Sunday, June 19, 2011

From Front Royal, VA

Hey guys!

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I wanted to let you all know I'm still alive! Since Damascus, quite a bit has happened. We spent about 5 days there for Trail Days, and then spent a couple days doing trail maintainance/creation near Hampton, TN, with the Hardcore Trail Crew from Kincora Hostel. That was a great experience and a great way to spend a few days off trail. It was also really cool to see the finished product and we all got to paint white blazes as a part of the new trail!

After that, we passed through Mt. Rogers National Wilderness Area. We spent our birthday (Austin/Shazam! and I have the same birthday) mostly on-trail, but we did get to have lunch and ice cream at the Dairy Queen in Bland. We then spent a day in Pearisburg the next weekend and had a great time hanging out in our air-conditioned rooms and eating at the Mexican restaurant across the street.

After Pearisburg, we made our way towards Catawba. When we got there, I was having some intestinal trouble, so we took a day off to make sure I didn't have the Big G (giardia), and hung out in the Daleville/Troutville area. I got a new pair of trail runners from Salomon and decided that I was in need of a lighter, cooler sleeping bag for the rest of the summer.

Next, we hit McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs, which were both awesome. We spent a few hours on McAfee Knob in the afternoon, and then ate dinner and watched the sunset from the cliffs. Here are a few pictures:





The next morning, we did a short day before we got into Daleville, so I spent a little while sitting at Tinker Creek and thinking about what has happened so far on my trip:


We got to Jennings Creek/Buchanan a few days later, and met a local hiker who told us that there was a forest fire several miles up the trail, and that part of the trail was closed, so we decided to "aquablaze" that section by kayak. I almost lost my camera, when I flipped my boat doing something stupid, but fortunately we were able to find it on the bottom of the river! Here are some pictures from that day:





 Class III whitewater, Balcony Falls:


Since reaching Glasgow, we hiked about 60 miles into Waynesboro, where we were picked up by Beth Brann, who lives and works about half an hour away, in Harrisonburg. We had a great weekend at her place, and she was a great host! It was great to see a familiar face, but also a little strange to be both Max and Gravity at the same time. I also enjoyed being able to bring together different pieces of my life, introducing friends from very different points in time!

From Waynesboro, Phlegm and I aquablazed again, this time on the Shenandoah River. Pixel and Shazam continued hiking, since Pixel's sister and Shazam's parents were coming to town while they would have been on the river. English Chatter went to Florida for a wedding, and it was sad to split up the Booty Club for a little while. Fortunately, Phlegm and I are going to meet up with Pixel and Shazam tonight in Front Royal, and we'll hike out together. Chatter will catch up eventually!

Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to post again before another month passes, but don't worry about me if I don't! Here is a link to my pictures, which I posted to picasa after almost losing my camera, and almost all my pictures and videos with it: https://picasaweb.google.com/113773606098607456017/ATPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCJjyr8LWiMLPzQE&feat=directlink; and here's a link to my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/gmbeau22. Enjoy!