Mile 972

Yesterday (the day after mother’s day) I hitched from the trail into Front Royal, Virginia, where I’m taking today off to rest my feet and legs. I’m not sure why, but with almost half of this hike completed it is easily the best hiking experience I’ve had to date. As with each of my long hikes there have been a dark day or two of bad weather, worries about various aches and pains developing into chronic problems and so on, but those moments aside the hiking itself has been tremendous and I feel physically and mentally as good as I’ve ever felt on a hike.

I’ve been keeping a steady pace of long days and that has put me out in front of the crowds of northbound hikers, to the point where it almost feels like a southbound hike because I’m seeing very few hikers compared to the first weeks where it was difficult to even find tent sites due to the crowds. Not surprisingly, this hike has completely exceeded my expectations and though I’m not hiking with anyone consistently I’ve met a lot of great people along the way and assume I’ll see them again at some point, as happens frequently on long hikes when you slow down or stop for a few days for whatever reason. I’ve never thought of myself as a faster hiker before but thus far I’ve been outpacing nearly everyone I’ve met, which somewhat explains why I’ve not ended up in a consistent cohort of hikers yet.

In another few days of walking I’ll be in Harper’s Ferry, the unofficial halfway point where I’ll get my photo taken by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for the annual hiker album. The weather has turned warmer in recent days and though we’ve had a lot of recent rain, it’s much less problematic when not accompanied by cold and wind.
Just before arriving in Front Royal I completed the section through Shenandoah National Park which was both fun and interesting. After not seeing a lot of wildlife early in the hike I’ve recently made the acquaintance of a bear, many deer, a couple of large snakes, rabbits and some other creatures, most of which I managed to capture on video. Feel free to check out my YouTube channel from more details (videos 52 – 72 are new).
Lastly, I wanted to comment that in addition to meeting a number of other thru-hikers, I’ve also met a bunch of trail angels, section hikers (hikers walking a subsection of the trail) and day hikers who’ve provided me variously with rides to town and resupply, food and drinks and many other kindnesses.
I can hope for nothing better for the second half of this hike than that the momentum that’s been established continues and my body holds out as well as it has so far. With love and thoughts of springtime cheer to you all! Maxheap