Shenandoah, Vol. 25

The above picture was taken from an elevation of 3,700 feet from a mountain called The Pinnacle. This view shows the approximate ridge that the trail follows from the right corner, over the rock at the end (Mary's Rock), and then one must descend steeply 1,600 feet over a loose gravel path turned ledge that was often worrisomely narrow. It represented a difficult turning point for me.


While beginning the descent of Mary's Rock, I pulled my right quadriceps muscle making every step down quite painful. At the top, my leg felt very tight so I stopped to stretch. Usually this works quite well, but after only a few steps the tightness returned. Aleve was my next course of action when I started limping (with 1,200 vertical feet to go). It seemed like the worst possible time for something like this to happen. It getting later in the afternoon, we still had some distance to travel, but we had already come so far by this time, 11 miles. This was to be our longest day. For whatever reason, the park decided to make the next shelter a day-use facility only so we were unable to stay there. We rested for a bit. I modified a knee strap to fit tightly over my quad, and we pressed on. When we got to the nearest road, it was only a mile to the next shelter according to our map. It really felt like the longest mile yet. After descending for so long, we were required to start walking up another mountain--it felt like it went up forever. Finally reaching the side trail to our shelter, we were somewhat relieved to learn it was 0.3 miles downhill (which felt like 1.3mi). We were both beaten, bruised and wanted to do nothing more than remove the socks and shoes from our blistered, throbbing feet. With apprehension, we approached a warning sign placed by this trail. Our intuition told us what it said before we got close enough to read it:

WARNING: Problem Bears in area. Several bears in the area of this campsite have been known to approach hikers and display aggressive behavior. Please report all encounters to the nearest park ranger. If you are approached by a bear:
1. DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT. Stay calm. Do not drop your backpack. Back away slowly. Leave the area immediately. OR
2. Make loud noises such as clapping, shouting, or banking your trekking poles together. Throw sticks or stones at or near the bear.

To the weary hiker this sign reads:

WARNING: Bears will be coming to eat you in your tent as you sleep. When this happens:
1. Do not provoke the bear by looking at it, and don't leave your backpack because then it wins. OR
2. Do whatever the hell you want to the bear because you are going to die anyway.

Suddenly this changes the woods. Every shadow becomes a bear. Every movement in the woods is a bear. Every twig you step on must be a bear. Your mind has a lot of time to wander when you're in the woods. Well, we never saw any bears on this mountain. We would have been a whole lot more comfortable without the sign...

At camp, there were three guys in the shelter already so we decided to pitch our tent. Meanwhile two hikers and their dog arrived. This was Jonesy, Suzie Q, and Kodiak (the dog). They had been a day or so ahead of us every day of our hike and we read all their register entries. They seemed famous to us. We chatted for a bit. Upon entering Front Royal, VA, they said that they were staying at the Scottish Inn.
"It's a really good deal! It's about $35 a night. You should stay!"
"How is it though, for $35?" asked AJ inquisitively.
"Well...um...the sheets are clean."
That's the mark of a classy hotel.

The next morning, we set out at our normal time. I wrapped my quad and was doing quite well until we had to descend the mountain. I suddenly felt the pain return and every step caused me to wince just slightly. I became quite worried because the 4 miles to the wayside were generally downhill, and afterwards we had a huge mountain to climb followed by a steep descent to the shelter. After some resting and more meds, Hannah convinced me that I was being stupid. Not only was the day going to be any easier, but I risked having to pull off the trail for the summer, tearing the muscle, losing work, etc. We found a side-trail to a bridle trail that led to Skyline Drive, and we did the only thing we could do: hitch hike.

Neither of us had ever hitch hiked before so after a brief discussion of etiquette, Hannah (the more qualified hitch hiker--because who stops for dirty, smelly, creepy-looking guys). The first several vehicles zipped passed, which caused some discouragement. Hannah decided that she needed to put on a cleaner shirt, and I thought I might lay lifelessly on the side of the road to invoke pity. Several more cars went by, some motorcycles, and then a line of RVs. Then, one appeared to be slowing. It was a large SUV from Connecticut hauling a long trailer. It was a middle-aged couple who had spent their vacation in the park and were now going home. They both got out and started clearing all their stuff from the back seat so we had a place to sit. Our destination was just 4 miles up the road, Elkwallow Wayside. Driving in that car was an amazing experience. One who is walking gets a new perspective on the vastness of the country. Vehicles are such amazing technology.

The rationale for Elkwallow was that we could take some time to have a proper lunch, and I could buy a proper Ace bandage while my muscle rested. We sat on the picnic table when a pickup truck stopped by us and suggested we turn around. From the woods emerged these bears pictured to the left. The mama was followed by 2 spunky cubs and 1 shy one who held back, unsure what to do. The crowd, however, knew what to do. They ran in between the bears cutting the mama from the third cub. All the hikers gathered in a group behind the mob shaking their head, waiting to see what a real bear maulin' looked like. A thru-hiker in the group decided to start making noise in order to drive the bears back into the woods. This worked and the crowd dispersed. He was pretty much a hero, but the onlookers didn't appreciate this at the time.

We spent 2 hours at lunch and my leg felt quite good, but then after only a few steps, I could feel the twinge of pain returning with each step. We had to make a hard decision. We went to the road, Hannah hitch hiked, and I hid in the woods. After about 10 minutes, a car pulled over, and I descended the hill.
"I knew there was a boy in the bushes. You had a look on your face, I could tell a mile away!" said Jessica, the girl who picked us up. Jessica was heading out of the park, hitting Route 66. She was on a little adventure herself. After realizing that no one in her family was going to be able to visit her this summer, she decided to drive around the country visiting all of them. She took us a few miles out of the park where we tried to find the Scottish Inn as recommended by Jonesy. After stopping at a gas station for directions, Jessica dropped us at the Inn and drove off on her adventure. We checked in, Shenandoah National Park behind us.