GoldenBear

Over the years, as I have done 1172 miles via section hikes, I’ve made no secret of the wimpiness of my hikes. I’ve made it a point to avoid bad weather, large crowds, uphill walks (ie, I start my hikes at roads as high as can be driven to), days with lots of elevation changes, and hiking more than twelve miles in a day. I’m not the most ambitious backpacker, and sometimes my efforts to avoid difficulties have gone awry, but this combo HAS allowed to do achieve more miles than most people. This last week, however, even *I* was less than impressed with the low ambitions of my plans; along I’m pleased with the ease with which I accomplished them.

Almost constant rainy weeks in the two areas, closest to my residence, on which I have not hiked – the Whites and SW Virginia – have kept me from doing a lot of miles this year. Thus, when weather forecasts for Pearisburg VA showed a week with very little chance of major storms for more than one day, I had to jump at it. I’d already hiked all the way down to Woods Hole, so I made the simple decision to make that my starting place – parking my car there, getting a shuttle ride to somewhere south of there, and then hiking NOBO back to my car.

The question thus became HOW far south I should start the trip. I couldn’t start my drive down before mid-day on Sunday, and I had to return by late Saturday. With Woods Hole being a nine hour drive away, my shuttle would have to be Monday morning. This meant my first day could not be a lot of miles, simply because I knew I would be having a late start. Since I did not want my last day to combine a full day of hiking with a nine hour drive home, I had to ensure that day’s hike was not too far from Woods Hole. Since I knew that it would be impossible to absolutely ensure my ability to end a hike and then drive home, I wanted my last day of hiking to be on Friday. AND, since the most likely day for rain was going to be Wednesday afternoon, I resolved that my hike on that day would be a short one AND would end at a shelter.

With all these criteria packed together, I started with waking up at the Wapiti Shelter (7.2 miles from Woods Hole) on Friday, and then worked backwards. I found that a starting my hike at VA Highway 623 matched my wishes pretty much perfectly. Also, the Woods Hole URL
http://www.woodsholehostel.com/Shuttles.html
explicitly stated that they could a shuttle to that road. Since the hordes of GA->ME people have substantially passed this area, I anticipated no trouble reserving a place to stay AND a shuttle with a mere one-day notice.

I was half right. Lodging, no problem, even though I was clear that I would arrive well after dark. But, one day before I was to begin my trek down there, N&M stated that they no longer do shuttles to that road. They gave me the name & number of “Bubba,” a shuttle driver I had never heard of. With great trepidation I immediately phoned Bubba, and found him not only willing, but happy, to provide the shuttle (at a reasonable cost) with barely a day & a half notice.

No trouble getting down to Woods Hole by 10pm (Neville even greeted me, asking me if I needed anything), no trouble getting a good night’s sleep in the bunkhouse (my third stay and I’ve yet to share this room with even one other person), and no trouble for Bubba to arrive early. I now know that Bubba is a legendary shuttle drive in this area, driving from almost anywhere to almost anywhere; and doing so with great story-telling. The drive up to VA 623 was one that I was glad *I* wasn’t doing, but he had no problem. I thus began my hike at about 9am, heading north.

As I had no guarantee on when I would begin my hike from this road, my original plan was to be ready to spend the night at Jenkins Shelter*. However, even I knew that 1pm was WAY too early to end a first day’s hike, so I resolved to press on to Laurel Creek Campsite. This worked out just fine, as the place has plenty of water and plenty of spaces to pitch a tent. Despite the sound of falling acorns all night, I slept pretty well.

One problem I created for myself, WAY too early in this trip, was to allow my Droid’s battery to get to near-zero by the first morning of my hiking. Not sure how I did this – I probably left it on all night – but the fact is that I had to immediately recharge the battery with my portable recharger
http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=10503
My first use of this device actually went quite well, but it DID mean I had no further means of recharging my Droid. Thus, I had to learn to be extremely judicious in how I used this device.

Tuesday’s stop was Helvey Mills Shelter, an easy hike of just under eleven miles. I made good time despite over-sleeping till 7:15am – I prefer to awake a half hour before daylight. The one unavoidable problem about Helvey is that its water is 300 feet below the shelter. I hope everyone understands why I instead filled up at Kimberling Creek, just as The Trail leaves VA Highway 612, and just north of the I-77 crossing. I should mention that Kimberling Creek is not only a great place to soak your tired feet, but it also has something rarely seen on The Trail: trash cans. If you are hiking through this area, you have ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for leaving trash at shelters.

Wednesday was the day I expected showers, so I made a point of making this an easy, ten mile hike that ended at Jenny Knob Shelter. After getting there at 3pm, I decided to use the time, and the water 100 steps below, to wash myself and my clothes. Because the weather was sunny & hot, my shirts and under-socks dried quickly, and I was done by 6pm. But now what?

A pair of SOBOs told me that there was, indeed, water flowing about a mile beyond the shelter, despite everything in the area being quite dry and my Guthook app telling me that water there was intermittent. My trust was well placed, as the stream there was flowing well.

Bizarre as it may sound, I slept better this night simply because I found, almost by accident, an improvement in my (makeshift) pillow design. Normally I sleep pretty badly on The Trail, simply because I can’t create a comfy resting place for my head. I’ve tried collapsible pillows, but they don’t help much & take up too much space. So I instead wrap up my hiking pants in my camp shirt, and call THAT a “pillow.” Not ideal, but it worked. On this trip I decided to take along a wind breaker jacket, simply to ensure I had something to wear if a cool wind came through while I was at the camp. My previous “choice” was a thin, cotton shirt (perfect while hiking on hot days, not so great for a cool breeze) or my rain poncho (adequate for keeping dry, not so great for keeping out the wind). Just on a whim, I decided to wrap up this wind breaker as part of my pillow, and found that it was quite good in terms of sleep comfort.

Also helping my spirits was FINALLY finding a dinner that was light, required no prep, and was actually something I looked forward to eating. Specifically, tuna salad:
http://starkist.com/products/ready-t...nal-deli-style
I’ve tried mac & cheese (too much effort when I’m tired), Spam{R} (don’t like when uncooked), and plain tuna (not tasty enough). But the tuna salad had me almost licking the foil pouch after the meal. The one drawback is that, after the meal is done, the pouch is easy to smell for critters; and thus I had to be careful to store the used pouches in my Ursack{R}.



* Note about Jenkins Shelter: apparently habituated bears are a real problem here, so bear proofing you food is VERY important.