We woke up 6a, hoping to hit the trail early. Well, we weren’t leaving until around 8a. It wasn’t too bad considering I was using the bathroom hand dryer to dry out my clothes or at the very least, warm them up before I put them on. My shoes actually dried nicely and I think that’s one of the most important part of my gear to be dry. Wetness brings blisters. I don’t want any more of those on my feet.
Mojito and Sonic are a young couple hiking the trail. Mojito’s dad (Mike) is here for the weekend dropping them back off on the trail. He was more than willing to help us slack pack. He even took us back off to our road crossing that we got off at yesterday. We moved our gear to his site at the campground and will stop there to pick it up.
I tried to convince people to hike the fourteen miles southbound, it would mean about 1,000 feet less of an elevation gain. We hiked northbound. Today we had more uphill hiking than downhill. This is Shenandoah! It’s supposed to be a stretch of easy days.
After our first big push we came across trail magic! I can’t say we were surprised, we had seen it when we passed it driving back to our road crossing. We used the promise of trail magic to get us those first few miles. The hosts (angels) were two section hikers and a daughter of one of them. We stayed for a good 45 minutes or so, if not longer. They gave us soda, bagels, candy, chips, and more! Not to mention the stories we all shared and the laughter that went with them. It was a great break, but we had to keep moving. If we could have, we would have stayed there all day.
We finally reached the campground around 3:30p where we ate lunch, did laundry, and dried out our things. While there, we saw SOL, Joy Hiker, and Cookie Monster. We got so wrapped up, we didn’t get back on the trail until 5:50p. We still had four miles to go, another two hours or so. It’s not too long, but it’ll still put us into camp later than I would have liked.
The last mile or so that we hiked today was trail that Warthog and I have previously covered. In 2015 we backpacked Shenandoah National Park. The last couple of days were on the Appalachian Trail. One of the nights we camped at Hazel Mountain Overlook. It was late in the season, so we had the whole space to ourselves. There’s a rock face that sits out overlooking the valley below. The sun sets just over the mountains and you can watch it go down from those rocks, which is exactly what we did in 2015. We had dinner and a show on those rocks. It was a very special night. We camped without the rainfly so we could see the stars. It was my hope that we would get to stay there again when we went through Shenandoah. With the weather doing what it did, it actually worked out perfect to let us camp at Hazel Mountain. Unfortunately our group wasn’t the only ones, there were two other AT thru-hikers before us. At first I thought they got the better spot, but then Warthog and I sandwiched our tent in between two trees, pointing the vestibule towards the overlook. Tonight was foggy and there was a chance of rain. That meant the rainfly had to stay on. It also meant there was no view… not if you were the impatient type anyways. We still sat on those rocks to eat our dinner. We looked out at the clouds rolling by, mostly all you saw was varying shades of white and grey. But every now and then, they would thin and separate, allowing you to catch a glimpse of the pink sunset and the mountain ridge across from you. I found myself getting emotional revisiting such a favorite spot with the man I love most. It was hands down my favorite dinner on the AT yet. I think it’ll be a hard one to beat, but if one does beat it… then I’m excited to experience it, because it’ll have to be pretty darn good.
Whenever I would wake up and shift, if I pushed myself up, I would look out of the vestibule into the valley below. Sometime early in the morning (very early morning) the fog broke some and you could see the lights from the valley below. The air was warm and when I stepped outside to use the restroom, I stood for a bit taking it all in. It was beautiful, a still peace filled my heart. The preciousness of the moment was not lost on me. Here is where we resolved to hike the trail and now here I stand, fully immersed in the adventure I could only dream of two and a half years ago. I watched the lights below and then returned to the tent to cuddle Warthog. Rocks under my sleeping pad and all, there wasn’t another place I wanted to be at that moment than right in that spot and with that man.
-ansel