The animals of the park are what stick out most to me. I saw a bear! Barely. I walked up on my friend Leapfrog, who was strangely quiet, and she pointed him out. It was a small guy, probably not more than 180 pounds, but it was a black bear all right! I could see him through the trees, but I couldn't get a good enough picture. No matter, it was nice to see my first bear! I also have spent some real quality time with deer. There are tons of them here, and yesterday I walked about 50 yards of trail with a deer following along beside me. It was cool! I was talking to it and stuff. The last thing to happen was this morning. I woke up and my trekking poles, which had been leaning against a tree, were covered in millipedes! Completely coated, it was so weird.
Tomorrow it's out of Shenandoah and into Front Royal, my last resupply in Virginia. Wahoo!
Today was a humdinger! I'm at Gravel Springs Hut, mile 956, so in all I made it a marathon- 26 miles! Throughout the whole of the Shenandoahs I've been doing big miles, and today was the capper. As great as it is to feel the miles fly by, I have to say I'm ready to ease off the throttle a little bit. First of all, despite the easy terrain of this area, I am probably more sore at the end of the day than usual. I think this is because I've been pushing myself to hike faster speeds.
But also, hiking long distances wears on me mentally. Sometimes I stop and ask myself "Why am I hiking so far again?" There's a number of reasons that push me to hike big miles. For sure one is money. More miles, less days on the trail, lower cost hike. But a few new ones have been creeping in. Most notable is the end of Virginia, which is a mere 50 miles away! I think this makes New England seem closer. I mean, Pennsylvania feels close to home. Northeast, right? And I am very much looking forward to being closer to home and seeing friends and family. Despite all this, however, I'm going to force myself to slow down. I don't want another experience like I had after my 30 in Pearisburg!Anyway, I'm still in Shenandoah National Park and there's a lot going on here!
-Scribbles (a.k.a. Ted)
9:25 p.m. 5/18/2015
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