Virginia blues be damned — Adventures With Samson-The-Bear

On 5/4 I did 16.8 miles to Four Pines Hostel. On 5/5 I did 18.8 miles to just north of Lamberts meadow. On 5/6 I did 11.9 miles to Fulhart Knob after resupplying in Daleville, VA. On 5/7 I did 17.2 miles to Cove Mountain Shelter. On 5/8 I did 16.3 miles to Thunder Mountain. On 5/9 I did 14.6 miles to Glasgow, VA for a resupply. On 5/10 I did 15.4 miles to Pedlar River. On 5/11 I did 27 miles to priest shelter. On 5/12 I did 15.5 miles to Devils Backbone Brewery. On 5/13 I did 19.2 miles to Waynesboro,VA for a resupply. On 5/14 I took a zero in Waynesboro.

Whomever came up with the term Virginia Blues for the AT must have been half blind. The past 40 miles have been pretty epic. I hit Dragons tooth late on 4th. Dragons tooth is a stone monolith on top of Cove Mountain. Just as fun as climbing the tooth is the down climb from the mountain which at times requires the use of rebar steps bolted to the slab in order scramble down the rock face. After Cove Mountain I headed to a "hostel" down the road. It is run by a guy named Joe who just wants to provide a relaxing environment time for hikers, it was a night filled with beer, pizza, games and a lot of great music. You would actually be, surprised how many hikers carry instruments with them. I have seen guitars, banjos, trumpets, bongos, and fiddles strapped to packs. At the hostel Skip entertained us all night as he played his violin next to the bonfire. In the morning I headed out through some rolling farmland and up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob. I know I need a thesaurus because I describe a lot of things as either beautiful, cool, or amazing; but to be honest there really isn't anything I could say to describe the view from the knob, even the picture below does not do justice to how surreal the view is. Don Vino and I had lunch at the Knob and pushed on to Tinker Cliffs which is a 0.5 mile stretch along rock bluffs overlooking the valley.

When we got done with lunch at McAfee Knob we went to Cambell shelter to get water. As Don Vino went to get water, I sat down under a tree to look at my guidebook to see what was coming up next. About ten minutes passed and I heard foot steps coming back towards me so I got up and turned around expecting to see Don Vino. Much to my surprise it was something even harrier than him, it was a black bear and it was only 10 yards from me. Luckily the bear and I had the same thought "Ohhh Shit!". The bear took off running before I could even ask it's name. Unfortunately it took of running down towards the stream where Don Vino was at the time just coming back up the hill. After having run into him as well, it bounced around like pinball and ran across the front of the shelter where I was able to take a few quick pictures of it.

I have been having a lot of interesting experiences with my animal friends. I spent the night by myself on Cove Mountain. Around 11pm I heard footsteps outside of my tent. I initially thought it was a hiker coming in late, but the more I listened to it the more it sounded like a bear, in fact it sounded like multiple bears. My food was hung in a tree, but I couldn't go back to sleep knowing the bears were in my camp. I decided to get up and scare them away from my tent. So I grabbed my headlamp and my pocket knife (nothing stops a bear attack like a two inch pocket knife) and jumped out of my tent. I did not see any bears directly outside my tent, but could hear them walking around in the darkness of the night. I turned my headlamp on its brightest setting and scanned the woods. I caught two large glowing yellow eyes at about chest height (that's a big bear) 30 yards off into the woods. It was a sobering moment as I had now wished I did not get out of my tent. I was standing outside of my tent, in the dark of the night, starring at a very large outline of a bear; I did the most intimidating thing I could think of at the moment... I cursed it out in German, and what do you know it worked. The yellow eyes disappeared and I could hear it crashing down the mountain. The other bear in my camp was not as afraid of my terrible accent as the first bear. I could not see the other bear, but could hear it walking back and forth on the other side of a rhododendron grove. I started to make all sorts of noise and commotion but it did not retreat as easy as the first bear. I turned my head lamp on and off trying to scare it with light and even grabbed my cooking pot and banged it on a rock a few times but nothing I did startled the bear which was only about 15 yards away. At a loss of what to do, and not wanting to go back into my tent with a bear so close, I thought of something even worst than my German accent. I started to sing California Dreamin by the Mommas and the Papas. I didn't even get pass the third line in the song before I heard it too crashing down the other side of the mountain. Those may have been slightly non-traditional methods of scaring (or annoying) bears, but hey... it worked. The next night I spent at Thunder Mountain Shelter by myself again. It was getting dark and I had not slept well the night before so I decided to sleep inside the shelter instead of setting up my tent. I woke up at 2am feeling something run across my forehead. When I woke up I could hear mice scattering around the shelter. I thought to myself this is why I don't sleep in shelters, but tried to go back to sleep. I could hear the mice running around behind me and felt them running over me. I grabbed my water bottle and decided I was going to hit the next mouse I felt, I laid still and felt one climb up my sleeping bag, I turned on my headlamp and to my surprise saw a large rat sitting on top of me. Now I know this might comes as a surprise to some of you, but I actually have standards with what I will sleep with, and rats don't make the cut. I hit it with my water bottle which did little more than startle it. Since I was already up, I decided to night hike to Glasgow and try and get a better nights sleep in town. Since it was been warm out I have been seeing a lot more snakes. I can usually identify the snakes and if they are not venomous, I pick them up and move them off the trail. As it got lighter out coming into Glasgow, I ran across a black snake and moved it off the trail. As soon as I set it down and started to walk away I heard rattling. Now I know I hadn't slept well for the past two nights, nor had I had my morning coffee yet, but I was pretty sure I couldn't mistake a black snake for a rattle snake. I turned around to see the black snake curled up like an eastern timber rattler and saw that it had buried its tail in the leaves and was shaking it violently replicating the sound of a rattle snake. It was pretty impressive to see a black snake mimicking a rattle snake.

The Appalachian trail goes across the James river outside of Glasgow. As I was walking across the foot bridge, Beowulf approached it from the other side and met me in the middle. He told me it was an AT tradition to jump of the bridge into the James, so I had to do it. I figured it would wake me up, so in I went (it was only 25 feet high). It was a refreshing swim (and surprisingly warm) and woke me up for my hitch into Glasgow. Both Glasgow and Waynesboro, VA are extremely hiker friendly towns. Both towns set up shelters in their city parks for hikers to stay in for free when they are in town. In Glasgow the shelter had a shower with a propane heater, and in Waynesboro the shelter was next to a YMCA that allowed hikers to take free showers. It is really cool that these small towns give a lot of support to thru hikers. Not only are the towns hiker friendly in VA, the breweries are as well. Devil's backbone brewery picks up hikers off the trail and brings them to a brewpub where we are allowed to set up our tents next to the brewery and they even cook us a hikers only breakfast before throwing us back out on the trail. All of the support we get a long the way is amazing.

Four Pines Hostel is in a guys 3 bay garage on his farm (the bunks double as couches)

McAfee Knob (besides Katahdin it is the most photographed spot on the trail)

Don Vino being Don Vino, and yes he is wearing a kilt.

Sunset, Beowulf is on the far left watching the sun go down.

Apple Orchard falls is over 200 feet tall