It's been a few days since I've blogged, so bare with me. I have to refresh my memory a bit, and squeeze a lot in.
Saturday morning we awoke to the same lack of power that we passed out to. Using my phone I found out how bad the storm had been, with something like 1.5 million residences still without power. I wandered up to my parents room to find them packing up. Vince had made some calls and found that the Days Inn still had electricity, so we were switching hotels. We also had to do a little laundry and find a restaurant with power before heading up into the mountains. This was all accomplished before noon, when Mr. F, Bonecrusher (my moms trail name), and I found ourselves setting foot on the path.
The trail was quite rocky, and took its toll on Bonecrusher's knee (somewhat apt). We stopped for lunch at a hut where we met a couple of section hikers and a ridge runner. Conversation was light and entertaining, and we enjoyed a prolonged break.
By around the 7 mile point it was starting to get quite hot out again. Between the heat and her knee, Bonecrusher was starting to feel what a full day on the trail can do to you. With that in mind, we ended the hike a little early, and were picked up by Vince to check into the hotel and grab some much needed dinner. After dinner we watched (500) Days of Summer, which made me happy as always.
The following day had us hiking 10 short miles, which Bonecrusher decided to abstain from. She joined me for a quick mile hike that I had to make up in the beginning, and then joined Vince to visit the Luray caverns. She was afraid of slowing us down, but really she made the right call because of the brutal rocky downhill that ended the hike. Even though it was a short day, in much milder weather, I finished beat and weary. Worse than that though, my stomach bothered me the entire hike. They met us at the end with cold sodas and cookies, which was about the greatest thing ever, and we went out to a glorious dinner with live music. Then, back at the hotel room, we watched Lost in Translation to everyone's enjoyment.
The following morning brought with it the main event to my weakening stomach. I've never been one to have problems with diarrhea, but it seems that it was time for me to learn its dark ways. I had issues when I woke, and then again after breakfast, and yet again at the point where my parents were dropping us off. Speaking of the drop off, we had to be shuttled about 8 miles past where we had last gotten off of the trail, thanks to closures due to the fire. It just kept raging all this time, and we even got to see helicopters ferrying water to and fro. At a couple points they even landed in our hotel parking lot, possibly for shift changes. But back to my own misadventures.
I told Mr. Fantastic to hike on, as he had a schedule to keep, and I waited for a little while with the rents to see how things panned out. Things were only getting worse, so we decided to give it the night and see what happened.
We moved from the Luray Days Inn, ahead to the Front Royal Holiday Inn. This was a step down in price, and a massive step up in quality. Taking a 3 hour nap that afternoon didn't do much to help me, though my bowels had at least slowed their constant evacuation. Regardless of stomach ills, I was starving, so we all went out to dinner. The place was small and cute, with a charismatic waiter who was married to the chef. Everything was delicious, and when we were finally leaving they gave me a bag of food to see me on my way up the trail, as well as some beer. It made for a wonderful and fun night, despite my ails.
I awoke no better the following morning, so we decided it best to go to the local clinic to get checked out. They ran blood, urine, and stool samples, but thankfully came to the conclusion that I was good to hike once everything passed. I was to give it another day of rest, and come back if the problem hadn't subsided.
After the poking and prodding, we all had a quick lunch and decided to go watch the new Spider-Man reboot in 3D at the local theater. My parents thoroughly enjoyed it, and I thought it was clunky but a lot of fun.
This was my last night at the hotel, because if I wasn't better and hiking by morning I'd have to go home for a brief stint. We watched some of Final Destination 5, and I downloaded a boatload of entertainment for the trail.
By this morn I was finally back in the solid stool club, and happy to be a member. We ate breakfast downstairs at the Houlihans, and packed up our things. On the way back to the trail we decided to catch one more movie, swinging by to see how funny Ted might be. It was a good comedy, if not boring at parts, and made us all laugh heartily. It's good to see Seth MacFarlane testing the waters of the film industry.
Back out in the heat, we drove off toward Ashby Gap, where I'd pick up the trail once again. I've skipped ahead at this point, but once I reach Katahdyn I'll come back down to complete the missed section.
Reaching the gap, we found ourselves face to face with Mr. Fantastic and his brother Gizmo (JS having already been named by Mr. F). Timing was rather crazy, yet again. Vince shared some water and Gatorade with them before we all took off. We said our goodbyes to my parents, they snapped a couple of pictures, and we sweat our way back into the woods.
I had an especially short nearo at 3.6 miles, whereas Mr. F and Gizmo had already come 10. That was fine by me though, as 2 zero days and an illness can steal a bit of your trail legs.
The hike was quick, but very hot and humid. I soaked through my clothes at the first climb, even though the terrain was honestly rather easy today. Dinner was small for me, as I didn't work hard enough to earn the big hiker appetite I'm accustomed to. I quickly set up my tent with the new trekking poles Vince got me, and rolled out my new sleeping liner that my mom gave me. In heat like this I'm so grateful to have a new system that's easier to setup and doesn't cause me to sweat all night. I can finally welcome summer in at least one way!
Tomorrow I'll be back to hiking the big miles, and I'm sure it'll be a bit of a shock to the system. Then again when isn't it a shock to the system? There's still plenty to look forward to in the next few days though. We have tomorrow and Friday to hike before we make it to Harper's Ferry. This is, of course, the spiritual halfway point of the trek. Not only that, it's also where Mr. F and Gizmo's dad will pick us up to drive us to DC. Another couple of zeros, as well as birthday festivities for Mr. Fantastic will make our halfway point truly memorable. Plus once back at Harper's Ferry we get to tackle the half gallon challenge. More on that soon!
