| Mile | 988.1 |
| Miles Since Last Update | 15.2 |
| Day | 81 |
Just 15.2 today, wasn’t able to get out of Front Royal until almost 1030 so a late start for sure. Schedule has me at Rod hollow today, which would have been another 8 and had me getting in past 9pm, and with all the rain today and some pretty slippery rocks, seemed like a bad idea. Can’t really dispersed camp anywhere between here and there either because the next several miles are in a state park so it is “illegal”. Feeling really solid today tho.
Once I committed to whiskey hollow at 15.2 I decided to just make today fairly chill. Sat on a bunch of cool rocks, looked at some critters, no real views today however. This stretch is very “green tunnel”.
Van Gogh was already at the shelter when I arrived, he zeroed at a hostel right near the trail head. Caveman and mt Chicken showed up a few hours later but I was already crawling into my hammock by then.
Going to try to get a real early start tomorrow. Harper’s is less than 40 miles, so should be easily doable within 2 days, but I have to go through the rollercoaster (it is what it sounds like). If I’d pushed today I could probably clear the rollercoaster in a single day and have a straight shot to Harper’s but now that I have to do 8 miles before I start it I might end up stopping for the night somewhere in the middle of it. Maybe that will make it easier, I dunno. People talk really weird about it, like some people legitimately seem to think it is difficult but many others talk about how hard it is with a strong sense of irony.