a cooler walk

somewhere between Mile 24 and Mile 26 on Skyline Drive

Mile 24 on Skyline Drive is the Elkwallow lot, store, and picnic ground. I left my rental at the Mile 24 parking lot and walked to Mile 26 and back. It was a bright, cool day with a high of 60ºF/15.6ºC. The walk itself wasn't too bad; it began with a downhill that I thought would exact a price on the way back, but the eventual uphill turned out not to be that hard. Since it's a weekday, the traffic again wasn't that bad, so I didn't do too much car-dodging. I did, however, need to wear my jacket: 60ºF on a windless day is short-sleeve weather, but in the mountains at that time of day (late morning/early afternoon), it was in the 40s (5-9ºC) and breezy—too cold for me to go minimal. So I had my jacket on. It was a bright, clear, happy day. I'd forgotten to bring along my portable WiFi hotspot, but I shrugged and, really, it didn't matter. More and more, though, I think a spring or fall walk along the entire length of the Drive is possible if I bring camping gear, a water filter (I have an old, early-edition Grayl and a LifeStraw), and enough dry food to last me for an 18-day walk. (I could eat every other day, thus needing only nine days' worth of food.) I haven't figured out the logistics of cell-phone recharge yet; solar when you're flanked by woods doesn't leave you with many options.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Today's walk was even shorter than the other day's six-miler, being closer to four miles, but it was hilly enough to get my heart pumping (not overly, though). When I leave Manassas on Friday and install myself in my buddy Mike's house in Fredericksburg, I hope to do some longer walks. Mike knows some of the local routes, and I might end up doing some of them twice or even three times.

Actually, what I'm really hoping for is the arrival of my new driver's license—kinda the main reason I'm here. It's been weird to drive around with only a printed piece of paper from the Manassas DMV labeled "temporary permit," whose only real purpose is to have something to hand over to a police officer should I be caught speeding (I've been trying to behave myself on that score, but it's hard sometimes; Route 66 invites speed).

And while I'm partially on the subject of cars: I'm still not used to the button-start/stop function. I know these have been around for years, but it's my first time using one. The rental office gave me a key fob; the fob has buttons to lock/unlock the car, pop the trunk, etc., but you don't need keys to start the car: you press the brake and hit the "start" button. At the end of your drive, you don't even need to press the brake: just hit the button again, and the engine dies. I keep wanting to use the key for something. Cars strike me as more trouble than they're worth, but they're undeniably good to have when you need to go any long distance, and when you know the public-transportation scene is nearly nonexistent, as it is in most places outside of heavily urbanized America. Manassas has only one or two commuter-rail stops that I know of, but if I ever had to get to Front Royal via bus or rail, I'd be fucked (actually, not true—but look at the prices! so I'd still be fucked).

So today's walk was brief but a bit of an effort. I'll go back to the Drive tomorrow and do a different section, possibly a longer one, as my heart and lungs get used to the strain. Despite being so mountainous, Korea has a lot of flat bike paths, which is why I try to do stairs work to get my heart and lungs going. On the Drive, by contrast, I don't miss the stairs.