4/25/00
Day 34
Pine Swamp Branch Shelter
366 miles

This is the first shelter I've been at that has a built in fireplace.  The other three guys staying here gathered a ton of firewood and have kept a blaze going.  The shelter still has an open front so that none of the warmed air stays inside, but you can still feel the radiant heat of the fire.  And unlike a fire in the outside fire pit, the chimney takes all of the smoke away.

Today's weather was a repeat of yesterday, except rainier, colder, and low clouds obscuring any views.  Talking to some of the Northbounders, they've had weeks of this stuff.  I guess I should count myself lucky that being further North and on the Eastern ridges, I was apparently spared.

Perhaps it's time to talk a bit about Northbounders.  I say "Hi" to everyone I meet, but sometimes people look eager to chat and sometimes they don't.  So I don't necessarily get the story from everyone I see on the trail.  And you can't always tell by somebody's "grubbiness quotient" whether they are a thru-hiker or not.

The first Northbounder I met was a fellow named "Mr. D" who was just south of Humpback Mountain (about 10 miles South of Rockfish Gap - the Southern end of Shenandoah N.P.).  He had started in early February and had been doing some very high-mile days.  His goal was to finish the trail by July when his wife, who was a teacher, would be free and he could spend the summer with her.

There were a few other Northbounders close behind him, and I met a few more every couple of days.  This has escalated to the point where now I am seeing 6, 8, 10 Northbounders every day.  They are still mostly people who started in February, although some very fast hikers started later in March and are pushing ahead of the pack.  Eventually I'll begin meeting people who started around the time I did, and when I get to the group that aren't doing high-mile days, I'll probably be meeting the people that I'll be seeing again when I flip-flop back to Harpers Ferry.  As someone mentioned to me, I'm probably meeting a higher number of hikers doing things this way, but I only meet them for a short time.  I've just about given up on remembering people's Trail-names.  If I spend some time in a shelter with someone then it's easier, but otherwise I'm not much use in telling people if their friends are ahead of them.

Now I've heard two terms to describe hikers who do 20+ mile days: "greyhounds" and "mileage nazis."  My own opinion is that if someone has a personal deadline (school starting) that requires them to start early and finish fast, that's fine.  Even if they're just pushing themselves to test their own physical limits, that's OK too.  But I personally don't want to get caught up in some competitive, better-than-thou frame of mind that makes me feel like I'm not doing the trail "right" because others are covering more ground than me.  I don't want to be fumbling around with my gear, or trying to cook dinner, in the dark every night.  And because I am about to encounter increasing numbers of Northbounders, if I want to even get a space in a shelter it would behoove me to get there early.  And the way to do that is not to sleep past dawn, and to stop hiking before they do.