with their camera’s out getting pictures. Lots of deer of course.
People: Boy Scout troop at Ivy Creek Overlook. Had lunch on top of Hightop Mountain with a nice couple out on vacation while their kids were at camp Cheerio. Met a bunch of thru and non-thru hikers at the shelter.
Money: $0, $810 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up really early to dodge the park rangers. Packed our stuff up quickly and walked back down the trail to the AT and had breakfast at a nice overlook. We cruised over Loft Mountain and down to Ivy Creek overlook where a bunch of Boy Scouts were preparing to hike. They told us they were headed to Hightop to camp tonight and then got a group photo together that they asked us to be in. So whenever they see that picture they will all wonder who those random guys in the hats were. They pretty much chased us down the trail until we hit Simmons Gap. Got a picture of Powell for guess who? Then we pushed up to Hightop Hut. We stopped there for a few minutes to check out the trail register and get some water. The place was super buggy and we decided lunch would be better at the top of the mountain. So on our way we went.

PM: We realized how tired we were from the past couple of nights of little sleep. I felt like I was dragging my feet the last couple miles. It was going to be a long day. Zombie walked for a long time until we saw a campground and since there were picnic tables, fountains, and flush toilets we decided to stop and make dinner. The hut was only .7 miles away by my book. While I was cooking Spoon engaged another group camping near us in conversation with the obvious intent to ‘Yogi’ them (think Yogi Bear from the cartoons). He asked them what they were having for dinner and the guy said, “A surf-n-turf of a steak fillet and cod, with large scallops, potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes. I don’t know what we are having for dessert.” I really wish he hadn’t asked. There was no chance they were going to invite us to eat with that arrangement. We finished dinner, cleaned up, and packed up to head down to the hut. At the signpost back at the trail, it said Bearfence Hut was .9 miles away, hmm…. and then about a tenth of a mile down the trail it said it was 1.0 miles away. Clearly someone had screwed that up because we arrived at the intersection for the Hut about 10 minutes later. We pretty much pulled our stuff out of the packs and passed out, but not before some light chatter with the group already there.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 50: June 28, 2009
Travel:
From: BRP Mile ‘zero’, Waynesboro, VA
To: Loft Mountain Campground, VA
Beginning: 10:45am
Ending: 8:45pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 27.3
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 879.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Sunny and hot. Beautiful!
PM: Some dark clouds that brought a few drops but then blew away to make room for more sun. The dry streak continues.
People: Said goodbye to Iceman and Cattywampus, met 10×10 on the overpass to Shenandoah National Park. Magnum Orphan at lunch. The wonderful family that gave us dinner at Loft Mountain Campground.
Animals: Three bear encounters! The first and last were on or near the trail and ran as soon as they saw us. The second was clawing up a tree down from the trail and completely ignored us as we watched him. And we saw a timber rattlesnake. We finally see a rattler almost 900 miles into the trip and it ignores us (doesn’t rattle or feel threatened) and just slithers away…
Money: $0, $810 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up around 7am because at this stage in the journey I don’t think I can sleep past 7am. Since I didn’t go to sleep last night until 1am, I didn’t feel so great. I grabbed my iPod and worked on catching up my notes. Spoon awoke shortly after with food on his mind so we got dressed and went down to the lobby. There was a delicious spread of food out for the hotel guests including eggs, sausage, hash browns, fruit, cereal, bagels, muffins, a machine to make your own waffles, juice, etc. I had some of just about everything including a waffle with strawberry topping, raisins, pecans, cinnamon-sugar, powdered sugar, and maple syrup. Yea, that happened. Afterwards, we went back upstairs to pack up and I finished my journals and sent them along to my mom. I was in such a hurry to get everything together so we could leave that I forgot to write a few emails, namely one to Cat. Cattywampus was generous enough to give us a ride back to the I-64 overpass with her parents car. We walked from the BRP side over and then it turns into Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park (SNP from now on). We had heard how easy the trail was supposed to be here but right at the southern entrance it was tough and rocky. We self registered at the little station set up beside the trail and headed deeper into the park.

PM : After awhile the trail turned into the well graded, gentle sloping ups and downs we had heard people rave about. “Its a hiker’s dream”, people would say. This makes the trail fairly uneventful until bears started jumping out of nowhere and running away from us. Tons of deer too. We walked by one deer and I heard it start to follow me so I spun around and he was looking at me and was indeed closer. An awkward stare later and he bounded off into the woods. We stopped for lunch at a turnout to an overlook and chatted with Magnum Orphan. Then a weird phenomenon happened; when it started to drizzle a little during our conversation and without mentioning anything or skipping a beat we all pulled out our pack covers, put them on, and continued to talk. Have we really been out here that long, where it’s now just force of habit? We arrived at Loft Mountain Campgrounds pretty late as planned to try and dodge the park rangers. It costs $19 for a patch of ground to sleep on (it costs people $15 just to enter the park; except hikers) and we didn’t want to pay. There was a restroom facility that I took advantage of first and I left Spoon to his own devices. When I got out he had found his way into someone’s camp and was chatting them up. It was a very friendly family that had lots of questions for us thru-hikers and we were more than happy to chat. After some time we got up and walked back to our packs to go find a place out of sight to cook dinner as it was late and we were hungry. Then we heard a voice call us back asking, “Hey, Spoon and Hazard, you guys want a hot dog?” Our answer to that question is always: Yes! We walked back over to sit down and they all just kept bringing us food. The little girl, Alexia, brought us a plate with a slab of chocolate cake and a fork, the retired father brought a bunch of hot dogs and buns and started heating the dogs over the fire for us. Before we knew it there were tortilla chips, kettle chips, potatoes that had been cooked with onions, Dr. Pepper, ice tea with mint, ketchup, and mustard. A feast for us starving hikers and we couldn’t be happier. To make things even better they let us set up our rain fly in their campsite to sleep under, hopefully dodging the park fuzz. I hope they find the website and leave a comment for us so we can thank them again for their kindness. Only downside is we didn’t get to sleep until around 11pm. Too late for weary hikers.