9/27, 28 Bye Shenandoah

Not much to say about the 27th... it was a sunday. I left in the morning as the private school kids were doing some excercises and looking for their pancake mix. Hiked until i got to a campground store and bought some food to supplement my lunch. all healthy stuff: ice cream, chips, oreos, and soda. It was a nice day, cool and blustery. When i got to the shelter there was a guy there who had hiked the trail last year, and he was great to talk to. He even made a roaring fire. There was one problem though, a rat at the shelter. It ran around all night making noise and when i woke up in the morning he had stolen my had and taken it to some back corner. A pack rat, but fortunately he left my pack alone. I really did not have much food left for him to take anyway.
So, today.... I hiked out of shenandoah national park. as soon as i got out the trail developed into "crappy trail". Pointless hills and it seemed like to get somewhere you had to go every direction except directly there. It was frustrating, and to make matters worse, right before i got to the road where i was finishing the day there was a downpour and a thunderstorm. Needless to say, i am glad to be in town and staying at a bed and breakfast. Tonight i will dine at an all you can eat chinese buffet, and then have ice cream. Tomorrow i will eat breakfast and lunch in town and then hike a long 5 miles to the first shelter. Colin is very close to me i have found out. I will go slow until he catches up...

9/26 wild life

today i ran into a deer.  they have no fear of people and do not move.  the bear count went from zero to three.  no dangerous encounters they just ran away.  i walked through an area with a coyote problem and I saw one rum by.  wild cold rain all day.  when I finally got to the shelter there were tons of kids.  a boy scout troop and a private adventure school for wild kids.  the crazy kids are sharing the shelter with me and they fed me burritos.  hope they aren't up too late.          The kids were great and their leaders did a great job with them.  As it turns out they go back on the trail at the end of their semester to springer mountain in GA.  it is right about the time when i will be there too!!  hope to see them there.

 

also, i just wish I had a way of recording my thoughts throughout the day.  they would be disturbing and entertaining.      24 today 20 tomorrow, can't wait till town...

 - Taken at 8:17 PM on September 26, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/25 180 day

first to explain the title.  it was 89 degrees and sunny yesterday and today it was rainy and barely 50.   also i started the day in a bad mood, hating every step.  i swore louder than i have ever yelled before.  then i met a section hiker who remided me, it is about the journey not the destimation.  he also reminded me the was a restaurant up ahead.  I ate a nice lunch and built a fire in their fireplace and calmed.  the rain stopped and the afternoon was wonderful.  I even saw a horse named chris.  there were some good views too.   unfortunately valley teachers will not be joining me tomorrow, but I will try to blog descriptively enough that they will feel like they were.  its cold now.  it is sleeping bag time.

 - Taken at 6:10 PM on September 25, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

view 1,2,3

autumn begins



 - Taken at 1:16 PM on September 25, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

view 2

autumn begins


 - Taken at 1:15 PM on September 25, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

view 1

autumn begins



 - Taken at 1:15 PM on September 25, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/24 connected

I walked 23 miles today and felt a lot better.  still a little mucousy but more energy.  stopped for a burger and shake at the wayside.  more views than expected.  here at shelter with a "bear problem".  talking philosophically with a guy.  more miles tomorrow.

 - Taken at 7:35 PM on September 24, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/23 aracniphobia

there were gunshots at the beginning of the day yesterday passing by mount weather.  today there were the spider webs.  I walked through literally hundreds of them.  it was unbelievable.  hopefully tomorrow there are some other hikers on the trail so I can avoid some of the webs.  this shelter is pretty nice and Iknow there are no mice because I saw the resident snake.  I heard from the ladies last night that the mice get pretty bad in the south, so maybe I will take him with me.  into shenandoah national park to a real wayside tomorrow.  this one is just a shelter apparently.  now it is time for bed for me and the british section hiker here with me.  he ran marathons to until he got his hip replaced last year.

 - Taken at 6:30 PM on September 23, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

no mouse problem in this shelter

sticking that hand in now?    

he was not venomous. i checked

 - Taken at 3:49 PM on September 23, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

an innocent corner

would you stick your hand in there?


 - Taken at 3:49 PM on September 23, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/22 nova break over

I miss all of my nova friends already.  I forgot how nice and fun everyone was.  I will have to visit again.  nathan dropped me off at rt 7 today.  I felt bad because we saw 2 accidents that were going to slow his return to leesburg.  on sunday I got a cold somehow and it really slowed me down today.  only 19 when I wanted 23.  crammed in the shelter here with some nice old ladies who gave me their leftovers.  using a bear pole for the first time. hope it works.  I am going to find out what a wayside is tomorrow in shenandoah park.  early to bed at last.  I need the rest.

