Summer, June 21st

Last night was my first and last night sleeping in the Shenandoahs. No bears made any appearances during the night as I hear is common. Duck was snoring up a storm last night, I could hear him all the way from his tent, that made sleeping a bit hard.

Today is the first day of summer. Also hike naked day. I didn't strip down and hike, nor did I see anyone but later on I ran into Black Bear and Short Cake and heard that they hiked naked in the morning for awhile.

It was such a hot a gross day that Uncle Puck, Dirty Duck, and I decided to hitch into Front Royal for dinner and frozen yogurt. I really just wanted some AC and a bathroom to clean up in. We ended up going to this Thai place and they had thai iced tea, my favorite!!! We didn't originally plan to stay the night here but after dinner we decided to do so anyways. While walking over to a cheaper motel we saw Still Hank and Catfish! They had a hotel room here and let us stay the night. Earlier today there was a KKK gathering in town which they got to see. They went up to some of the members and messed with them by giving ridiculous answers to the things they said and asked. A man was telling them how gays were fueling the adult diaper industry from not being able to hold their bowels and Catfish told him that that has been his experience too. It was hilarious, I wish I could have seen that myself.

So my right toenail is becoming a problem again. The nail is halfway grown out and starting to grow into my skin in the front instead of on top of my toe. I spent a good deal amount of time freaking out and calling to try to make appointments with a podiatrist and soaking my foot to try to trim the skin back. The skin was incredibly sensitive. I ended up taping the skin on the front of my toe forward to try to pull it down for the nail to grow over. Hopefully that'll help.

The frozen yogurt place on my map had gone out of business and we were recommended to try this place called C&C frozen treats instead. Duck and I walked over and found the best ice cream place in the world!!! The place has a carousel pony theme to it. They had so many flavors of house made ice cream! They kept the vanilla and chocolate in the back and won't let you order them unless you sample at least three different flavors. It was so delicious that I ended up getting 2 double scoops of ice cream I got blood orange, tangerine, green apple, and pear. There were so many other flavors that I wanted to try, I wish that this place was close by to me. Their menu of flavors is forever changing. I got to watch a woman order vanilla and then have to try 3 other flavors, she ended up choosing a flavor she sampled instead of vanilla. It's such a cool rule!

Tonight in Front Royal I'm at mile 969.7 with 1220.1 left to go.

Back to backpacking, June 20th

We had a relaxing morning and found our way to a café in town. It was so delicious. I ended up getting a cresant breakfast sandwich and an apple cinnamon danish. They were both so delicious. The danish was so well stuffed with such a thin moist crust that it was perfection.

Our hitch hike back to the trail was interesting. A cop had stopped by to say that we had to stay on the sidewalk to hitch hike. A guy gave us a ride and had barbed wire, a lawn mower, and a trimmer in the back. It was a bit uncomfortable but we were glad for the ride.

It was pretty rough getting back on trail in the heat of the day. I just felt pretty worn out and my pack was quite heavy. I guess I was quite spoiled by my mom visiting me and slackpacking me for the week. My shoes are really wearing out. I can feel all of the rocks when hiking. I need to get new shoes in the next town. My back rash is fully gone. I'm so happy about that. I hope it doesn't return but it probably will.


We all met up at a wayside 8 miles in on the trail for a food and snacks. It was the perfect spot for a rest and I got to get more of that amazing blackberry ice cream! My right toenail is starting to hurt. I hope it's not all starting over again

Right now in my tent I feel like I'm going crazy. There are so many noises happening around my tent, so many branches crackling and so much rustling of leaves. I'm quite nervous, there are a ton of bears in the area and warnings all over the place about bears in the area. I really hope nothing happens tonight. I did have a large milipede crawl under my tent while typing this. I wasn't sure what was going on. I had heard stories of mice crawling under tents and chewing their way up to get inside tents for food so I started jabbing at it with a pencil thinking it was a mouse then I looked. I feel kinda bad for the lil guy. I definitely injured him.

Tonight I made it to the Gravel Springs Hut at milt 956.3 with 1233.5 left to go.

Luray, June 19th

It was sad saying goodbye to my mom and Blue but we had a great time. I'm really happy that she came out to visit and spend time with me. After we parted ways it didn't take too long to catch up with Dirty Duck, he had slowed down so I could catch up. Scout and Sun just hiked on to get into Luray earlier. It was a short hike and I was slack packing it, having left my pack in Luray so it was easy.

We could see skyline drive from the trail.

We took the short side trail to see Mary's Rock since we were making such good time.

Duck on Mary's Rock

Mishap on Mary's Rock

At the outfitters in town.

Dirty Duck and I decided to go to the Luray Caverns, something we both did with our family's as kids. Scout and Sun decided to take a pass and rest. The tour was a lot of fun. I don't have any memory of visiting this cave so it was like seeing it all over again for the first time.

There were other free museums as part of our ticket in the same area so we walked around and checked them out.

I made a friend

I bought an opossum in the gift shop

Duck and I went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean which was quite disappointing. I also lost my AT necklace which I got at trail days so I was pretty stressed about that. We found it on the sidewalk after the movie thankfully.

Miss Opossum checking out dinner

Tonight on the trail we made it to Luray at mile 942 with 1247.8 left to go.