Dad’s Note: In late May Chris suffered a rolled ankle and had to get off the trail for a few weeks for it to heal. He spent time at home in West Virginia with his family. He also had to resolve an issue with his car. He left for Virginia last Friday and is finally back on the trail.
Starting mile 972.9
I made it back on the trail and I couldn’t be happier. I decided that I was going to skip Shenandoah National Park (which I’ve hiked over and over again) and restart my hike where the trail crosses US-522 near Front Royal. Starting there I have about 1,200 miles of hiking left, and I really want to finish by the end of August. This gives me about eleven weeks of hiking. That means I will have to average about 110 miles a week, which is very doable for me. I figure I will go back and do Shenandoah in the fall when I’m back home.
On to today’s hiking. I got picked up by a friend shortly after 1 pm for the drive up to Front Royal. He was really excited for me to get back on the trail and was really happy to drop me off. I really appreciate Tim taking the time to do this for me. We got to the trailhead just after 2 pm and by the time I was ready to go it was a quarter after. I said goodbye to Tim and headed north.
My plan was to take it easy today because I know I’ve lost a little of my stamina after almost a month off. Luckily the next couple of hundred miles of the trail are “easy” miles. For instance, today my plan is to get to the Manassas Gap shelter a little over 10 miles away. With the long days I’ll have seven hours to do it.
The first part of the trail today takes me alongside the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. This is where they bring animals from the National Zoo to let them roam and study them. I was hoping to see something beyond the fence but unfortunately, I didn’t (my dad and his hiking pardner saw a giraffe on their hike eating leaves off a tree across the trail). The trail here is really well maintained with a gentle and well switch backed climb. It never really felt like I was climbing. Before I knew it, I had already gone five miles and made it to the first shelter.
When I got there, I filtered some water and relaxed on the nice seats they have there. I talked with “Fire Fox” who had already made himself comfortable. It sounds like I’m at the back of the middle bubble. There is another bubble behind me. I wonder how long it will take me to run into some I know?
After drinking a liter of water I headed down the trail, it’s another 5.5 miles to the next shelter and my home for the night. I flew through the first three miles and make it to I-66 in just over an hour. After crossing under I-66 I have a thousand feet of gain in the next 2.5 miles. This will be the toughest part of the day.
As I’m heading up, I start to feel my legs. I’m definitely not in the same shape I was in before my break, but I’m still moving well. I’m interested to see how I do when I have a real climb in the next couple of days. I made it up and over to the shelter and it looks like I’ll have it to myself. I was really hoping that I would start around people. Maybe tomorrow.
It was a great first day back on the trail. I did 10.7 miles with about 2,500 feet of elevation gain in about 4 hours of hiking. The 80° heat didn’t bother me and my legs felt pretty good. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.
Ending mile 983.6
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