The Shenandoah National Park to Harper’s Ferry, WV 6/21/18 – 7/1/18

Thursday, June 21 – We hiked into the Shenandoah Park!  After taking a zero in town the day before it was a bit hard getting back into hiking again and we got a pretty late start.  Our packs were also heavy with a full resupply of food for the next few days so that didn’t help either.  Rain was in the forecast so we did a short day today and stopped at 4:00.  We set up our tent just in time before the rain hit!  Also, Lance had his very first on-trail fall today. He slipped on a rock and fell down…was nothing serious but it’s kind of amazing he went this long without falling.

 

Friday, June 22 – We had a few bear encounters today!  The first bear we saw was really big and was headed away from us walking on the trail and went off into the woods.  The second bear we saw just a few minutes later…he was off to the side in the woods and started coming towards us on the trail so we made some noise and slowly backed away.  He stopped to look at us as he crossed the trail but kept on going.  A bit later we were cruising down the trail and a few yards off the trail a bear went crashing through the woods.  Apparently he was eating close to the trail and we scared him.  He turned around then and came back towards us.  We hollered and made lots of noise but he didn’t seem to be scared in the least bit…maybe a bit aggravated that we interrupted his lunch.  We decided to walk back the trail a bit and talk to some others that had stopped for a break to give the bear some time to move.  When we came back we didn’t see him so we walked by.  As we were walking by we heard a crashing up in one of the trees and saw him coming down the tree when he saw us.  We walked away as fast as possible (with out running of course) and got out of there.  Contrary to my previous excitement of getting to see lots of bears in the park,  After the last encounter I remember thinking that “I don’t want to see any more bears…ever!”  All the bears here in the park are so used to people so they aren’t like ‘normal’ bears that run off when they see you.

 

Today some of Lance’s family, Lorin and his two boys, Brandt and Damian, and Marthina came to see us!!  We have been looking forward to this for a long time!  It was SO good to see family again! We hiked a few miles together in the afternoon and then set up camp.  We barely had our tents/tarp set up till it started raining.  It rained most of the evening but fortunately Marthina had a hammock set up with a tarp so we all hung out together under her tarp while it rained.

 

Saturday, June 23 – We woke up this morning to a lot of damaged gear.  Apparently during the night, something came by our tent and chewed up the straps on our pack and completely chewed off the one strap of my hip belt and also took off with the buckle.  Lance’s shoes were chewed at a bit and my trekking pole straps were completely chewed off and nowhere to be found.  We could tell it was something bigger than a mouse but didn’t know what it was.  (We talked to someone a few days later and found out that deer will do that…they like all the salt that is found on our gear due to sweating.)

We enjoyed a relaxing morning together with Marthina, Lorin, and the boys.  We hiked around 7 miles with everyone and the boys did an amazing job keeping up and hiked so well!  We were hoping to at least see one bear while they were here but unfortunately we didn’t.  After hiking Lorin took us all to get pizza and icecream!

 

Sunday, June 24 – We got all packed up in good time this morning and went and found a picnic area to eat breakfast at.  Lorin brought eggs, bacon, sausage, and orange juice for an amazing not-hiker breakfast that was soooo good!  We usually have quick oats for breakfast in the morning so we enjoyed this so much!  Marthina brought us a full resupply for the next few days so we didn’t have to get off trail in the Shenandoah Park which was super nice!  It was so fun having family here and was sad to say goodbye.  It makes us so excited for when we get to go home for our week break.

 

Monday, June 25 – We go home in exactly a week so we want to make some good miles this week before we go back.  We plan to make it to Harper’s Ferry which is 126.2 miles away.  We never did this many miles in a week before so we weren’t sure how it was going to go. We got 23 miles down today so that is a good start.

 

Tuesday, June 26 – We stopped at a Wayside stand for the first time today!  Throughout the park there are places called wayside stands where we can stop at to get good food.  We enjoyed some good breakfast including the famous blackberry milkshakes and yes, they were amaaaazing!

 

Wednesday, June 27 – The Virginia Blues have hit us some and sometimes we just get discouraged and feel totally unmotivated to hike.  I may have had to pull my ‘Reason’s I’m Hiking the AT’ list a few times this week.  We needed a motivator today so we got up early at 5:00am and decided that if we could hike 13 miles to the next wayside stand and make it there before 12 for lunchtime we would treat ourselves to some good food there.  We made it by 11:42am and got ourselves some good burgers and of course blackberry milkshakes!   While we were there having lunch we met up with a group of hikers we hike around a lot.  One of the guys, Tentless, is having to go home due to a serious foot injury.  It makes us feel so incredibly sad when people we got to know have to get off due to trail injuries.

We did our record today of 25.4 miles today!

 

Thursday, June 28 – We hitched into Front Royal today and went to the outfitter to get some things we need, picked up my new shoes at the post office, and got some pizza, subs, and ice cream for lunch.

 

Friday, June 29 – Day 100!!!  I can hardly believe we have been out here for this long yet it seems like we have been out here a looooong time!

 

Saturday, June 30 – We hit the 1,000 mile mark today!  Definitely the biggest milestone so far out here!  It made me realize how far we really have made it and so grateful that we have been able to get to this point without any injuries.

We also hiked what is called ‘the roller coaster’ today.  So many up and downs all day long…it slowed us down a bit so we did a little bit of night hiking to get as far as possible.

We crossed the Virginia border into West Virginia. After 530 miles in Virginia it’s good to see another state.

 

Sunday, July 1st – Out here on the trail we take Sundays off as our zero day.  It’s something to look forward to when we just hike every single day and forcing ourselves to take a zero definitely helps our feet (and probably our minds too) by giving them some rest.  Unfortunately today we had to do a little hiking to make it into Harper’s Ferry.  Lance’s feet hurt so bad and are looking worse so we are excited about resting up the next week.  We got all showered and cleaned up for tomorrow morning when we go home.  So excited to go home and see family and friends again and live in civilization for awhile!

Happy Trails,

Marlisa