Hello from the "Long Green Tunnel"! - Susquehannock Wildlife Society

It’s June 7th and I’ve hiked 708 miles. I’ve been on the trail for two months today! Since entering Virginia, I’ve found myself under pretty substantial tree cover- in the “long green tunnel”. It’s not been all bad, though. It’s been keeping me cool in the intense heat of the days and the rhododendrons, mountain laurel, and many other flowers are in full bloom, adding beautiful splashes of color all over the forests.

Since you last heard from me I’ve been through a lot: storms, animals encounters, injuries and more.

My hiking group peaked at 11 people back at Hot Springs. Since then, near Damascus a lot of us broke off for different reasons and began hiking solo or in smaller groups. Some of us have reunited, while others have not. But since then, our hiking paces have changed and I’ve found myself hiking solo a lot more. It was surprisingly strange to be “alone” on the trail considering I came here alone. Granted, most nights I still found myself surrounded by hikers at camp, many of which I have seen and met in passing. But I wasn’t with the hikers I’d gotten to know and love over the past few weeks. It did give me the opportunity to meet more people though; and it’s been a lot of fun getting to know them too.

After a week of hiking since the last town, I was pretty ready to find a place to shower and do laundry; so I headed to a hostel only 0.5 mi off the trail. Unfortunately, they were not very accommodating despite their blurb in the guide book and told me I couldn’t use their services since I was not planning on staying the night. This is not typical of hostels along the trail. Discouraged, I headed back to the trail. Now I’d gone a mile out of my way and I was even more desperate to be clean and refreshed. The next town was Pearisburg and about 11 miles away. So that was where I was headed. Unfortunately it was already late afternoon and I wouldn’t make it there before dark. I planned to get as far as I could and wait to go to town until morning in the day light since I was solo. My guide showed two springs a few miles ahead, so I decided I’d camp near one of them. I hiked and hiked but there was no water. The springs in my guide were dry and there would be no water before town! Before long, I was out of water. I decided I’d stick to my plan and I’d have all the water I could drink in Pearisburg the next morning. I ate a dry dinner and man was I thirsty after all the hiking in the heat that day. I knew I’d be fine though; I had plenty of water earlier. I’d just have to be thirsty for a few hours and be sure to properly rehydrate as soon as possible.

This was the first night that I stealth camped solo, which may sound surprising, but there are a lot of hikers out here. I was excited to finally have a night to myself. I hung out by my tent as the sun went down behind the mountain and watched several deer browsing nearby. I was finally getting ready to go to sleep when I heard a loud huffing and breathing noise outside of my tent. I thought it was a bear because I was alone and I hadn’t seen one yet- and my food bag was sitting next to me inside my tent. But then the animal started softly barking and growling and I realized right away that it was not a bear but a coyote! Before long, there were several of them barking and howling much too close to my tent. Everyone talks about what to do if you encounter a bear, but no one has ever warned me about coyotes on the AT. They were super riled up and their barking was very loud and intense. Their yipping went on for what seemed like an eternity in “am I going to die tonight?” time. I sat in my tent with my headlamp still on just listening, and not moving a muscle. If they weren’t interested in my presence, I didn’t want to make them. After about 15 minutes they suddenly moved on and ran down the mountain. Whew! I later found out more about them and learned that they are very skittish animals and that that can be chased off with some loud noises. Good to know! I made it safely to Pearisburg the next morning where I checked into a motel, drank a lot of water, showered, and did my laundry. Ah. 🙂

Unfortunately I got a bad case of shin splints by the time I arrived in Pearisburg. I had to hobble around town to get a few errands done and realized to my great disappointment that I was going to have to rest another day and not hike. Staying in one place is really difficult to do when you’re used to spending your days hiking from one place to the next. After a full Zero day I headed back to the trail only to find that the shin splints were still very present. I could only squeeze out a painful 8.5 miles instead of the 19 I had planned. I had to take another Zero, this time in the woods, in hopes that my shin would heal quickly so I could get moving again. I can honestly say this is the most difficult thing I’ve had to face out here. It’s beyond frustrating when your body doesn’t perform with the ability that you know it can. And making the decision to not hike so you can heal is never an easy one when you know you need to keep making miles to reach your goal.

Luckily for me though, my trail friends reunited with me that day at camp! They were so helpful: they got me water so I didn’t have to walk, brought me an ice pack and pain medicine, and best of all, kept me company all day! They are the best! Thanks, guys!

Over the past two weeks we’ve had several heavy rains and a few thunderstorms. Dirty Peanut and I found ourselves hiking up a slick, muddy mountain trail as the rain pounded down on us. We had watched the dark, ominous clouds move in over the mountains in the distance and hurried to get to camp as quickly as we could. It was not fast enough though, and the thunder roared and lightning lit up the sky as we tried to stay on our feet, quickly moving up the slippery trail. While I’ve gotten used to hiking in the rain, it’s always a bit unsettling to hike in thunderstorms- especially when you’re using trekking poles!

I also have an animal update since last time!
– wild ponies
– coyotes (sound)
– marbled salamanders
– wild turkeys
– sage grouse (sound)
– lizards
– skink
Still no bear sighting. But many more snakes!