Bunny started shuffling around a little before 7. She is definitely getting antsy about getting out of town. We hurriedly packed up to get ready because we thought they might be strict on the shuttle times. When we went down stairs, No Worries was working out shuttle times with everyone. Stinger needed to go to the post office before heading out, so we agreed to a 9 o’clock shuttle with him which left us enough time to get one more town breakfast at Hardee’s.
We exchanged info with No Worries when she found out we were planning on going to South America this winter. She’s headed down in early ‘19 and then is going to be van living on the west coast next year when we are hiking the PCT. She dropped us off just a tenth of a mile too far which made me have to cross back over the interstate to maintain my trail purity standing.
Entry into Shenandoah NP is free, the only thing that threw us a bit was that they wanted to know an approximate itinerary and we haven’t even bothered looking at the lay of the park. I just grabbed the trail data book and chose some rough locations based on getting us out of the park in 7 days. We are planning on a short day today since a thunderstorm is predicted for early afternoon and we haven’t done any hiking for 3 days.
The walk to the first shelter wasn’t bad at all. We started in fog which quickly burned off. We had a sunny and humid day. There were bugs flying everywhere but not bothering me. Bunny obviously did an outstanding job treating our clothes with the permethrin because I wasn’t bothered in the least. When I looked back at her, she was surrounded by butterflies, bunnies, and unicorns. The little princess has joined the expedition.
There was nothing spectacular about the walk to the shelter. I saw nothing that made me think we are in a National Park. We saw the map of the park and the southern end is mainly just a wide spot along the road. We passed Train Wreck who we knew was slack packing south today. He’ll be doing a work for stay tomorrow at Stanimals and then we might be in about the same location on Thursday.
ATweather.net did something they haven’t done before—they got the forecast right for today. They predicted storms at 2. We could hear thunder below us to the east since noon. I went up to an overlook and saw a sea of clouds. This encouraged us to get to the shelter and get water all by 1:50. Festus was already there fretting about staying or going—he’s mileage driven and a short day like this is a challenge for him.
Gnome, Bunny and I set up our beds and got organized. Doc and Chief Ranch Legs came into the shelter just as the rain started picking up. We had met them before and at Devils Backbone Brewery. They were just getting back on the trail after returning from Damascus Trail Days. Not too long after that a girl section hiker stopped in. She’s from Colorado Springs and just finished the Colorado Trail. This is her first day hiking on the east coast.
Ultimately, over 15 people ended up in and around the shelter last night including Chef, whom we had met back at Four Pines Hostel. He’s still carrying a guitar so he played a little James Taylor before my Benadryl took affect. There may have been snoring, there may have been crying because of the snoring, but I’m pretty sure I slept fine.
EFG