 - Taken at 7:27 PM on September 22, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

scooter

i don't know what happened to this photo, but it is at killer's sister's in richmond.  i think i am going to buy the scooter and take it across the country when i am done hiking.  I could trade her my car for that hog, straight up....


 - Taken at 6:29 PM on September 19, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

ode to washington

i think he would have liked this one more

 - Taken at 12:08 PM on September 16, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

real washingotn monument

not as big, but it existed first


 - Taken at 12:07 PM on September 16, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/17 and on in LOCO

There are some technical difficulties at the moment, so the pictures will have to come later. As you can guess, i am in virginia right now. The land where i spent the last three years of my life. I arrived on thursday. It was a rainy day and i was glad to only have to do 6 miles until my buddy nathan picked me up in harpers ferry. It was fun to go to cross country practice and meet all of the new runner, after getting cleaned up of course.

Friday i had the pleasure of talking to the kids in Mr Sheppard's outdoor education class. They were surprisingly attentive, and even a block schedule class was not enough time to answer all of their questions. Then i got to sit in on a science department meeting; not much has changed. Luckily there was a teacher get together after school and i got to say hi to almost every teacher i wanted to see. I hope i did not miss anyone. If i did, sorry, i will pass by again when i finish. After that was a traditional trip to the movies with me and Nathan and another buddy, Bailey. We saw extract, which was funny, but i would not buy it on dvd. That should be a great description for those that know me.

Saturday, i did not know what i was thinking. I decided to run a race, a 10k. It was pretty painful, but i did get third and stayed under 37 minutes. Not bad for 3 months of no running. The rest of the day i accompanied nathan to his sister's birthday party in richmond; we manned the grill. I hope i can have a party that cool when i turn 30.

Sunday, football all day with NFL sunday ticket at bailey's house. I did not move my butt for 9 hours. It was great.

Monday, nathan hiked with me 20 miles from harper's ferry to snickers gap (rt 7). He said "you hike a pretty good pace." The hike brought back memories of when fritz and i did the same hike with only 20 oz of water on a hot hot day.

Tomorrow i am out on my own again, until the weekend when two teachers are going to hike with me no matter where i am.

It seems like this will be over before i know it. I better not have any regrets...

9/16 almost va

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: christopher.sheaffer@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:35:33 +0100
Subject: 9/16 almost va
To: christopher.sheaffer@gmail.com

I was dropped off this morning in thurmont md. it was supposed to
rain, so I told my self I would hike until it did. I was not on a
time crunch or anything, but it did not rain and I just kept going. I
would have made it to harper's ferry; however I could not get hold of
someone to pick me up so I stayed put at this shelter 6 miles away.
glad I did too... I met some funny guys on a college reunion trip and
a southbouder named cargo pockets. I have seen his entries and he
apparently has his family following him in a van as a support crew.
also I saw several baby deer and some goat just wandering along the
trail in the woods. meeting killer in the morning on the trail. I
hope he makes in further than shawn did.

- Taken at 7:23 PM on September 16, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

llbeans

thanks car and small pack for all you have don for me

 - Taken at 4:52 PM on September 15, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/15 last slack

it has been a week of trail by day, home by night. oh yeah, and no big pack. tomorrow that will all change...
Today was a nice day. i crossed in to maryland, although i don't know exactly when. I am not sure then the signs started sucking, but it seems like nothing is marked well except for the signs on the roads telling drivers where they can run over hikers.
I would like to thank my dad, his friend sam, my grandpa, and my girlfriend's dad for helping me out this past week. I would also like to thank my nice llbean edition car and my good old llbean backpack. They are in this picture...
Soon i will get to visit my friends in virginia. It is supposed to rain though : (

picture....

a little late is better than never.
- proof that adam survived a day of hiking with me.
that is duncannon in the background

halfway ice cream

i know it is really 3/4 of a gallon, i imagined the big G in my head to do the math.

 - Taken at 5:07 PM on September 14, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

halfway sign

they really spared no expense on this one. 

 - Taken at 10:31 AM on September 14, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/14 half way for real

some old guys were comming out of pine grove furnace when i went by this morning. There were 6 of them and they had just stayed at the hostel there. When i get that old i sure hope that i can find the time to go out and do some exciting stuff like hiking on the trail. Other than that i did not see to many people. The trail was pretty nice and the shelters looked really nice too. I stopped to use the privy at one and i even kept the door open. The halfway point was on my hike too. You can see the very exciting sign in the picture.
When i finished, on my drive back i bought some ice cream to celebrate the halfway because yesterday was a bust. I got two 1.5 quart containers of ice cream. I know that is more than a half gallon, but it was cheaper than buying 4 pints. i ate one of them and then got a headache, so i will save the other for later. I could have had more, but i really wanted to be able to eat some delicious looking spaghetti for dinner.

