| Mile | 972.9 |
| Miles Since Last Update | 13.4 |
| Day | 79 |
Kinda slept like crap last night. Not totally sure why but it is kind of crazy how many planes I can hear in this area, I assume going to Dulles.
Was a pretty smooth 13 miles. Sad to be out of Shenandoah honestly, the trail definitely starts to degrade the instant you are out of the park boundaries, and as much as I am looking forward to going thru Harper’s, hitting 1k miles, and being at the halfway point, I know PA is getting close which is starting to psych me out hard.
One of my trekking poles broke about a mile after leaving Shenandoah. Nothing catastrophic but one of the pieces that keeps it from collapsing fell apart. Front Royal has an outfitter so I should be fine but as a testament to how much the poles help I ate shit about 800 feet after in a parking lot in front of a bunch of day hikers.
Got into Front Royal via Uber and am feeling pretty good about zeroing here. Tomorrow is supposed to be hot, I have some minor blisters (probably from speeding down the gnarly Mary’s Rock descent) that could use some healing, and I need to get new poles and whatnot. Might be eating some rain thru the rollercoaster but I’d prefer that over heat.
Highly recommend Shenandoah tho and I would 100% hike it again. Way better than the hell that was the smokies.
Tomorrow is at least 15 miles I think but now that I’m back in non-park territory I have a lot more freedom to just plop down wherever. My goal is Harper’s in 3 days tops.