At 4:20 am, I felt my husband touch my arm. I don't know if he was asleep or awake, but the touch was enough to wake me up. Gotta get moving! The sun will be rising soon. Friday night I had packed my mule pack with all the essential gear I thought I would need: Food, first aid kit, parachute cord, emergency rain ponchos, emergency blanket, large trash bag (for emergency shelter), water purifier, extra socks, headlamp, knife, toilet paper!, etc. Once I fill the hydration bladder with water, the pack weighs about 10 pounds. Now I just had to get dressed and prepare my body for the longest day run - body glide in all potentially chafing areas, aquaphor on the feet, shorts, tank, combat vest (after all I am the Warrior Princess!) hat or headband, knee pads, weightlifting gloves(hand protection), Injinji toe socks, shoes. I'm ready and it's 5:00am and I'm already late since it's going to take about 2 hrs to get to my starting point - Swift Gap near Elkton, VA. Finally, at 7:30am, I'm at the trail head and ready to start moving south. I meet my first through hiker of the day (those going from South to North on the 2175 mile Appalachian Trail) and he points me in the right direction. The trail begins ascending immediately, but it isn't very technical(rocky) and I'm able to start running right away. It's more of a run/power hike, run until it's too steep then power hike, trying to keep the heart rate up and the pace steady. It's cloudy, hot and muggy - feels like a storm is brewing. The most eventful thing that occurred in the first hour was the black bear that crossed my path! In the second hour, as I was descending and picking up the pace pretty good, one side of the chest strap on my back pack breaks. I tried running for a few minutes and realized that it had to be fixed somehow. So using parachute cord, and my knife, I managed to jury rig it. My husband would be proud. Back on the trail, I pick up the pace to make up for lost time. Now I'm descending down some slippery rocks and sure enough my feet go out from under me and I land on my rear end, my right arm going backward and cracking my elbow on a rock. So much for the knee pads. Well, it was just an elbow, so even if it's broken, I can still run, right? I get up and start running again, and the pain starts to lesson. However, I look over at it and there's blood running down my arm. Another unscheduled stop. Pull out the first aid kit, clean the wound, and put a bandaid on the cut. Time to start moving again. It's starting to sprinkle which feels good, because with every ridge I climb I get soaked with sweat. My mantra is - if you're hiking up hill, make sure you drink. The tops of the ridges were wonderfully breezy, but when you descended into the hollows the air became close. At about 9:30, the rain started to come down. It quickly turned into a full blown storm, with the rain coming in great sheets. I stopped, put my emergency rain poncho on, and kept moving. There was really no place to take shelter and so the only thing to do was to push on. It poured and poured. I thought to myself, "At least it's not thundering and lightening." As if on cue - boom! the first clap of thunder. I just had to laugh and keep going. The storm lasted up one ridge and down the other side, then began to slack off. I pulled the emergency poncho off, stuffed it away and kept going, sloshing through puddles of water. Soon the sun came out, and things began to dry off. There were some beautiful views on the tops of the ridges and one mile began to turn into another. At times the trail was overgrown, the underbrush encroaching on the path. At other times, the forest was mature and the path strewn with soft pine needles. I encountered two snakes along the way, a black snake that took his time crossing the trail, and a big copperhead that was curled up under a log next to the trail. At mile 17 I was near the Loft Campground. I took a quick sidetrip to the campstore and bought a Pepsi (sugar & caffeine, yes!). I tried to convince the store clerk that I was going to Waynesboro. "You'll never make it." he said - 26 more miles. At that point I probably had 8hrs of daylight left. "Sure I will," I insisted. Then he said, "Even in the army they give you 10 minutes break." So I remarked, "Well, this is my break. I'm going to drink this Pepsi and then get moving." I pushed on. At mile 24, I came out on the ledge where this picture was taken. This is the Warrior Princess in all her glory. This is also where I ran out of water. It was midafternoon and hot. I was a little concerned, but I knew that somewhere along the way there would be a shelter with a spring. It happened to be a mile away. These shelters are usually about a 1/4 mile down the side of the mountain, and the springs can be hit or miss. Luckily, this one was trickling out at a nice pace, and the water was cold and refreshing. Since I was getting the water straight from the source, I didn't treat it, just drank it up. That task done, I chatted with the through hikers who were done for the day, and then moved on. From mile 25 to 30, it seemed the uphills were getting longer and longer and the downhills shorter and shorter. At mile 31, I had to make a decision. My cellphone was running low on batteries and reception was in and out. To rendezvous with my husband who was picking me up, he had to know where I was. The mile marker sign showed a gap about 6 miles away. If I stopped there it would be a 12 hour day. With the drive home being close to 3 hrs, I thought that would probably be a good stopping place. I managed to get a signal, called him (got his voice mail) and told him the location of the pickup point and what time I would be there. I hoped he got the message because my cell phone battery was almost gone. Now that I knew how much farther I had, I tried to pick up the pace a bit. Finally, there were some longer stretches of downhill. I passed some people setting up camp along a ridge. I paused briefly at an overlook, took a few pictures and then finished my last descent and climb up to Jarmin Gap. The total mileage ended up being 36.5 miles in about 12 hours. We traveled on the parkway on our way back to get my car. An ambulance was parked at the overlook where I had just been, and it looked like they were going on the trail to rescue someone who had been injured. Then a little further down the road, a momma bear and her 3 cubs crossed the road in front of our car. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my camera out in time to take a picture. We stopped one last time to take a picture of the sunset over the mountains. The Summer Solstice Run was at its end.
For more photos go to:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026827&id=1443655108&l=53b7880f15
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