Jun 2 - Northern Virginia

DAY #78
START LOCATION: Manassas Gap Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Sam Moore Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 1
TRIP MILEAGE: 970.9
MILES TO GO: 1,208.2

I awoke with a bit of a headache this morning. Ugh, not another
dehydrated day I thought. But I loaded up on water and had a full
breakfast... Two pouches of quaker oatmeal and chocolate ice cream
sundae pop tarts... Around 800 calories total. Smokestack and I shoved
out of Manassas Gap at 9:30AM and were headed 4.5 miles to Dick's Dome
Shelter (no snickering please) for more water and brunch. We arrived
at Dick's by 10:50AM... A blistering 3.4 mph. The headache was still
there, but it was clearly not affecting my stamina.

Dick's Dome is an architecturally experimental shelter built in 1985
back when geodesic domes were the wave of the future I think.... Any
Frank Lloyd Wrights out there please check me on that. It only held 4
people and the bugs were miserable here, notably the tick I found
rooting around on my leg as I rested.

We ate light, drank up and rested for an hour for the 8 1/2 mile push
to Rod Hollow Shelter. It wasn't too hot yet, buy the forecast was
calling for a high of 90, so we were expecting it soon. It was a tough
sweaty climb out of Dick's Dome, but a gorgeous grassy 3 mile downhill
through Sky Meadows State Park.

A few tough ups and downs sapped my energy during the last mile into
Rod Hollow around 2:30. Here we saw Mimi and Sam who'd camped farther
north the night before. We also saw Red Kelty and Stambler who had
left Manassas Gap awhile before we did. It was hot and humid now.
Everything touching our skin was soaked in sweat. We drank lots of
water and ate our full lunch during our 1 hour rest. We needed our
energy because Virginia was not going out with a whimper.

The "Rollercoaster" is a nickname for the stretch of trail that as
you'd guess... Just rolls up and down. It's about 15 miles long
starting at Rod Hollow shelter and has about 10 individual 400' net
elevation summits one must cross. It might not have been too bad had
Smoke and I not put an aggressive 13 miles before it. But the Sam
Moore shelter splits the coaster down the middle so we had that going
for us, which is nice. It kicked our butts. We considered camping shy
of the shelter, but decided that would leave 10 miles of the
rollercoaster for tomorrow... Not a nice way to start a day. So we
pulled into Sam Moore Shelter thoroughly beat. But, Mimi and Sam
passed thru and we had a good dinner beneath the picnic canopy
together. My headache was gone by the end of the day too, so I think I
caught up on the water. There's a nice breeze tonight, so I'm hoping
for a good sleep.

We are crossing into the miniscule West Virginia stretch of trail
tomorrow. I'll have some parting thoughts on regular Virginia then...
After I finish the rollercoaster.

-natedog