In the morning Slingshot and Josef both said they planned to go to a shelter that is just a couple of miles from the road to Front Royal. It was 23 miles and since I’d done around 20 miles a day recently I figured I would give it a try.
Three hours later I met both of them, along with Uncle Science, at the next Wayside, eating ice cream bars and drinking coffee. I bought a bag of hot dog buns for my lunch, and an ice cream bar, which was hard as rock at first. But it was good so I got another. Then I went on ahead.
I found a pile of rocks with one almost level rock to sit on for lunch. I was a bit hidden from the trail, but quite close to it. A group of about ten hikers stopped right in front of me and their leader said they would go on another mile before having lunch. Off they went.
Five minutes later a few more hikers appeared and one said “This is where we’re having lunch.” They all sat down, some within a couple of yards from me. I piped up and said the others had gone ahead. Oh no, one of them told me, that other group was doing the 15 mile hike. This group was only doing 11. They are part of a big hiking group and I have to say I’m pretty impressed by how far they hike. The outdoor club of East York, which I belong to, typically does hikes of 10 to 15 KILOMETERS. When I’ve organized hikes with them at the 15 km range I don’t get a lot of people signing up. And thus Virginia group is doing 1.6 times that!
Around 4 I started to feel pain in my left shin. It felt different than the anterior fibula tendinitis I had before, more on the inside than the outside of the shin. I had been hiking without trekking poles for three days, but I pulled them back out and used them to reduce pressure on that leg. At 5 I ran into Josef who was resting by a spring. We chatted about our jobs (he quit an engineering job in the telecom industry to hike the trail, and wants to do something completely different when his hike is over). I noticed on FarOut comments for the spring that there was a tentsite 0.1 mile north. I told him I would camp there rather than risk wrecking my leg again, and said farewell. The tentsite turned out to be excellent other than the seating – there is a log to sit on but it would have been nice if the tree had been about 30 years older when it fell!
After dinner I joined a board meeting of my choir, which felt a bit strange after months in the woods! It was good to hear the familiar voices of my fellow board members!
Mile 946.4 to mile 966.2 = 19.8 miles