Wednesday, September 5 -- The Rollercoaster!

Our day began with a delicious breakfast that offered scrambled eggs made with eggs from the Center's own chickens and potatoes from their veggie garden.  For lunch I packed a rolled sandwich with salami, humus, cheese, and veggies -- plus a brownie, granola bar, and fruit.  I knew that I would need the energy for today's hike!

This hike, our Virginia adventure, was definitely the challenge of the week.  The designation as part of the Rollercoaster section of the AT is definitely appropriate.  We only hiked for 7 miles, but the multiple steep ups and downs totaled about 1400 feet of vertical gain and an equal amount of vertical descent.  Plus switchbacks don't seem popular in the East, so most sections seemed straight up or down.

Looking out across the Shenandoah Valley from Bears Den Rocks, about 1/2 mile into the hike. 

Rock hopping across one of the creeks.

With temperatures in the 80's and extremely high humidity, we all went through a lot of water.  With such high humidity, one's perspiration doesn't evaporate well, and therefore the body loses one of its primary sources of cooling.  Because of the difficult hiking, we got very spread out today, and it was pretty late by the time we all got to the waiting vans.  The kitchen staff was great and kept our excellent meatloaf dinner hot and ready for us when we finally got back to the conference center about 7:00.

Happy to finish the hike!

The program does an excellent job of giving us an understanding of the AT "culture" -- the tradition of taking trail names when one is a thru-hiker, the shelters along the trail, the opportunity to talk to thru-hikers who acted as our trail guides, visits to the AT Museum and later the AT Conservancy headquarters in Harper's Ferry.  As part of today's hike, we had a tour of the privately run Bears Den Hostel.  For about $12, a hiker can get a clean bunk, an inside bathroom and hot shower, the use of a fully equipped kitchen, and comfy couches for relaxing.  Perhaps just as important, there is a small store area that sells typical backpacking food such as Lipton Noodle mixes, plus pizza and Ben & Jerry's ice cream (evidently the most popular food for AT hikers).

The shelter

Bunk room

 For the evening's entertainment, we had the option of watching a National Geographic DVD about the AT.  However, most of us opted for an early bedtime.  One more day of hiking!