“Harem of Lady Hikers”

AT Day 54

Miles Today: 28.92

AT Mile: 973.1

(Bear Hollow Creek [tent])

For some reason I had a hard time staying asleep last night. Kept tossing and turning after I woke up to pee, sometime around 1am.

When the birds started chirping I put in ear plugs (which prove to be incredibly effective) and I took my beanie hat, and rolled it down over my eyes like a sleep mask. I’ve used this set up a lot of mornings on trail and it always seems to yeild results. Another hour or two of sleep by blocking out the sun and the birds from 4:30-6:30am.

It was only 7 miles to my last wayside stop of Shenandoah National Park, and it was only a minute’s walk off trail to get there. Unfortunately, the grill part of the wayside didn’t open until 11, and I arrived just before 10. But I wasn’t going to miss my last opportunity for a Blackberry Milkshake, and the store part of the wayside was open. So I killed time and waited.

And by “killed time and waited,” I mean I ate Lucky Charms cereal and drank Tall Boy NA beers. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached a noteworthy point in our world’s history when we now have NA’s available as tall boys. God bless America. Or something…

By the time 11am rolled around there were several road bicyclists who had just rolled in, and one of them bought my milkshake for me. I felt like a sorority girl at a bar, getting drinks bought for her. It was flattering. But also weird, because I felt obligated to talk to the older gal who jumped in and ordered a second shake as I ordered mine–“Make that two,” she said. “They’re both on me.”

But I felt like the exchange of a somewhat awkward conversation was worth the $8 milkshake. And I did enjoy talking with her. Just didn’t know what we were jumping into until we were already in it. Another dude chatted me up while I was there waiting for the grill to open, and of all the things you could ask about the AT… he asks, “Have you found any good weed on the hike? I heard there’s a lot of weed.” He said it in a hush tone, as if there was some kind of secret in the air. But we’re in Virginia–a recreational legal state. So I don’t know why he was acting like it was a big deal.

I told him that, yes, a lot of hikers on this and most long distance trails smoke. But also that it’s incredibly difficult to find in Virginia, in spite of it being legal. I refrained from sharing with him my other drug related stories from the trail.

On that note, this is now 4 days without the use of psychedelics on trail. The reset has felt refreshing, day by day. I’m glad to have taken a break.

—

Later this afternoon I met another hiker whom I have not seen in over a month. He’s an older German dude, and we met on day 5, just north of the NOC. We hadn’t seen one another since day 9 though–when I was hitching into Gatlenburg for resupply and great-American-adventure. But we both remembered one another instantly.

One of the first things that he remarked, in his somewhat funny accent, was that he’s “surprised that you don’t have a harem of women with you by now.” I laughed, because I remember the day we met. I was on mushrooms (as I’d continue to be for the following 40+ days), and I was playfully energetic. I was still fresh to the trail too. We met one another at a hostel where he was stopped for lunch. I cracked an NA beer (this was back when I was still carrying them out of towns), then hit my pushups. He made a remark about remembering when he was young too, and I howled like a coyote or something. Told him that I had to get up trail, as I’d heard about a couple of cute hikers who were just ahead.

Apparently the encounter stuck with him as well, because all this time later, he still remembered it, and it was the first thing that he brought up–that he expected me to be with a harem of women by now. Hallariously inaccurate, but the image of it brightened my day.

Spec on the other hand…

Now if there is any hiker on trail who’s collected a “harem of women,” it’s that guy… I’ll leave the story for him to tell though.

I told Navigator a bit about the story from Trail Days, and that I’ll be seeing Boots again this Friday in Harpers Ferry. He was surprised to learn that I’d be chasing a girl who isn’t a hiker, but I corrected him. “Not a *thur* hiker,” I explained. “But she does hike.”

—

Can we take a moment to appreciate how much I’ve learned to hate whatever species of silk worms are dangling from the tree branches out here?! I don’t know if there was some kind of hatch this week, or what, but there were a couple of miles today where they were *everywhere!

They’re these little inch-worm caterpillars that produce a thin spider-web-like string that they repel down from the trees with. The result is hundreds of these little fucking worms, hanging from invisible threads from the tree branches, all through the trail. I’ve had them here and there on trail up to today, but there was a time today where I had to literally walk down trail swinging my hiking poles in front of me like I was sword fighting ghosts or something. I’m sure if anyone saw it they would have assumed that I was absolutely out of my mind. And to think–this is when I’m *not* on mushrooms!

They were so bad today that as I started flicking some of these worms off of me, I counted eight of them all at once. In total I must have collected 30 or 40 of them in those few miles!

God I was sick of them.

And on the topic of critters that I’m not too fond of, there’s something that stung me today. I don’t know what it was, but it was bad enough that I dropped my hiking pole immediately and swatted it off of me. It must have been a bee or something, because there’s a bit of swelling in my ankle now, and a very clear red dot where it stung me. Hurt like hell for a few minutes, but even a few hours late now it still hurts some. Such is life out here…

—

It’s come to my attention that I’m most definitely going to get into Harpers Ferry before Boots. She won’t be able to get there until Friday evening around 6:00, and as I’ve been reading maps today, it’s looking like I might get there as early as Thursday night. No real chance that she can get there any earlier, and I thought about hiking on, then hitching back the following day, but I think that just makes more difficulty than it’s worth. So my plan is to just chill in town until she gets there. I might even stay in the hostel Thursday night unless I can figure out how to slow my progress between here and there.

Getting tired as I write. That tends to be the case with these most nights.

Will write again tomorrow.

Wormwood.