Date: 2017-09-05
From: Tom Floyd wayside

To: Elk Wallow wayside
Miles today: 16.2
Weather: broken clouds

We¢d been looking forward to the Shenandoah National Park for a while. After several weeks of mostly nondescript ridgelines on the AT, the prospect of more extensive views and better trail was beguiling.But the odd aspect of today was that we were equally motivated by getting out of the Shenandoahs, because later this afternoon we were due to meet Sweetblood¢s grandfather and uncle, who were hosting us at their family¢s country home nearby for two zero days. Sweetblood had been looking forward to this for seemingly her entire hike and as today grew closer she¢d been exhibiting the kind of excitement usually reserved for seven-year-olds on Christmas morning. She and Sriracha are also ¢big tent¢ people ¢ it¢s just one reason why I like hiking with them -- and demonstrated this by inviting most of the hikers in our vicinity to join the mountain house trip.All this set up today for an unusual mix of wanting to enjoy the park while also wanting to hoof it to the rendezvous point. Originally, the meeting place was going to be Thornton Gap, requiring us to cover 25 miles and thus really having to haul ass along the trail. Wisdom prevailed and we rescheduled our meeting place to be Elk Wallow wayside.There was still a reasonable distance to cover but we were aided by the trail improving in quality once we crossed the national park boundary after an hour or so of hiking this morning. This was in keeping with being in a national park, with its increased budgets and standards, but also at odds with the fact that the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, which had been responsible for trail maintenance since Pine Grove Furnace State Park, also did the maintenance of the AT here. In the earlier days of the AT, we would have covered this distance by walking on Skyline Drive, the road that was designed in the 1930s to create a car-friendly national park. Now the trail mirrors the road by going above or below it.As soon as we first crossed Skyline Drive, we decided to do some retro-blazing by following the road because the AT went 500ft to the top of a hill then 500ft straight back down again to the road, which had contoured around. Dirt¢s sense of purity had her following the real trail but the rest of us took the road and waited for her at the far end, by which time we¢d reminded ourselves how much road walking sucked.Fortunately, this was also the most egregious section in terms of pointless height gain and loss, so the benefits of road walking after that did not justify preferring it to the trail.While we were waiting for Dirt, Train ended up coughing violently ¢ as a result of... well, let¢s just say that he takes safety meetings very seriously and holds them constantly ¢ and there was a sudden movement in the thick shrubs to one side.  Shenandoah National Park is known as bear country and I suspect this was our first bear encounter, although we couldn¢t get a definitive sighting to confirm.Another aspect of having transitioned from summer into autumn manifested itself when springs and streams that were shown on the Guthook app as "reliable" (as they probably are when nobos come through here) were now no longer flowing. There was supposedly a stream on the hill Dirt climbed (she said it was dry) and I was pretty certain it ought to be flowing downstream where it crossed the road, but it too was dry.Fortunately, we were all carrying enough water to get us to Gravel Springs shelter, our intended lunch site, despite a solid climb over an intermediate hill. At least these climbs were definitely compensated in the form of frequent views over the park.Pan arrived just as we were about to leave and was quickly invited to join our double zero that day. We then hiked along even easier terrain to Elk Wallow wayside.Among hikers, the waysides ¢ informal restaurants attached to small grocery stores selling food and tourist kitsch ¢ are a major part of the Shenandoahs¢ appeal. From here on, we passed one nearly every day and I got in on the action at this one by ordering two chilli cheese dogs ¢ ¢cos MURICA! ¢ and a beer. I could get used to this!An hour or so later, Sweetblood¢s grandfather John and uncle Dave arrived in two cars, into which we squeezed, made the standard apologies for our rank hiker aroma and drove to Luray.On the way we stopped at an Italian restaurant to assuage our hiker hunger ¢ we were humbled when our hosts insisted on paying for all of us ¢ then went to the neighbouring supermarket to stock up on beer and snacks for the next two days. The forecast for tomorrow is for a day of drizzle, but we¢re going to be inside and doing nothing but eating and drinking. WIN!Life is good.AT fact of the day: As we were hiking along, we met a couple coming the other way and quickly realised it was Bashful and her boyfriend Mark. She'd always told him she'd never get married so he never asked but one consequence of the months she'd spent away from him was realising that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. So when she got off the trail in New Jersey, she went to Washington DC to meet him and bought a ring to propose. And he said yes. Congrats Bashful! http://www.trailjournals.com/j...