Day 66 (6/25) - Fade to Black

Day 66 - 35.7 mi/942.8 mi tot
Lewis Mtn Campground to Range View PATC Cabin

So we (Bird, Twiggzy and I) planned for this to be an easy day...looking to cover 23 miles and set ourselves up for a 25 mile day tomorrow to a hostel near Front Royal. We started the day at a reasonable pace planing to end up at a shelter around 5 or 6 pm for the evening. We had a great day with two nice and relaxing long lunch breaks, including one at Skyland Lodge (anywhere is good with a taproom) and eventually made it to a picnic area to make dinner before the final 2 miles of the day. Well, on the way to the shelter, we discussed it and found out that all three of us were feeling pretty good and would be interested in making a longer day out of it and heading all the way into Front Royal the next day.

So here was the plan...eat dinner with a nice long rest and head about 14 more miles to somewhere near Elkwallow Gap and set up camp for the night. We did about 3 miles on the actual trail then did the rest walking along Skyline Drive. Yes it was nighttime, but there was really no traffic on Skyline (the joy of a tourist-only road) and a nearly full moon. We got some really cool views from some of the overlooks and it wasn't a bad walk. It made for a very long day and some very tired feet at the end but it makes for a better day tomorrow. Definitely my longest day yet...so much for my talk about no more 30+ mile days, but it is definitely better with more people. As for night hiking, it is better with a full-ish moon and also not bad with multiple people. Unknown how often I will cover miles at night, but we will see as I keep moving forward.

I will be into NoVA Monday night and probably all day on Tuesday so drop me an email or a comment on the blog if you want to meet up somewhere. I don't plan on doing a lot of traveling around the area, so I might post a possible meet-up location once I figure it out.

Drifting further everyday...getting lost within myself

- Snowfox