GoldenBear

My last blog made note of the fact that I made exceptionally good time (well, at least for ME) during the hike. Since this was my first hike of the year – indeed, my first back-pack in almost 22 months – I doubted it could have been my building up strength over the summer. So I had to wonder – is there something causing me to gain speed in my hikes?
An epiphany soon hit me, and my reaction was like the 1989 ad campaign
http://images.jordansdaily.com/wp-co...es-t-shirt.jpg
For almost all of my backpack career, I’ve used heavy hiking boots like the ones in my photo from three years ago:
https://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=58705
This year, tired of being tired at the end of the day, I tried out much-lighter hiking shoes, similar to these:
https://vikapproved.files.wordpress....1/img_7010.jpg
Note that these are not exactly the shoes I now wear, but you get the idea.
I can’t say with absolute certainty that these new shoes are the reason for my increased speed, but it certainly makes a lot of sense.
Anyway, after arriving at Mount Rogers Outfitters in Damascus in late morning, I rode my shuttle to Lake Wautaga (Highway 321, to be exact) and began my (typically) wimpy hike. Despite the Wautaga Shelter being closed for over a year due to bear activity, I saw no bears – just a few dumpings of bear scat. I also saw about fifteen hikers in the first few hours, making me wonder if my hike would be as solitary as the one two weeks ago. And, although I wondered if could do the nine miles from Highway 321 to the Vandeventor Shelter in half a day, I got there in plenty of time and headed for sleep just as darkness began to fall.
I awoke at about 3am to a sound outside the shelter, which I quickly determined were a few raccoons coming around. No worry, I thought – which is a mistake I won’t make again!
I awoke the next morning, fairly refreshed, to discover that my Optimus Prime cooking set was gone – probably from those raccoons! I had placed it near the cooking area, as I normally do, keeping my cat stove & my matches inside it. There was no food in it; indeed, I never use it for anything but boiling water in the morning. Yet, for some reason, it just wasn’t there. Fortunately, years ago I chose to get by on backpacking trips almost entirely with cold food. On a hot, humid summer like this, I didn’t miss my morning coffee all that much.

The next two days of hiking – to the Double Springs Shelter, and then to the Abingdon Gap Shelter – were quite uneventful. This was partly because I saw only one person in the next 48 hours. The heat, humidity, and lack of places to refill water did make for a rather sweat-filled under shirt, but that’s why I use merino wool instead of synthetics. I’ve found that I make the latter stink to high heaven in just a few hours, but that merino stays bearable for almost a week.

As an aside, there were several bear sightings in the Abingdon log book -- this is a place to practice "Bear Aware" procedures!

One thing that did take me off-guard was the insect presence. For the last several hikes, more often than not I’d go several days without a single bite – permethrin on clothes & deet on skin work wonders, I must say. But this trip had me scratching in about a dozen places. I can’t know if I got these bites on The Trail or before I left (I was outdoors at dusk for a couple hours on the day before I started), or if I had un-knowingly touched some poisonous plants, but it was more annoyance than I’ve had in quite a while.

I resolved to get as early a start as possible on the morning after staying at the Abingdon Shelter, simply to arrive at Damascus with half a day to head back north. Thus, I got in my bag fairly early – and not ten minutes before a family of five arrived. Fortunately, only one of them wanted to use the shelter, so I only had to give up half of it.
Having given fair warning that I like to begin my day even before dawn, I felt no reason not to do so again, even with another person in the shelter. Not needing to make my coffee, I was on my way by 6:30, and (again!) made good time going downhill. I actually kind of amazed myself when I was walking the streets of Damascus by 11:30, meaning I had done about ten miles in about five hours – WAY faster than I am used to doing! I was even able to view a beautiful sunset in Shenandoah NP that evening, and got home the next day with no trouble.

I do hope to get to New Hampshire this summer, but I’ll settle for more miles Tennessee as the weeks progress. Planning will become much easier when I know I can travel over fifteen miles in a day without major concerns about late arrivals at a shelter.

And it’s all thanks to new shoes!