One of my Thru-hiking buddies, BooBoo, recently finished a hike of the Pacific Crest Trail with her beau, D-Wreck.
Well, BooBoo calls me up to say she's finally moved to the good 'ol Dominion. Having naught but 3 moderately-sized boxes 'o hiker swag and a sleeping bag to her name, the little girlie was bored outta her mind. So, we decided to attempt one of our most-favoritest things: the Four-State Challenge.
So, I pick Momma Bear up in Charlottesville (about 2 hours South of my Northern VA home), and drive back to my pad. We hang out at IHOP, swapping recent horror/war stories with one another. Gotta say, bein' off the Trail for a year... stories of my exploits kinda' suck as-of-late.
Whereas BooBoo regaled me with stories of horses plummeting off-Trail to their deaths, driving cross-State lines in a hot car, and skinning all the flesh offa her ass whilst sliding down an icy hill... all I had were some near-death encounters with frisky primates, shady Jaipurian jewelry dealers, and tasty tidbits of work-related co-worker drama.
The kid thinks BooBoo wins this round.
So, BooBoo crashed at my place. Stayed in while I went to work that Friday. My home is almost as technologically devoid as her own. I'm somehow able to one-up her with my infrequently-working desktop computer.
When I was finally able to free myself from the office, I rushed home and got my stuff ready for our hike. BooBoo was yellin' at me the entire time that I was, "moving like an old woman." She's a sweetheart.
We picked up some hiker food (electrolytes, protein, and carbohydrates), and headed out to Harpers Ferry, West Vagina. Parked my car, and awaited our ride up North, to PenMar State Park. Finally got the the Park around 9:30. Enough time find the Trail head, park out scrawny butts in a gazebo overlooking the town below, and pretend to sleep for a few hours.
My alarm set for 11:45p.m., we began to dress (I'd done the whole Trail bum thing of usin' me kilt as a blanket!) and grabbed a quick nosh of bananas.
The sun didn't really come up that day: we were clouded in 'til mid-afternoon. When light did begin to appear, if was through clouds. We were makin' good time, despite a few ocassional boinks here-and-there from yours truly. Having not slept in well-over a day, I was physically exhausted goin' into the hike.
We hit Blackrocks at 7:30a.m. 17 miles into our 44-mile day. Would've been an ideal place to see sunrise... if there'd been a sun that mornin'.
By 10:00 we hit a shelter (forgive me, cannot remember the name) a mere 0.1 off-Trail. Several small groups were camping from the night before. We asked 'em how far they were goin'. The lot of 'em indicated they were, "just out for the weekend." When they inquired in-kind, my sinister asshole response was, "we're just out for a day hike." At 22 miles, we were halfway through our day, while they were still rousing from their sleeping bags.
We hit the Washington Monument (not the one on the D.C. Mall) before noon.
War Correspondents Memorial by 2:00.
It was 4:30 by the time we'd managed to hit the C&O towpath. From there, a mere 3 miles hump over leveled-grade gravel, stuck between the Potomac and swamplands to the heart of Harpers Ferry.
This marked the first time I wore my Polar heart rate monitor on a Four-State... apparently the model of HRM I've got tops out at 9,999 calories/session. Go fig're. No telling how many calories I burned during the course of our 18-hour hike. Alls I know is we tried our damnest to make up for it with an orgy of Chik-fil-a and Edy's Vanilla Bean (we each consumed a carton of icecream post-hike).
Midnight view from PenMar State Park. First picture of the day, moments before our hike.
Tengu at Blackrock Cliffs. 7:30am. Retarded
'gu and BooBoo. Self-photograph (forgive the fuzziness), somewhere North of Washington Monument.
What? I like amphibians. The day also netted a yellow box turtle, several field mice running along vines, a coupla' day hikers (ha!), and more deer than I could count.
Got some lovely stress fractures on my feet. A nice lil "fuck you" from the Trail. But, every once-and-a-while we need to hurt ourselves just a wee bit. Remember what it's like to feel broken and beaten.
