Weekend and Progress · 2:03pm Oct 26th, 2015
I went backpacking this weekend up in the Virginian Appalachians. We went to a pretty popular spot on Old Rag Mountain. Weird name, right? I thought so. It was a good 9 mile hike, and the trip was fantastic. I had a lot of fun and got plenty of exercise. There was a piece of the trail that was a rock scramble. At a certain point, it was more like rock climbing! There were a lot of people there on Saturday, and that made me extremely uncomfortable, but it was manageable. I don’t like crowds.
We camped out Friday and Saturday night. It rained a little Saturday night, but it wasn't too bad. It was still pretty warm, dropping down into the mid 50's Friday night. That was the coldest it got. My phone's currently buried in a rice box, as I accidentally dropped it in a creek while breaking down camp Sunday morning. I’m worried it won’t work, but I’m trying not to think about that.
On the way back, we stopped at a local café in Madison County. It was a quaint place, lots of local team spirit. It was cool to see pictures of past football teams. They even had a picture of their first football team, way back in 1946! The café was nice. The service and food were amazing. I ordered quite a bit of food, and for only 10 bucks! Spackle, two eggs, a 4oz steak and two pieces of deep fried French toast for just 10 bucks! Can you believe that?
I got home late afternoon on Sunday. What little energy I had left was spent relaxing and catching up on my shows before I went to bed. This morning, however, I've been working on the next chapter of The Quest. I'm hoping I can finish it up over the weekend, but no promises. I really hope you guys like this chapter. I think it'll be really cool. After all, any good quest will have obstacles. 
That's cool! We went hiking in the Adirondacks last weekend (Sawteeth -- we were supposed to go to the Gothics but cut the trip short as it was getting dark), and it was definitely tough -- the whole trail was iced over by that point, and the temperature at the peak was around -5 to -10. Should've brought crampons, but didn't think it would be more than a couple of cm of snow, and I didn't expect so much scrambling. Only met one other person on the trail, early on.
Anyway, hope we can go hiking together someday!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1y7YRuUnMnDZVAwNTItZUdRUEJWUzhWeW51LXpwaElXMWVR/view?usp=sharing
3497861 Man, that looks like a lot of fun. It was definitely nice to get back into a forest. It's my element. I lived in Oregon on a mountain before I joined the Navy. My forest is mostly coniferous, so it was interesting to see all the fall colors here in Virginia. It was absolutely beautiful. I took some pictures, but they're all on my phone. I'll show you if it turns out to be fine. I'd love to go hiking with you, man. You live up in New York?
3497879 Yeah, I know what you mean. When I moved to Ontario from British Columbia (also coniferous) the leaves were amazing.
I currently live in Montreal! I just occasionally take trips down South.
3497937 Oh! I almost had the chance to visit Montreal in high school once. I was in choir, and we were going on tour there, but I couldn't afford a passport. I hope to get one soon. I have a couple people I hope to visit.
3504044 Are you from Canada?
3505743 I know how that is. Lol. I'm from Oregon on the top of a mountain.
3508923 Not the region I'm from. Lol. It's a bit different when you live actually in the forest. We sometimes get 3-4 feet of snow overnight, and it snows clear through April and half of May.
3511096 Yeah, that's not surprising at all.