Virginia Part 2

Yes, I am still very much in Virginia. It’s a very long state. I have completed 278 miles, however, and am roughly half way through it (259 miles to go). Yet compared to other states I’ve hiked through, I am having a pretty good time.

For starters, a couple of my fraternity brothers drove out and did a small section hike up to a place called Spy Rock to meet up with me for a night A great camp site, and great company. It was nice to be reminded that I DO have friends outside of my fellow hiker compatriots, and that I’ll get to see more of them fairly soon. Shout outs to Dewesie, Jesse, Jason, Mike D, Brad…you guys rock. Thanks for coming out!

Then, after meeting up with my fraternity brothers, I was in for another nice surprise.

When I was in the White Mountains, I met a section hiker named “Moviefone” at one of the huts.

He was gradually hiking the trail over a period of three years, and was up doing a section from Gorham, NH to Katahdin (the northern trail terminus where I started). He was from Virginia, and told me that once I hit Montebello, I could call him and he would slack pack me for some distance.

Well, 2 and a half months and about 1000 miles later, I did just that.

In all honesty, I didn’t think I’d get much out of it. After all, I had only seen him once and spent less than 12 hours actually hanging out with him…I expected the phone call to go right to voicemail, leave a message, and then not hear back from him.

But when I called, he picked up after three rings.

“Hey Foot-z!”
“Hey man, I’m south of Montebello.”
“Awesome. I can meet you at the next road crossing to swap out packs.”
“…Alright, but that’s only 7 miles from here…It’ll take me like, 2 and a half hours to get there, tops.”
“Yeah, that’s cool. I’ll meet up with you there, grab your pack, and pick you up 10 miles down at the next road. Then we can go back to my place, and I’ll bring you back out to the trail tomorrow.”
“Sweet! Sounds like a plan. See you at the road…”

It all sounded good, but I still had my doubts. From what I remember Moviefone was cool, but that was months ago and my memory of him was hazy. Still, the prospect of going back to a place with all the comforts of home was too much to just pass up altogether. Not to mention knocking out miles without a heavy pack. All good things.

Everything went exactly as planned. I met up with him at the road crossing, dropped off my pack with him, hiked some more, and went back to his place at the end of the day.

Yet that night, several other hikers whom were also with us in the Whites called him, and he proposed the same offer to them for the following day. Excited at the prospect of hiking with old friends again, I promptly decided to take a 0 to allow them to catch up.

It is said that traditionally, AT Southbounders rarely hike in large groups. Yet thanks to Moviefone’s help, we all ended up hiking together.

The Southbound Posse, from left to right: Redbeard, Shirtless, Myself, Vlad, Pilot, and Dozer.

Moviefone slacked all of us for 3 consecutive days, dropping us off at the trail each morning and picking us up each afternoon. It was a far drive from his place though, as much as an hour at the longest point and 25 minutes at the shortest. Yet for about 70 miles, we were able to hike without packs and end the day in a warm, dry apartment and get showers and real food. Simply awesome. I couldn't thank him enough for doing that.

Yet because we were all essentially living there for three days, Moviefone’s place quickly began to resemble a hiker hostel. Gear lay everywhere, empty beer cans began to cover every flat surface, his one bathroom was almost constantly occupied, and any food/soda left out quickly evaporated. I began to joke with Moviefone about this constantly, to which we would constantly reply “IT’S NOT A F---KING HOSTEL!” Thusly, I put up a “Welcome to the Movie Theater NOT-hostel” sign on his front door. We all got a good laugh out of it.

And as luck would have it, one of my Dad’s close friends also lived really close to Moviefone’s not-hostel. I had planned on giving him a call anyway, but the fact that I was staying so close to him made it particularly easy for us meet up. It was good to finally meet him, and even better to get the gear that my parents had sent him to give to me…a new water filter for my Platypus (my Giardia has since cleared up if anyone is wondering), and a replacement frame for my pack (it had been damaged for quite a while, and the fix went easy enough).

But as far as the trail itself goes, I might be out of the Shenandoah, but I am certainly not out of nice views:

Or interesting trail destinations:

Understandably, this is called “The Guillotine”

Yet more recently, bad weather has set in on the region. The fog in the mountains is the most thick I’ve ever seen…sometimes visibility can drop to less than 20 feet.

If “seeing is believing”…what does it mean if you can’t see a damn thing?

Anyway, it seems like I’m in for more rain for the next few days. Whatever. With any luck I’ll be close to done with this whole thing in another month and half…at that point, I’ll hopefully have the option of staying indoors during a torrential downpour.

Remember kids, don’t take being warm and dry for granted. Not everyone has that luxury.