Tuesday, July 7 10:22 pm 21.3 mi The Roller Coaster/Blackburn Trail Center
AT 992.2 Parking Lot → AT 1013.5 Blackburn Trail Center
Weather: HOT and sunny, rain in evening
Trail Conditions: Up and down and up and down and up and also rocky down!
My Condition: Sore! Pretty demanding day between the heat and the roller coaster
Today was the infamous roller coaster – tons of ups and downs, most of them total PUDs (pointless ups and downs). A couple of nice views later in the day. Hit the 1000 mile mark with Puddles, Blue, Cage, and Gumby today – quite the accomplishment. Now I can sing that I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more and actually mean it! The Blackburn Trail Center is incredible – solar shower, water spigot, power outlets, tent pads. The bunkhouse is COVID closed, as is the main building of the center. Met Moxie, the caretaker. She gave me a PBR to make up for missing me in the Shenandoahs. Apparently you can see DC from here on a clear day. Really looking forward to a short, relatively easy day tomorrow. Blue’s ex-boyfriend who ghosted her was wanting to meet up with her, so she got him to bring us all sausage-egg sandwiches this morning. With full bellies from those and leftover cake, Cage and I let him off easy, interrogation-free.
Post Trail Analysis
Allegedly, “Trail Boss” is the man behind the idea of the infamous Roller Coaster. “It used to be a boring old ridgewalk” I’ve heard him being quoted as saying. I didn’t see any roller coasters, and I spent the whole day looking! After feeling the strain of a difficult day of ups and downs and ups and downs and ups and downs, I think I would’ve been ok with a boring old ridgewalk. The AT has a funny reputation among many hikers. “If you come to a crossroad and aren’t sure which way to go, take the less appealing, likely uphill, more difficult looking path.” For all the incredible, breathtaking vistas you see, you also experience a lot of the Roller Coaster peaks – a whole lotta climbing for no real payoff. The views are great when you get them, but in truth the real beauty is in the journey itself, and this particular day was a difficult up and down journey. Moxie, the caretaker of the Blackburn Trail Center, had met Toy Story and Puddles in the Shenandoahs at a trailhead parking lot and had given them PBRs. I must have just missed her because the two weren’t far behind me! I was so happy to meet someone that the two of them spoke so fondly of, and she was truly an incredible host despite all of the COVID restrictions on the center itself. In addition to the PBR she gave me, she also had burgers and fixin’s set out. I had just finished setting up my tent for the night when the sky opened up and a total deluge of rain washed over us. I sat, relegated to my tent but dry. I think Toy Story was stuck under the pavilion. Poor Puddles got to deal with some pretty big puddles as she slogged the last stretch into camp soaking wet. Blue and Cage opted to stop earlier, exhausted from a tough day and a late night the night before. We hung out with Moxie and her dog late into the evening, sharing stories from the trail. A thru hiker herself, she is in the process of recovering from a traumatic brain injury and has found that she is in the perfect place to do that. After checking that we were ok with it, she played us skillfully to bed with her fiddle from on her porch.
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