Bear's Den Hostel, Bluemont, VA

Sorry for the lack of updates, there seems to be a major lack of computers in the forest. Yeah, I don't get it either.

Just stopped by this hostel for showers, lunch (icecream!) and an update. Since I last logged on here (Daleville), I have hiked some serious miles. There were places between there and Waynesboro that were seriously rugged (by the way, Eric, I did make it to, and past, Waynesboro the day you dropped me off). Some huge ups and downs, and in some very high heat and humidity. There was one 2600 foot climb, though, that I'm particularly proud of, because I blasted up that hill like a maniac, ignoring the steepness, in fact, using my anger at these ridiculous climbs to fuel my ascent. I was only just beginning to wheeze/get seriously out of breath when I reached the top. Felt like a fuckin champ up there, though I was so completely saturated with sweat, I couldn't have been wetter had I just jumped in a lake.

Also, I have gone through Shenandoah National Park (SNP), which was nice in some ways, not so good in others. The deer are tame enough to walk almost all the way up to (some can be hand-fed, though it's illegal), which got to be almost annoying when they wouldn't clear off the trail; and Enoch poked a rabbit with his hiking pole, after which it hopped twice then stopped to look at us. None of the animals can be hunted, and they know it. I even saw a bear; walked right up on a mom and 2 cubs before I realized that THIS time it actually wasn't a dark stump, but was in fact a live bear. I guess they do exist.

But there is a definite tension there between the park and hikers. That place is obviously not for us; it's for the tourists with their cars and fat wallets, their idiotic drive-by photo-taking of pretty overlooks, after which they drive to the waysides or restaurants to buy the parks ridiculously overpriced food. I admit I spent too much there too. I really didn't like how they would cut down and leave for dead all the trees under the Skyline Drive turnoffs at the overlooks, then put up hundreds of signs at every trailhead saying "Leave No Trace!" to the hikers. What exactly do they call developed campgrounds, waysides/camp stores/restaurants, and highways? Personally, I don't like having a damn highway running through a national park, usually within hearing distance (if not seeing distance) of the Trail. Kinda takes away from the wilderness experience.

So far I'm not entirely impressed with our national park system, having been through two (SNP, and the Smokies). I've mentioned some of my gripes about Shenandoah (forgetting to mention the gypsy moth problem which is highly prevalant in the north end); the Smokies I have less against, though Clingman's Dome would have been nicer had they not built the big observation tower (with road and parking). I guess tourists really annoy me. What is the point of driving to a scenic view, snapping a photo, then leaving? The photo means nothing when it's that easy; it tells no story and has little value beyond shallow asthetics. Did I mention I've become a bit of a hiking snob? Also the Smokies are being devestated by acid rain, and it really shows. I guess that's more a comment on our society than the park itself, though.

I was glad to leave SNP, though. The last day, it was looking like rain, but I made it to a shelter in time to miss a downpour. Thinking it done, me and Keith, a guy who I was hiking with that day, decided to push on a few more miles. Half a mile out, things got Biblical. Nothing like climbing towards a mountain peak in a lightning storm. I was drenched in no time, the trail was a river. I angrily decided I would not be camping but would go on the 10.5 miles to the next shelter. I left Keith somewhere on a mountain and went on, throwing all kinds of curses down on SNP, looking forward to passing the boundary and sleeping outside that damn park. And then the boundary was in sight. I step past the sign, and literally that second the rain stopped dead. I think the park dislikes me as much as I dislike it.

Right now I'm hiking a section called "the rollercoaster." Instead of following the main ridgeline, which would be the logical way to run a trail, "Trailboss and his merry crew of volunteers" have decided to run the trail a half mile down the ridge, but parallel to it. Meaning we climb up, and down, and up, and down, into and out of every single hollow ("holler") along the way. The climbs are steep and rocky, and knowing that this shit is intentional just makes you angry as you hike. The only saving grace is that at the bottom of every holler is a creek, and that it isn't too hot out. And that we're almost out of Virginia, once and for all! It will feel good to hit a new state, makes you feel like progress is being made (though I did actually already camp in West Virginia a few weeks ago at Syms Meadow, since the trail ran a few miles along the state line just north of Pearisburg).

Also, I will hit 1000 miles before today is over, which is an incredible feeling. It's amazing that the longer I'm out here, the more I love it, and the harder it is to concieve of trying to go back to "the real world." This feels far more real than anything I've ever known, and I've never in my life felt this happy. I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, which is a feeling I've never really had. I'm struggling only with my thoughts of "after the AT"; I really don't know where I'll go from here, or how I can ever go back to a city-life, a working-life. The farther you get from that, the more perspective you have of it, and the more glaringly apparent the problems with that world become. I guess I still have 1176 more miles to figure something out.