9/13 "half gallon" challenge

a b-e-a-utiful day for hiking today. there was a looong flat section through the cumberland valley farmlands. I rounded up a few cattle in the fields and and looked for some sweet corn along the way. Then i went by Lincoln speedway. I could not see it, but roar of the sprint cars and the classic voice of the announcer on the loudspeaker made it pretty clear what was going on.
The halfway point was still 7 miles away at the end of the day, however My family and their friends wanted to see me attempt the half gallon challenge and they have to work tomorrow, so they drove me to the pine grove furnace store where it is commonly attempted. (don't ask me why they all wanted to watch me stuff my face with ice cream)
There was one problem when we got there.... they were sold out of half gallons!!! I think my mom was more upset about it than i was. So i got a cone of moose tracks and a soda then we went out to eat. I did finish everyone's leftovers and i think that it was a suitable substitute for ice cream. Don't worry, i will try the challenge on my own and let you know how it works out.
For now i am just watching some football. Real halfway tomorrow.

9/12 black ford

My buddy adam from highschool decided to make the trip from philly to join me for the hike today. I made it a little shorter for him. It was pretty wet out there and there were some dangerously slippery rocks. Luckily he survived it. It was nice to not have to simply hum the same song over and over again in my head. We talked about lots of stuff and i can't really remember much of it, but i know it was a few reasonably interesting topics. At the halfway point we stopped for a pizza pie in duncannon. A small pizza was just enough to not have to worry about waddling the rest of the way in the afternoon. After 18 total miles we were done, it didn't take us too long either. Another night of relaxing on the couch followed. It will be tough to go back to sleeping on the ground... someday.

9/10, 11

ok, so you would think that since i have been spending my evenings at home that i would have plenty of time to type things up in my nice little blog. You would be right, but what you have not considered is that i am lazy. I enjoy sitting around doing nothing, and i have also been sucked in by the tv. (mostly thanks to football)

so, i think i left off on thursday. I did a cool 25.3 miles starting a little east of fort indiantown gap. While i was walking close to the fort there were some jets flying overhead. They must have been doing some maneuvering practice because they were low and loud for at least an hour of my hike. There was supposed to be some rain, but it stayed to the south and it was perfect weather where i was, and to make things even better the trail was pretty nice terrain-wise. I had some lunch at peter's mountain shelter, it was the nicest shelter i have seen on the trail thus far. I should have taken a picture, it had 2 floors and an covered porch with a picnic table. Thought about staying the night, but a nice bed is still better, so i hiked out and drove home. Also, i got to watch the steelers game on an HD tv. They cut it close and made me stay up late but won it in they end.

on friday it rained, a lot. I was glad that i wussed out and stayed home. The day was used to finish up the legal stuff with my car, transferring it into my name and registering it with my vanity juniata college license plate. thats it. i watched a movie i rented from blockbuster and ate and sat. The gut growing. I have lost all defined abs and added some volume to the love handles.

9/9/09 all nine day

I was done hiking today pretty early, before 10. In the nine hour. I only did 13 miles and there was a nice flat smooth section to do some jogging. A good bit of it was still rocky and annoying though, and a turtle got in my way at one point. If i went any further, it would have been difficult to do the car drop off around Fort Indiantown Gap. SO tomorrow i am hoping to get close to duncannon by doing 25, but it is supposed to rain. Figures.
I had a rough day still when i got back home. I had to go to the DMV to get a new License. That place is no picnic. After lots of waiting, i got a nice ID with a picture of me and my gross looking beard.
After a short nap in the afternoon, i had some dinner with 2.3 people. My cousin, her husband and a growing fetus. Nothing like some Mack's ice cream in a pretzel cone. Then i had to pick up some maple doughnuts for tomorrow morning.
after a dip in the hot tub to sooth my aching feet and knees, i need to get some sleep.
talk to you tomorrow night.

some view

it is the best i could do today.

 - Taken at 8:23 AM on September 07, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/6,7,8 the road home

Got moving bright and early to make it the 25 miles to hawk mountain rd. I was actually walking before the sun came up for a bit, hoping to see the sunrise at the top of the ridge, but the top was not looking the right direction. Just my luck. As i was walking i saw lots of people. It was memorial day weekend. Some guy was on a lookout called bake oven knob doing an official raptor count. I know that they were birds that he was looking for, but could not help humming the Jurassic park theme to myself for the rest of the day. i was looking around every time i heard a chipmunk scurrying through the leaves. I heard some people saying that they saw some other people hiking south, i caught one of them, but i am surprized it did not happen sooner because he was carrying a 60 pound pack at least. he was a crazy old man with no front teeth, definitely the weirdest i have met on the trail yet. I will just leave it at that. It was a cool shelter, in the barn of a house owned by the Parks Service. I could have ordered pizza, but i had to at least make my pack a little lighter.

