Shenandoah National Park, June 14th

I couldn't sleep much at all last night. I got 5 hours at most and got going early in the morning. Maybe I was just excited to have my mom here with me. We had to switch hotel rooms and run errands before heading back off to the trail. We drove a bunch of hikers around to get from place to place faster. It was nice getting to help my friends out. Everyone was taking a zero in town but my mom, Blue, and I headed back to the trail to do a small section.

Dirty Duck had the awesome idea of bringing a bike out to place at the end of where my mom will be hiking. She's nowhere near as in shape as I am so only a few miles a day is much more reasonable for her. The AT runs along Skyline Drive in the Shenandoahs and crossing it frequently which makes this plan work out great. We lock up the bike at a crossing with Skyline Drive the number of miles that my mom feels like doing for the day. Then she will ride the bike on the road back to where we parked the car as I hike on to get more miles done for the day. We planned on just doing 4.5 miles for the day together. Although I found the terrain to be quite easy and flat it was a much different story for my mom who struggled with the mild rocks and inclines. It didn't help that a huge thunderstorm came in and drenched us. My moms phone got soaked and ruined.

She ended up waiting at the first intersection with Skyline Drive at 2.7 miles while I hiked on to get the bike with Blue. The weather did clear up, it was only a short storm. It was a nice break from the steaming hot weather we had been having. Blue was very excited to be out hiking but I can tell that the heat was taking a toll on him. He was just panting most the hike and I know that it wasn't from the hiking itself. I'm just glad that we will be being back to air conditioning at the end of each day so he can cool off better. On the section I did with Blue we passed some communication towers and tractor seats installed into the ground, they were pretty silly and I couldn't resist sitting on one.

The bike ride back was great, it was mostly downhill and Blue just loves to run fast on bike rides. My knees were having a rough time with the uphills we encountered, it's been so long since I've been on a bike and all this hiking has taken a toll on my knees. We were almost back to my mom and going fast when Blue decides to squat to take a dump mid-run. It was so sudden that it pulled me down off my bike. A car was coming up from the other direction and wanted to know if I was okay. It was pretty embarrassing. I'm usually pretty good at dropping the leash on the rare occasion that he does something like that.

My mom biked the rest of the way back to the car and came back for us, we got back to the hotel and cleaned up. Sun wanted me to dye her hair so I went over to do so. There was some extra dye so I dyed a strand of my own hair too! It didn't stick out much at all. I think I got it in there too late.

Down the street a carnival was going on, we saw it yesterday so my mom drove us over to enjoy it. I usually love rides but I, actually I think many of us, felt that motion sickness. I don't normally have it but I think that since i've only been going at walking speed for so long that my body just wasn't handling it so well. I skipped the last few rides afraid that i'd throw up.

Today on the trail we made it to mile 867.4 with 1322.4 left to go.