May 28 - Shenandoah Nat'l Park

DAY #73
START LOCATION: Pinefield Hut
FINISH LOCATION: Bearfence Mountain Hut
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 20.6
TRIP MILEAGE: 906.9
MILES TO GO: 1,272.2

Wow... Way better day today. I was a tired, hurting puppy yesterday. I
drank lots of water last night and was in bed by 8PM and got great
sleep. I was up and out of camp by 7:30AM this morning. This was an
excellent start to a proposed 20 mile day. I also had a nice break to
look forward to about 7 miles up the trail. Former thru-hiker Blissful
and her husband Skipper were throwing a nice big trail magic party at
Smith Roach Gap along Skyline Drive starting at 10:00AM.

I had a great 7 mile up and down walk to Smith Roach. The weather was
mild and the sun was pleasantly filtered through the "Emerald
Tunnel"... What the Virginia AT is affectionately nicknamed. I had the
energy I was searching for the day before. The miles flew by.

As I arrived at Smith Roach Gap, I glanced down at my watch...
10:01AM... Just in time for trail magic. Sure enough, I could see the
grill smoke and a few people lounging and eating. Red Kelty and
SpringKat were already there. I dropped my pack and saw the spread...
Hot dogs, chili, BBQ pulled chicken, green salad, potato salad, baked
beans, pickles, chips, sodas, water and cookies. The best part...
Cherry Coke on ice. I had 2 chili dogs, salad, beans and BBQ. It was
heaven. There was another trail angel there named Danny who works as a
project manager for a national engineering outfit. He worked in their
construction division and we talked shop for over half hour. The
conversation resulted in some very serendipitous trail magic... A
business card from Danny so I could reach out when I'm done with my
hike. He wasn't sure if I could find work with them in the northeast,
but I'll definitely be hitting him up. Really great people. I spent an
hour there and began my push to my next stop... South River Picnic Area.

It was much warmer out when I began my push to the picnic spot. But,
the trail magic fueled me. I made fast miles to te picnic area. As I
pulled in, I saw a family eating at a picnic table. I walked up and
was looking for a nice place to set down. The father got up and
offered me a bunch of grapes and said he loved to help out the thru
hikers. I was very thankful... The grapes were ice cold and delicious.
I looked over and saw my Wednesday hiking partners Menno and Mexico.
They were resting and had all their stuff spread out. They were
pushing to Lewis Mountain Campground to meet some friends. I had a
quick bite, used the restrooms with glorious plumbing and filled up my
water bottle... At a spigot. I love National Parks. We heard thunder
off in the distance. It might be a wet 6 mile push to Lewis Mtn CG.

We hauled. The thunder and lightning was getting closer but we didn't
feel any rain until 3 miles down. The emerald tunnel gave us enough
protection to keep us relatively dry until we arrived at the
campground. There, I was able to do some light resupply and gorge on
snacks at the camp store. We were also able to dry off a bit and wait
out the rain. Menno and Mexico were waiting for their friends and I
decided to push the 3/4 mi to Bearfence Hut. I'm glad I got in around
6. The shelter is jam packed now and all the tentsites are full...
Memorial Day weekend in a National Park.

There's lots of weekenders asking us thru-hikers questions about our
trek which is really cool. It reinvigorates us when people are
genuinely interested in our stories and are really excited for us.
Lots of fun.

Crossed the 900 mile mark!

-natedog