November 14, 2001
Troutdale, Virginia
Mile 1,450
Howdy folks,
I’m writing from Troutville. Virginia, which is right down the road from Roanoke. According to my friendly Data Book, I’ve drug my carcass along the Appalachian Mountain chain about 1450 miles leaving about 715 miles left to go. It feels really good to be looking at the last 1/3 of this trip. Sometimes I think about the scale of the miles in doing this little jaunt through the woods and think “Johnny Swank, what in the hell possessed you to do this thing? Do we need to talk about getting some serious help between your ears soon?”I guess it pays not to think too much and get caught in the mileage mathematics such as “At 16.73 miles per day, hey man, I’m done in X amount of weeks. Cool!”
One of the things that have been beaten into me out her~ is learning to be more patient with myself and letting the days play themselves out as they may. A sense of humor tends to help deal with some of the ridiculousness of situations that can come up. Go figure.
I still haven’t had any major problems health wise and hopefully that will continue to hold up. I could not have asked for better luck with the weather but am just waiting for the chilly cold smack down. There is a great book out written by Earl Shaefer, the first person to thru-hike the AT, called Walking With Spring. I think if I had a book, it would be more appropriately called Walking with Fall, Running from Winter! Oh well, what comes will come.
Oh yeah-I guess I should mention what the trail itself has been like through the last 290 miles while I’m at it. The leaves on the trees continued to change and fall after Harper’s Ferry until the last week or so. Overall the trail continues to be fairly moderate in grade through here. I did have the first long climb in awhile south of Waynesboro called appropriately enough, The Priest, because at the top I wanted to drop to my knees! That really was kind of a dumb joke, but I’m going to let it ride. I did have some out of the ordinary excitement going through the Shenandoah National Park. I had to miss a section in the middle of the park because it was, well, on fire. Seeing as I had failed to pack my Nomex suit for this trip I decided to just get a ride around the whole mess. From what I understand, the fire eventually took out around 23,000 acres in park. The rest of the walk through the Shenandoah’s went off with no problems though.
When I arrived in Waynesboro, I had the great fortune to myself and those around me of being able to take a shower free of charge at the YMCA. Things were starting to get a little edgy there for awhile. While in the area I met up with a few of my friends that lived nearby and had a great time catching up, playing guitars, and in general just relaxing. My sleep schedule still hasn’t recovered from that but I’ll take the memories any day.
The miles from Waynesboro had a really mellow vibe to them compared to the last time I had hiked this section. The leaves are now off the trees so I can see the ridge around me. The treadway of the path has been in excellent shape due to the hard work of the volunteers who are responsible for trail maintenance. Much of the time 1″m just in my head thinking about “stuff” because I don’t have to concentrate on watching where every footstep falls. While this is great, I did wander on the wrong path on what ended up being a seven mile addition to my day, but hey, I did see some more of Virginia that I would have missed. Right?
My folks drove up and paid me a visit In Troutville yesterday afternoon and last night. It was good to see them after four months away. Mom, in her infinite wisdom, had even made chocolate chip cookies and homemade macaroni and cheese. Oh yeah, life is good.
Well, I probably need to roll out of here. The lack of daylight these days are putting a premium on getting the miles in while I can still see. Usually I get on the trail by 6:30 to make the most of the day. My sleep schedule has been screwed up royally since Election Night though when I listened to the returns till WAY past my bedtime. Those fools need to get this thing figured out soon before the Italians start making fun of us. Trust me; Johnny Swank needs all the beauty sleep he can get!
Take care,
-Johnny Swank
Until next time, •”Johnny Swank” ME->GA 2000
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