I made sure i left really early in the morning to avoid talking to that guy anymore. it was 15 miles to Port Clinton where i was going to meet up with kristen's dad. On the hike i rehiked some of the trail that i had walked on so many years ago in boy scouts. Saw the pinnacle and some amish people enjoying the view. I could even see the old blue mountain camp ground from up there, right next to the big boulder field.
One lady i talked to on the trail had no idea how she had gotten to where she was or how to get back to her car. I tried to help her but may have pointed her in the wrong direction. A little later i saw a couple hoping to make it to the pinacle. They had hiked 3 miles in 2 hours and i did not have the heart to tell them that it was a 20 mile round trip from where they started and that they would never make it.
When i made to port clinton kristen's dad was right there to take me to gigantic cabela's and then home to see my family for memorial day. It was not exactly a relaxing evening, but it was a little bit fun.

TOday i began the ritual that i will be practicing for the next week. I am hiking on the trail, but also sleeping at home. Here is how it works... i pick out a place to finish, and then my dad and i both drive there. i leave my car and then my dad drives me to where i left off the day before. A complicated system, but it allows for maximum relaxation while still helping me move along the trail.
Up and at it early again tomorrow, then i have to stop by the dmv and get a PA license. Just imagine the picture.

9/5 pa slack

continental breakfast is one of the greatest things ever invented in my opinion.  I had everything you can imagine.  there sometimes is the problem of closing the waist strap in on my pack after eating so much, but not today.  my dad drove my pack to palmerton and I just took some food and water for 20 miles.  it was a cool hike down into lehigh gap over the old zinc mines.  the landscape was almost barren, see the pictures.  we had lunch and watched some college football.  navy should have beaten ohio state.  then there was ice cream for dessert.  I had to finish my dads for him.  when I was dropped off at the trail I was so full that I could only make it a mile to the first shelter and I could not eat dinner.  instead it is early to bed, early to rise for me.  also thanks to the guys that just walked by for the yeingling.  z-time at 6:30

check that, some other guys comming down the mountain talked to me for a good hour on their way down.  they offered me some beef jerky but i would have had to walk down to their car to get it, and you already heard all about how full i am.


 - Taken at 5:52 PM on September 05, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

pollution

a little too much zinc smelting does this to a mountain

 - Taken at 12:43 PM on September 05, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/4 father farther

the PA craziness begins, not even more than a mile into the state. today my dad stopped by to hike with me. his friend/coworker drove us to drop off the car in wind gap and we hiked to it. we hiked further than last time he was with me, on rockier terrain, but it was all flat or down hill. He still has a little work to do to make it more than a day or so, but progress is being made. My shoes are falling apart a little bit so when we got back to the hotel i glued them and e-mailed the company with hopes of getting a free pair. then for dinner... my dad's friend took us to this buffet, probably the best one i have ever been to, especially if you include the desserts. Thats right, it was pluralized on purpose. Then a guinness at an irish pub in stroudsburg and now bed. tomorrow will be a nice slack pack to the next town where i will stay in the municipal building basement. hopefully i can catch a good football game at the bar.
then i will be doing some jogging on the trail and driving home at night. it should be fun, i miss being able to run, and my back could use the rest.

gratuitious self photo

for anyone that is trying to imagine what i look like now...


 - Taken at 10:18 AM on September 02, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

high point memorial

veteran's memorial leaving unionville. 



 - Taken at 10:18 AM on September 02, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

9/1, 2, 3 missed days

first of all I had a great zero day at the outhouse.  I sat on my ass all day. also I heard dick tell the story of why he started entertaining hikers.  long story short, partially to honor his wife who died of ms and partially because he thinks it is the way people should be.  I agree totally, why can't people just help one another?  he summed up what he wanted to do by showing a picture of a pebble landing in a flat lake.  he was the pebble.  it was tough to leave, but when I did I encountered some more orientation groups.  this time from u penn.  they were at every site for 25 miles.  last night one of the kids just could not stop asking me things then bragging about himself.  today I made it past a band camp in the morning, a hawk watching club in the afternoon, and numerous family day hikes to PA.  delaware water gap.  there is an awesome bakery with pot pie and half price old pies.  it was a good diner.  I am sleeping at another church hostel with a veteran who may or may not have a gun on him at all times.  he is cool though, he bought me a beer and is scattering his friends ashes tomorrow on the trail.  and putting up a plaque.    dad is hiking 15 with me tomorrow.  will he make it?  I don't know...

 - Taken at 9:16 PM on September 03, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu

in the book

some faces to the names.  taken in unionville

me, tiger (top right), wanderlust (bottom right)   



 - Taken at 6:24 PM on September 01, 2009 - uploaded by ShoZu