Shenandoah

I am now in Front Royal, VA 955 miles from Springer Mountain and only about 45 miles to the border with West Virginia. Right now over half of the hike has been in Virginia and in three more days of hiking I will finally get in to a new state. Then West Virginia is 9 miles and Maryland is 40. So we are only about a week away from the Mason-Dixon line and then another 2-3 days to the official half way point. It feels like we are finally starting to make progess again. Coming down from the Shenandoahs we dropped below 2,000 feet and we do not get back above that until Vermont. That does not mean it is flat, just not as high and not as cold. Which is good since I sent my winter sleeping bag home from Montebello, and I have only been using my silk liner and a feece blanket. I have been warm enough, but that has been while wearing everything I still have, including my tent. Although I imagine that very soon I will be longing for the old nights again.
The last 107 miles from Waynesboro was mostly in Shenandoah National Park. This is one of the better maintained sections of trail. The grade is nice and easy and relatively free of rocks. Great for making big miles. We did over 80 miles in four days, and then realized we needed to slow done a bit, so we cruised into town with a 14 and a 13 mile day. Tomorrow we are taking a well deserved rest before I meet up with my parents on Saturday. They will be in DC for the weekend and will make the hour drive to come out and meet with me and take me to breakfast. Then on to Harper's Ferry and the ATC headquarters.
Shenandoah was frustrating for a number of reasons. We managed to hike through the park over Memorial Day weekend. This meant a huge number of day hikers and weekend backpackers. So the trails and shelters were very crowded. Also Skyline Drive which goess through the park is the route of the old AT. When the Drive was put in the trail was moved to go over all of the ridges. However most of the summits are wooded so most of the view points are on the road. It is frustrating that we are now working harder to get less reward. About every two miles the trail crosses over Skyline Drive so in some ways it is hard to feel like you are in the wilderness. Half of the shelters are within Harley earshot of the Drive. Tha is not the sound I like to hear while sleeping in a shelter. Although it did drown out some of the snoring.
On the plus side there actually is a lot of wildlife in the park. Deer too numerous to count and almost tame. I was within 10 feet of several. Everyone I was hiking with, me included, saw black bears. I saw two clubs that skedaddled when they saw me. I spent a minute or two looking for the mom, and when I did not see her, I kept going. Along the road there are several restaurants and waysides and lodges. The waysides have great black berry milkshakes, so after each time I saw a black bear, I atea blackberry milkshake. I thought that it was the only appropiate thing to do.
Since Trail Days I had been talking to Peacock about the Wendy's Value Menu Challenge. Eat everything on the value menu in one sitting and keep it down. Since there is a Wendy's here, after showering that is where we went. Not everything on the value menu is 99 cents, so we capped it at everything under $1.30. This gave us a crispy chicken sandwhich, 5 crisy chicken nuggets, a Jr bacon cheeseburger, a Jr deluxe cheeseburger, a small frosty, small fountain drink, small fries, small chilli, baked potatoe with sour cream and chives, side salad, side caesar salad, a cup of mandarin oranges and just about 3,000 calories for $14.26. It took us a while, but we both finished and we are nowing digesting and thinking about not having dinner.