AT 2024, Day 14: Do Better, Thru Hikers!
The Keffer Oak.
Day 14, Monday, 5.13.2024
Start: M. 669.7, War Spur Shelter—the one with the park bench
End: M. 688.1, Niday Shelter, with the Horde
Miles Hiked: 18.4
Total Miles: 185.7
This moth entertained me at lunch. Then took a shit on my hand.
Grinding away
Every so often a day comes when it feels like “they” are moving the shelter. No matter how fast you hike, how often you check your watch or FarOut, how much time passes, the end feels like it will never arrive. It’s like you’re grinding away on a treadmill, going nowhere.
Today was one of those days.
Just grinding it out.
Lots of slab-walking today.
No room at the inn tonight.
Oddly, I hardly saw another soul on trail, today.
And yet, the shelter was full, the tentsites around the shelter were full, everyone calling the Niday Shelter home for the night.
I decided to sleep in the shelter as rain was in the forecast and was lucky enough to get a spot next to the wall.
Lucky, because it filled up with five other hikers, all old men, potential for snoring extremely high. (It would be funny if I were the one who snozzled away all night, but I don’t think I did).
Lots of trekking through classic Virginia pastureland today.
I’m entering the Virginia Triple Crown tomorrow (Dragon’s Tooth, McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs), so I think all these section hikers are here for just that. TBH, sitting at the picnic table with the section hikers is refreshing. They are way more inclusive than the thru-hikers.
(One even shared his recipe for cold-soaked Hiker Pad Thai: ramen noodles, peanut butter, sriracha. Yum!)
Do better, thru-hikers!
I love a tree with character and personality.
Good luck with that
I passed two older men (who are now in the shelter with me) hobbling down the trail at turtle speed. I mean, barely upright, knees hardly bending, leaning hard on their trekking poles (one in worse shape than the other, but both were painful to watch. I’ve been there with the unbending knees. Sucks.).
They are headed to Dragon’s Tooth tomorrow and I fear for their well being and safety.
You really need a set of functioning knees to get down the other side.
It was so crowded at the shelter, I moseyed up the trail a ways to pee and to put on my sleep outfit. I almost got busted dropping trou by a hiker strolling up the trail. It was Jiminy, of outrageous mustache fame. He acted like he’d never seen me even though we’d had an actual conversation just yesterday.
Sigh.
Do better, thru hikers!
Today was a day full of…
Pastures
Slabs
Ledges
A big burn area at the end of the day
Mystery cairns/not really cairns in the woods
The 300 year old Keffer Oak tree still standing, still impressing
I can’t get a straight answer on these piles of rocks in the woods. There are several piles, five or six feet high, neatly stacked. What I find unusual is that they are up on top of the ridge. I would think the land had been cleared for farming, but who farms on top of the mountains? Answers, please!
Andy Goldsworthy ancestor?
Sasquatch cairns?
Petrified igloos?
