SMITHSONIAN MYSTERY

AT Day 061:  Wednesday June 7,  2023

Mile 972 + 23.5 miles /37.8 km

Total Distance Hiked: 995.5 miles/1602 km

Front Royal – US 522 – VA 638/Fiery Run Rd  – Tuckers Lane – Sky Meadows State Park – US Route 50 and 17/ Ashby Gap –  Rid Hollow Shelter 

A: 4490 ft /1369 m  D: 4560 ft /1391 m

A smoky haze clung to the sky this morning. There were health warnings being issued due to the smoke drifting over from the  Canadian fires. It was a lovely cool morning, great hiking temperature. We were keen to hit the trail.

We organized a shuttle with a local volunteer, Goldilocks. She arrived promptly at 7am.  It was nice to chat to her on the short drive to the trailhead. At 7.10 we were waving Goldilocks goodbye and we were back in the woods. Despite carrying food for only 2 or so days, our packs felt very heavy. No more double zeros for us. 

The first two miles the trail was uphill and followed a fence line around some sort of US government site.   We passed a father and his small son who were out for a day hike so I asked them if they knew what the site was. 

He said it was some sort of  Smithsonian centre working on bringing extinct species back to life.   But he offered another opinion tongue in cheek – that it was really  a secret military establishment that is experimenting with genetic engineering of mutant dinosaurs to be released on North Korea.  I said ‘if that was the gig wouldn’t there be security cameras everywhere’?. The father replied ” oh but that would give it away”. So there you go, the second version sounds a lot more interesting. 

We hiked quickly to get a gap on the father and son team who were having a very loud and animated conversation walking not far behind us.  The trail was lovely and soft underfoot, very tempting to start running.

At some point we lost their voices but soon came upon a  man dressed in black shirts and a black hoodie standing in the middle of the trail. No pack, no water nothing, just earbuds listening to music. We said hello and we walked past him, he replied friendly enough and then he continued to shadow us for probably a mile, mile and a half.  I stopped to photograph the rhino tree and he had to came past us and he  continued on down the trail. I think he was just out for a day walk lost in  whatever he was listening to. It  just felt a little weird.

As we approached  VA55 at Manassas Gap the black hoodie guy was coming back southbound. None of this would be strange had we not seen a guy a few days ago, he was in his early 20’s and was out for a day walk in the woods carrying a gun holstered over his tracksuit pants. No other accessories, no backpack, no water. Hammer and I were a bit spooked by that.   

Apart from the people on trail, the woods were absolutely beautiful. Huge trees with straight long trunks stretching to the sky. The trail was soft underfoot. The smoky haze gave the sun a strange red glow which looked even more earie when filtered through the tree canopy.

 

We got to the road and stopped to take a photo near the big AT sign and out popped Firewalker, right behind us.  We last saw him at Big Meadow when his nephew gave us  some trail magic cookies. So nice to see him and be able to thank his sister for such a delicious treat. 

We walked with him to Manassas Shelter where we stopped for lunch. While at the shelter we noticed a full backpack was left behind. We assumed the owner was in the privy but no one came in the 45 minutes we were there. Very strange, still had the emergency beacon strapped to it. It’s a mystery. Not much we can do. 

We left the shelter just after 12:00 and had a pleasant afternoon.  It was cool in the canopy of the trees just  lovely hiking conditions. The trail was  back to feeling like it’s groomed,  tall oak trees reaching for the sky and air quality was reasonably good. 

Just as we were relaxing into this beautiful cruisy hiking the forest transitioned to being quite degraded and weed infested. One area around mile 988 looked like it was bulldozed recently and it was a designated campsite. Couldn’t imagine anyone would camp there. 

This weedy area ended as soon as we entered Sky Meadows State Park. Lots of trails with new signage some of  which has been graffitied. While I dislike seeing sharpie artwork on signage, some of this was kind of funny. 

We stopped for an early dinner at a memorial seat which was just recently put up in the middle of the woods for a hiker named Helen.  It was a very lovely spot, it was a shame we couldn’t sit here for a little longer.  Soon after leaving Helens seat, we started to descend towards US Highway 50. There was a constant noise of traffic as we approached. The woods we walked through we’re absolutely incredible,  straight tall trees that seem to reach forever to the sky. 

We spent about half an hour descending towards the highway,  a few scary minutes getting across it and then the next half hour ascending away from the noise of the traffic.   It was good that the highway was divided by a nature strip because it would have been impossible to cross any other way. The traffic was moving so fast, it was a bit heart stopping. 

Leaving the noise of the highway behind we were back in the beautiful green woods with just the sound of the birds singing. We stopped for the day at a campsite at the Rod Hollow shelter.