Date: 2017-06-04
From: Bearfence Hut

To: Byrd's Nest #3 Hut
Miles today: 22.4
Weather: broken clouds

Once again we had some late night company... Another bear! But this one didn't need any coaxing to keep its distance and wandered off soon enough. BA, Faceplant, and I all woke up to it but TopBunk slept through it and of course wanted to know if we got any pictures... Maybe next time we'll have her sleep on the outside of camp to make sure she hears it and gets her picture.We all had breakfast and BA and Faceplant hit the trail first, followed a few minutes later by TopBunk and I. BA left the remaining beers in the fridge (I mean stream) for any hikers that might wander down here during the day looking for water.We all reconvened about 3mi into the hike and headed up a gentle mountain together. We chatted a bit about Faceplant's thru hike, getting a few tips on places to stay or eat or avoid up north, and we chatted about some of my stories this far and how they compared to hers. The morning was perfect for hiking, sunny and cool and the trail gently wound up and down the grassy hills and we walked along.Eventually we turned off trail, headed up hill, and came up Big Meadows Wayside, one on the 3 stores/restaurants along skyline drive. This was BA, Faceplant, and TopBunk's end point, but before they headed out we all got milkshakes. I got blackberry to go with my breakfast sandwich... It's really nice to be able to eat again :)We said our goodbyes and I found it even a little more difficult than after last weekend to hit the trail again, knowing that they were heading back to their comfy lives and I still had another 100mi to go before I get a little break. Anyways, we back-tracked to the trail and started hiking again, but soon came to a great vista overlooking the valley and town below and stopped for a few minutes to chat with GrayEagle and admire the view. I hung around a bit longer and used the cell signal to check the status of last night's rocket launch and checking in with family that had been there. I didn't hit any major hills but did traverse a couple of rocky sections before coming to Rockspring shelter, where I found Lookout sprawled out enjoying a break. I followed suit and ended up napping for about an hour before a ridgerunner, the first we had seen since the Smokies, showed up for the night. We chatted a bit with her... In addition to (or perhaps as a qualification for) working as a ridge runner she had thru hiked several years ago. We weren't staying, but she let the others know that this shelter had a resident bear and raccoon and so they had to use the bear box instead of the pole, otherwise they'd just be feeding the raccoon instead of the bear.We also met a guy doing a "Flippity floppity hike" in which he hiked from Harper's Ferry to Vermont, flipped back to hike from Harper's Ferry to Springer, and then was going to flop back to Vermont to head to ME. We didn't catch the reasoning, but certainly an interesting way to do it. In addition to some trail tips, he also passed on some wisdom about hiking. Poorly paraphrased:There are 3 stages of hiking, the physical, the mental, and then the spiritual. Stage one involves conditioning the body so that hiking is not painful. Stage two involves figuring out your motivation for hiking and getting in the right head-space for the trail, not getting too attached to plans and going with the flow. And then in stage three you can really enjoy hiking and just being out in nature and existing on the trail.This past week certainly knocked me back down to stage zero, but hopefully I can recover and start having more fun with hiking again this week.The hike in the afternoon was pleasant and I felt good all afternoon. I did roll my ankle once, but that happens often enough and isn't a big deal. A couple minutes to walk it off and a day or so of a bit of soreness and it's back to new.We hit Skyland, a restaurant along skyline drive, and stopped in for an early dinner. I am really glad that most places are hiker friendly, because we certainly smelled like hikers. I had a steak and cheese (gotta make up for those lost calories!) with sweet potato fries, yumm. After getting another water bottle to replace the Gatorade bottle which didn't fit nicely into my pack, we headed off and soon came up to the trail over to Stony Man. The tallest point on the AT in Shenendoah wasn't enough to convince us to do the extra 0.6mi, but the way was well traveled and full of day hikers walking up from their cars and normal people only hike if there's a view involved, so it must be pretty good. We emerged onto a large rocky outcrop with a good view of the mountains both north and south as well as the valley to the west. We snapped a couple pictures but didn't stay long amongst the crowd of people.It wasn't much farther until we hit another view occupied only by a sole climber who had just climbed the rock face on which we stood to setup an anchor for additional climbers. We didn't distract him from his work for long before continuing on, hitting a picnic area soon after where we again found Butter and GrayEagle. They were incredulous... we left the shelter later than them that morning, stopped at wayside for food, took an hour nap, stopped at skyland for more food, and still caught them before they got to camp for the night. But hey, at the end of the day it doesn't matter how you got there, so long as you make it.GrayEagle moved on but Lookout and I chatted with Butter for a few minutes... he used to be an aerospace engineer with a major company and worked on some cool projects that I've heard of and even a couple I've done work related to. He's now retired, but it is an interesting mix of people you meet out here.While we were talking a couple parked their pickup and got out, admired the view and then a sign in front of it which explained the AT, turned around and noticed the hobos... I mean hikers, sitting behind them and came over to chat. They were curious about all the basics... How long we had been hiking and how long the whole thing would take? How did we get food? Why did we decide to hike? Had we seen wildlife? Had it rained alot? Etc. We chatted with them for a couple minutes and they seemed amazed that people did this for fun but left with a curiosity about the trail, which is always nice to impart. Lookout and I headed out, climbing the couple hundred feet to the top of The Pinnacle, a westward vista that we wanted to watch the sunset from. We had wanted to camp up there, but finding a suitable spot was not going to be easy (all the nearby terrain was either boulders or rocky and slanted) and it wasn't exactly clear if camping was allowed on this peak, so we settled for just watching the show and then walking the 0.8mi to the next shelter after. While we were sitting there watching the sun sink towards the horizon we were visited by a family of ferrets (I didn't even know they lived in this region!) a couple rocks over who checked us out but then retreated back into their home.From our position we could see the sun, a deep red, setting behind large banks of clouds which were presumably bringing tonight's rain. Behind us the moon hung high in the sky, waxing gibbous, visible in between scattered clouds. Before us the city of Luray sprawled across the valley, penned in on all sides by mountains and ridges. The opposite ridge I knew to be the Massanutten ridge, which I had hiked before and from which I had viewed Shenendoah. I could see a total of 5 ridges in the distance, each one a lighter shade of blue than the previous, the peaks of the farthest just barely visible between the gaps in the nearer. Luray's lights blinked on as darkness approached and a firetruck, visible from it's bright red blinking lights, raced through town on it's way to some emergency.Just as the light started to really fade from the sky, Lembas and SeaWolf joined us and hung out for a couple of minutes. As night settled in, the wind picked up and we elected to vacate the ridge and head for the warmth of our sleeping bags. The hike down to the shelter, as all night hikes do, seemed to take longer than it ought to have for such a short hike, but eventually we reached the shelter to find it empty except for GrayEagle. All of us piled into the massive shelter, having more than twice the room we would've had if the shelter had been full, which was nice. GrayEagle warned us that a bear has stopped by while he was making dinner... a good incentive to make sure all food got hung that night.As we bedded down we could hear some movement around the shelter... So we all switched back directions to have our heads facing out of the shelter. We'd all rather to be able to see bears and not have mice climb over our faces tonight. The joys of shelters...