Date: 2019-07-07
From: Pass Mountain Hut (VA)

To: Gravel Spring Hut (VA)
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: overcast clouds

This morning I wasn¢t sure if blackberry milkshakes were real or not. You see, one of the things I had heard about Shenandoah National Park is that they have these things called waysides where you could get blackberry milkshakes. There are three waysides in the park. From south to north they are Loft Mountain, Big Meadows, and Elkwallow. Loft Mountain was too far off trail to be worth it, especially because the Loft Mountain camp store was only 70 yards off trail. The Big Meadows Wayside was closed for remodeling, and besides you could eat a more substantial meal at the lodge. This left Elkwallow Wayside.The question was, do they have blackberry milkshakes? Guthook was no help. Some people left reviews about how great the blackberry milkshakes were while others shared their disappointment over the lack of said milkshakes. Who was messing with who? The Pass Mountain Hut register was filled with entries of people wondering if these milkshakes existed. One person wrote, ¢If there are no blackberry milkshakes, that¢s it, I¢m leaving the park tomorrow.¢ (This is funny because, unless you are super slow or going sobo, everyone is leaving the park the day after staying at this hut.)Anyway, that was the goal SC and I set out for today: solve the milkshake mystery and set ourselves up to exit Shenandoah National Park tomorrow.It was a 7.4-mile hike to Elkwallow Wayside. We arrive about lunchtime and see one of our shelter mates from last night. He is holding a 25oz lite beer. ¢Well,¢ we ask him, ¢blackberry milkshakes?¢¢Yeah, they¢re great. I would have gotten a second one but this beer was calling my name.¢We go inside and there are TV monitors with the menu, but they change too quickly to read. I do see a sign that reads, ¢Out of blackberry ice cream.¢  My heart sinks a little. The woman at the counter notices our confusion and points to a hard copy of the menu. SC gets a hamburger with cheese fries and a blackberry milkshake. I get my milkshake with a salad. Apparently blackberry milkshakes do not require having blackberry ice cream available. My salad was a salad, but SC¢s hamburger looked amazing (she confirmed that it was really good). The blackberry milkshakes do in fact exist, at least for today at the Elkwallow Wayside. They might be a little overrated, but it was nice to have a flavor that wasn¢t vanilla/chocolate/strawberry. It appears that they take a vanilla milkshake base and add blackberry flavoring to it, so the blackberry flavor isn¢t as strong as I would have liked, but I don¢t regret getting it. After our lunch, we try to work up the motivation to hike again. I don¢t have cell service to check the weather, but it¢s thundering. (It seems like it has at least thundered, if not stormed every day we¢ve been in Shenandoah.) We put on our packcovers and start heading towards the next hut. Not long after we start hiking, it starts raining, a little at first and then stronger. It stops before we get to hut. I see a guy heading sobo and we are exchanging the usual hiker pleasantries (e.g., ¢How¢s it going?¢ and ¢Have a good hike.¢) when I notice he¢s bone dry. ¢Wait, how are not wet?!¢ I wanted to know. ¢I was at the shelter when it started raining. I just stayed there until it passed.¢I got to the shelter, and I had enough service to see that it was likely to rain at night. SC and I got spots in the hut and caught up with some people we had hiked with before and met a couple of new hikers, all sobo section hikers. All of us nobos are excited to get out of the park and into town tomorrow.