Going solo May 9 and 10th

I have been travelling with the same group for a full month now (I met Sleeping beauty, Puddin and Patty cakes on April 8th as we left Fontana Damn and entered the Smokies). We all get along great but I had an urge to carry on solo. The group was planning on hanging around Pearisburg for the majority of the day and then head out on the trail in the late afternoon. The sun was out and the sky was blue. My spirits were high and my feet dry so I said my goodbyes, with the promise of meeting back up at Trail Days, and decided to take advantage of the sun. I headed back onto the trail alone.

I had been craving the "me time" for a while now and it was an enjoyable change of pace. It is quite amazing how beautiful and lush everything appeared after so many days of rain. For lunch I stopped at a gorgeous lookout where I met Fig (a girl also hiking solo) and Novy (a guy from Bedford NOVA SCOTIA... The province is well represented out here!). After the lookout the trail ran along a ridge (remember there is no alpine terrain so the term ridge is used loosely) with spectacular views of farm land. The colours were impeccable with different hues of orange and red being the most prominent overlay.

I didn't stop hiking for the day until 7:30pm as I made more of an effort to slow down and absorb the scenery around me. I even joined Fig and Novy for a 20min meditation session. That night I also met Hot Dog (an aspiring psychologist), All The Way (a 65yo veteran), Garbage Man (a college graduate of marine biology) and his girlfriend (who sadly I cannot remember her name but is a college graduate of biology), and Oatmeal (unfortunately I didn't catch her story).

This morning I gave myself permission to sleep in. I awoke at 6am but rolled over and went back to sleep until 7:30. It was so nice to have a relaxed morning. Puddin and Patty cakes were early risers (they like to be on the trail for 7am) and my competitive side had a hard time letting them go ahead of me. As a result, I usually found myself racing to try and get on the trail before them. So, this morning it was nice to have a break from competitive Jenna :-).

Today was a great day for the starving hiker. I stumbled upon two stashes of trail magic. One was a mixture of greens (tomatoes, bread, avocados, spinach, sandwich meat, and yellow pepper) which I gladly used to make myself the most amazing sandwich. I guess I forgot the golden rule of not taking food from strangers or not to eat random perishables found along the roadside :). The other was a pleasant surprise. Halfway up a 1300 foot climb someone had stashed cans of pop and the most delicious treat ever - oatmeal cream pies. It ended up being a much needed sugar rush as the sugar gave me the power to outrun an approaching thunderstorm and I was able to hike the last five miles to the shelter and pitch my tent before the rain started.

Today I met numerous other hikers (most of the people I am catching started hiking around the first or second week of March). For the majority of the day I chatted and hiked with Gumby (an ex marine). Tonight as I write this there are five people sleepily dozing in the shelter and eight tents set up around it. The names that I remember are Novy, Fig, Oatmeal, Gator, All the Way, two section hikers: Emily and John, Two thru hikers who didn't have trail names and preferred to keep to themselves, Big Foot, Raisin Bran Kid, and Big John.

Total miles: 668
Total days: 44

Picture is from a sign I passed today. I thought I would share just in case people forgot what the wilderness was. Too funny! I will try to post more photos in the future. They are currently all on my camera and not on my phone.

Smiles!!!!