Ate breakfast and lunch at McDonald's. Haha. We had a hard time finding someone to shuttle us back to the trail, either they were out of town or didn't answer their phone, but we finally got a ride. While hiking Will rolled his ankle BAD. We do tend to roll ankles a lot but usually we can walk it off. This time Will could feel and hear something tear/pop. Crap. We stopped a little early and stayed at the next shelter instead of camping a few miles past. It ended up raining later in the night so it all worked out. Will's ankle was visibly swollen. Not good, especially since we were planning on a 26 mile day tomorrow.
July 14 - Paul Wolfe Shelter to Blackrock HutToday we entered the Shenandoah National Park! Today was long, but beautiful. Lots of deer! Near the end of the day I was getting worn out, mostly because we hadn't eaten enough. I was dragging behind so I tried to catch up by running. To keep from tripping I had my head down watching my feet and ran straight into a head level fallen tree. Man that hurt! And I bit my tongue! We got to the shelter as it was getting dark, but we made it! A whole marathon! Over mountains! We were quite proud of ourselves. It was especially fun because everyone at the shelter was like "You went HOW far?!?!"
July 15 - Blackrock Hut to Pinefield Hut
This morning before we left the shelter we saw a bear! The crazy part was that it walked across a fallen tree a few feet away from where we gotten water literally a minute ago! One of the other guys at the shelter went a little crazy when he saw it and tried to scare it away. He was screaming at it and blowing his whistle. I was annoyed, it wasn't bothering anybody and how often do you get to see wild bears, not often.
In the Shenandoahs there are 4 different restaurants that are within a half mile of the trail. A backpacker's dream! Today we are only hiking 14 miles so that we have plenty of time to pig out and drink the famous Blackberry Milkshakes! It was way overpriced, but we couldn't say no. Luckily they didn't skimp on the fries and the burger was huge. While we were hiking we were stopped by a Park Ranger hiking with some tourists. She asked us questions about our trip. It was kind of fun being on the other side of this situation, I am so used to being the tourist, not the one with the experience. Later, at the shelter there were 3 deer circling around for about an hour. Its kind of cool seeing them for longer than the few seconds it takes them to run across the road at home.
July 16 - Pinefield Hut to Bearfence Mountain Hut
21 miles today. It seemed to be the hottest day so far. So much sweat. There was a campground with a camp store less than a mile from the shelter we were staying at tonight. We didn't think we were going to get there before it closed but we were hoping there would be a vending machine with a Mountain Dew in it. To our lucky surprise the store was still open and happy to stay open past closing for us! Sandwiches, chips, and Yoo-hoo!
July 17 - Bearfence Mountain Hut to Rock Spring Hut
We hiked eight and a half miles as fast as we could to make it to Big Meadows Wayside for breakfast. It was delicious! Three big pancakes with blackberry syrup, bacon, breakfast potatoes, and Mountain Dew! We got some ice cream and snacks for later at the small store connected to the restaurant. We ended up stopping early and staying at the next shelter because Will felt sick, okay with me because we had a cell signal! Later a large group of kids showed up with three young 20 year old leaders. You would think using the privy would be safer than using the woods, but tonight while I was in there one of the children yanked open the door taking the latch holding the door shut with it! Ahh!July 18 - Rock Spring Hut to Pass Mountain Hut
Stopping early yesterday put us in the perfect place to eat breakfast at the Skyland Restaurant! We got there with only a half hour left on the breakfast buffet! And oh was it glorious! So gooood! We were a bit under-dressed, it was fancy. Oh well! After we left the restaurant we saw a momma bear and her two cubs off to the side of the trail! The cubs were so cute! We stopped for a break at a shelter and a man came up later with grapes, powerade, hot dogs, hamburgers, and other stuff! We wanted to stay for a hamburger, but we still had 5 miles to go.
July 19 - Pass Mountain Hut to Tom Floyd Shelter
This morning we saw 5 bears! All before 11 o'clock! Awesome! We took a long break at the last trailside restaurant, especially since it was the last time we could get Blackberry Milkshakes. Soon after we found a piece of bark with a white blaze on it. So of course we had to take it! I mean it was already laying on the ground! We are going to frame it with some pictures from the trip! Yay! It was a long day, 24 miles, but it was exciting because we were leaving the Shenandoah National Park! We got to the shelter after dark, but luckily we got through a really rocky section while it was still light.
July 20 - Tom Floyd Shelter to Front Royal, VA
We hiked three miles to a road to get a taxi into town. We called from the shelter so that we wouldn't have to wait long, but when we got to the road it was hour before the car came. We sat at McDonald's for a couple hours, took my white blaze to the post office to send home, and went to the motel. Later we ate at KFC and Will got his hair cut at a Barber shop. His hair wasn't cut bad, but it was nothing like he asked for. I had almost got my hair cut there too but because of that and due to the fact that they completely ignored me, I didn't. They probably would have ended up shaving my head anyway.