'twas fun
-'gu
Well, BooBoo calls me up to say she's finally moved to the good 'ol Dominion. Having naught but 3 moderately-sized boxes 'o hiker swag and a sleeping bag to her name, the little girlie was bored outta her mind. So, we decided to attempt one of our most-favoritest things: the Four-State Challenge.
So, I pick Momma Bear up in Charlottesville (about 2 hours South of my Northern VA home), and drive back to my pad. We hang out at IHOP, swapping recent horror/war stories with one another. Gotta say, bein' off the Trail for a year... stories of my exploits kinda' suck as-of-late.
Whereas BooBoo regaled me with stories of horses plummeting off-Trail to their deaths, driving cross-State lines in a hot car, and skinning all the flesh offa her ass whilst sliding down an icy hill... all I had were some near-death encounters with frisky primates, shady Jaipurian jewelry dealers, and tasty tidbits of work-related co-worker drama.
The kid thinks BooBoo wins this round.
So, BooBoo crashed at my place. Stayed in while I went to work that Friday. My home is almost as technologically devoid as her own. I'm somehow able to one-up her with my infrequently-working desktop computer.
When I was finally able to free myself from the office, I rushed home and got my stuff ready for our hike. BooBoo was yellin' at me the entire time that I was, "moving like an old woman." She's a sweetheart.
We picked up some hiker food (electrolytes, protein, and carbohydrates), and headed out to Harpers Ferry, West Vagina. Parked my car, and awaited our ride up North, to PenMar State Park. Finally got the the Park around 9:30. Enough time find the Trail head, park out scrawny butts in a gazebo overlooking the town below, and pretend to sleep for a few hours.
My alarm set for 11:45p.m., we began to dress (I'd done the whole Trail bum thing of usin' me kilt as a blanket!) and grabbed a quick nosh of bananas.
The sun didn't really come up that day: we were clouded in 'til mid-afternoon. When light did begin to appear, if was through clouds. We were makin' good time, despite a few ocassional boinks here-and-there from yours truly. Having not slept in well-over a day, I was physically exhausted goin' into the hike.
We hit Blackrocks at 7:30a.m. 17 miles into our 44-mile day. Would've been an ideal place to see sunrise... if there'd been a sun that mornin'.
By 10:00 we hit a shelter (forgive me, cannot remember the name) a mere 0.1 off-Trail. Several small groups were camping from the night before. We asked 'em how far they were goin'. The lot of 'em indicated they were, "just out for the weekend." When they inquired in-kind, my sinister asshole response was, "we're just out for a day hike." At 22 miles, we were halfway through our day, while they were still rousing from their sleeping bags.
We hit the Washington Monument (not the one on the D.C. Mall) before noon.
War Correspondents Memorial by 2:00.
It was 4:30 by the time we'd managed to hit the C&O towpath. From there, a mere 3 miles hump over leveled-grade gravel, stuck between the Potomac and swamplands to the heart of Harpers Ferry.
This marked the first time I wore my Polar heart rate monitor on a Four-State... apparently the model of HRM I've got tops out at 9,999 calories/session. Go fig're. No telling how many calories I burned during the course of our 18-hour hike. Alls I know is we tried our damnest to make up for it with an orgy of Chik-fil-a and Edy's Vanilla Bean (we each consumed a carton of icecream post-hike).
Midnight view from PenMar State Park. First picture of the day, moments before our hike.
Tengu at Blackrock Cliffs. 7:30am. Retarded
'gu and BooBoo. Self-photograph (forgive the fuzziness), somewhere North of Washington Monument.
What? I like amphibians. The day also netted a yellow box turtle, several field mice running along vines, a coupla' day hikers (ha!), and more deer than I could count.
Got some lovely stress fractures on my feet. A nice lil "fuck you" from the Trail. But, every once-and-a-while we need to hurt ourselves just a wee bit. Remember what it's like to feel broken and beaten.
'twas fun
-'gu
giggles:
wow I am tired just reading that