Date: 2021-05-13
From: Stealth campsite 

To: Tom Wolfe Shelter 
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: clear sky

Woo hoo! We¢ve hiked 100 miles in 9 days. When we hiked in 2019, I know we were new to all this, but it took us 19 days to do 100 miles. So we¢re pretty happy with our progress. We shared a stealth site with Chippin¢ Away. Great conversation. She went to bed by 7pm and we were dozing by 8:30pm. In the middle of the night we heard some crashing around by her tent and pans clanking and I heard her say ¢Shoot!¢. She was up and gone by the time we got up and left at 8:05am. About a 1/2 mile down we found a water source by this cute little cabin. It was all locked up (as was the privy) but we were told later that the park rents out little cabins like this. Very out of the way and quiet. After getting water, we were on the trail by 8:30. We had several ups but not bad. Alot of the day was pretty level so we put in some good miles. After a while we saw Chippin¢ Away taking a break on a log. We stopped to chat and she apologized if she woke us during the night. She had the funniest story. She said she got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and left her tent unzipped. She said that she has camped and backpacked for years and never had a problem doing that. When she got back in her sleeping bag and zipped up her tent she heard a scratching noise. She looked over and there was a mouse. She unzipped the tent and tried to hold the door down to the ground so the little critter could get out but it ran over to the corner where her pack was. She was afraid it would start chewing on her pack so she picked the pack up and threw it out the door! That was all the clanging noise! The mouse finally ran out too! We all had a good laugh over that!We met Easy Goin¢ again. He was coming from the Gravel Springs Hut with a trash bag full of trash left in the bear box. We felt bad that he had to carry out trash that hikers were too lazy to carry out themselves. Easy Goin¢ is a TrailRunner and works for the PATC  (Potomac Appalachian Trail Club) which is supported by the ATC. He works April to September. He said all sorts of people work this seasonal job. His predecessor had been a PHD in quantum physics!We stopped at a stream to filter water and Chippin¢ Away stopped by a few minutes later. She said she was done for the day and was looking for a stealth site and we were welcome to join her again. As we sat at the stream talking, I saw a deer watching us from up the path. It slowly walked down the path until it was about 20 feet away and then it slowly wandered off the path into the woods. It never seemed the least concerned about us being there. Chippin¢ Away left first and we saw her up the trail about 10 minutes later. She had found a beautiful, large, flat site. We definitely would have taken her up on her offer if it had been later but it was only 4:30. We thought we would hike at least another hour and then camp. We thanked her for her offer and hiked on.We started looking for a site by 5:30 and, of course, couldn¢t find one. We kept hiking and passed the SNP northern boundary and the 100 mile mark! It was a rock scramble down out of the park. SNP wanted to make sure you wouldn¢t forget it, I guess. Never did find a stealth site but got to the Tom Floyd Shelter instead. Met hiker NoName from Wisconsin and had a great conversation. Dinner was a freeze dried Mountain House meal and a snack-size Payday for dessert. We decided to sleep in the shelter so we wouldn¢t have to pack up the tent in the morning. Also the tent sites were a ways down the hill from the shelter and water was 1/4 mile downhill. Thank God we watered up earlier. We only have 3.3 miles to hike tomorrow!We hiked 15.4 miles in over 10 hrs hiking today.