We packed up and left without incident in the morning. We called Stanimals to arrange for Matt and Jessica to return Hammerhead’s hiking poles which we had found. He left the trail yesterday to return home in face of the approaching tropical storm. We started talking to a woman and her son from DC. Her husband died 2.5 years ago and left her with a small farm and cabin in Maine. She really liked what Bunny and I were doing.
We stopped at a scenic overlook on Hightop Mountain and ran into the woman and son duo again. They were only doing an overnight and didn’t get into camp until well after dark. I had seen their headlamps coming in when I had gotten up to pee (the joys of being a slightly-past middle aged man). There was also a woman there who had attended North Western University—the Illinois connection is starting to grow.
I saw MY first bear as it streaked across trail in front of Bunny. She didn’t even catch a glimpse of it because it was so fast. It was pretty small, so I kept an eye out for a momma but she never showed up.
Later in the day, we passed a Japanese couple completely covered in netting and wearing so many bells that they couldn’t breathe without jingling. I thought Hare Krishnas were approaching us on the trail. Bunny told them they were never going to see a bear making that much noise to which they replied “good, we very scared.” I’m thinking a National Park is probably not the ideal destination if you are afraid of wildlife.
When the park was created, all standing structures were torched. Of course, this is the USA so rules don’t apply evenly if a person has money or influence. 9 cabins remain that were not torn down as they were supposed to be. The PATC now manages those cabins and rent them out for individual use. We passed Pocosin Cabin and stopped for a break. The cabin had been leased out but no one was present. Bunny brown blazed a bit since there was a privy present.
We made it to Lewis Mountain Campground for chips, ice cream and cokes. Gnome had met a couple of women on the trail ahead of us that had already paid for a site for the night but decided to head back to civilization because of the approaching storm. They let him have it and he offered to let us stay as well. Chris had told us yesterday that all of the huts in Shenandoah are well grounded and are probably the safest place to stay in a storm. We decided to push on one more mile to the next hut.
Twinkie, Hangman, Mossy were already in Bearfence Mountain Hut when we arrived. No one else was around so we set up in the shelter just as the rain started. It looked like there might not be many more people coming in when the flood of people and rain started coming in. Ultimately, this was one of the most crowded shelters we have stayed at with people up cooking until all hours of the night. It was well past 8:30 before the place quieted down.
EFG