Shenadoahs

So as I mentioned in the last post, Virginia goes on forever. But it's broken up into different sections. The first bit was the last of my deja Vu, and then I entered Shenadoah National Park, a rather narrow mountain range that stretches for ~75-100 miles. It was great for wildlife. I saw 12-15 bears, 10,000 deer, some rabbits and turkeys, plus all the usuals. And even though it's wild by a lot of people's standards, there are actually a few waysides (basically gas stations) along the way, as the trail weaves past Skyline Drive, so I didn't have to carry as much food, or had to carry my trash as long, and only had to filter water from creeks once or twice the whole time, as they had running water too. Talk about luxury.

A week or two after the Shenadoahs I got an even more luxurious treat. I went and visited Nicole, a girl I have long-standing feelings for. And that affection is at least somewhat reciprocated, as she was willing to drive a couple hours to come pick me up, and gave me a bed to sleep in and some good food and she showed me around her town in, get this, a car! Plus I got a few showers and a load of laundry, though that was more for her benefit than mine. Nicole works a tough shift at the hospital (she luckily wasn't on call the weekend I came, and I was able to spend a solid 48 hours with her, from Friday evening to Sunday evening. That was best from her schedule, of course, as hikers have no idea what day of the week it is, since we have no weekends. Usually good on the date though (today is Sep 20, day 112 of my trip). Nicole works a job where you really shouldn't go to the restroom, as you then have to thoroughly rescrub before returning to surgery or whatever. I was in a condition where, despite the cold and somewhat rainy weather, we had to drive with the windows down, and my smell really lingered in her house, even after multiple showers. Not exactly the best condition to see someone you have a crush on, and the weekend might have been two steps forward, one step back with her. But that's still positive. I'll make sure to be cleanshaven and superclean and wearing a tuxedo the next time I see her, and she'll forget about that dirty hairy smelly version of me that showed up while I was hiking the trail. About 2/3 of the way done with the whole trail. Yay.

Deja Vu

I've spent the last ~2 weeks repeating the section of the trail I did last summer, although in the opposite direction from how I went before, so I'm remembering everything in reverse order of how I did it. And as much as I dislike the Conquerors who race through areas, I'd purposely planned to cruise through here, since I'd already done it. I have occasionally stopped to say "oh my god, I remember camping here!" pointing at a random patch of ground, but for the most part I have skipped viewpoints and such and done some of my highest (mileage) days. But now I'm entering Virginia. If you add the miles of ME and PA together (the 2nd- and 3rd-longest states, respectively)you get less than Virginia. I never knew it was that large of a state. The AT goes all the way down the panhandle of VA, and with switchbacks and such it's well over 500 miles, or over 1/4 of the whole trail. So I'll be here for a month. Great.

Food and Hunger

Hikers typically burn around 6,000 calories a day, or approximately 3x the average daily human intake. This leads to an unsatisfiable appetite that's a stoned anorexic's dream. You can eat whatever you want and you're hungry again a few minutes later. Some hikers (and some of the towns along the trail) reinforce this, and there are a lot of food challenges, like "eat the whole pizza and it's free". I've passed on most of these, but did do the one that is most famous among the hiker community: the Half Gallon Challenge. At a small store almost exactly halfway through the entire AT (in Southern PA)hikers can celebrate completing half of their journey by eating a half gallon of ice cream. It's over 3,000 calories (or again 1.5x what most people eat in an entire day) and I ate it in 34 minutes. And was hungry again and ate some peanuts within an hour after finishing it. It was actually great fuel and I did one of my highest (miles) days the day I ate it.