Date: 2015-05-22
From: Montebello, VA

To: Black Rock Hut
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: clear sky

Had a great nights sleep. However it was way too short. I shouldn't have stayed up as late as I did. Oh well. We packed up, said our goodbyes to Regina and John and headed on down the road. Regina gave us directions back to Waynesboro by taking the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was super easy and absolutely gorgeous driving. Plus it went past some of the places I hiked already. We dropped off the car at enterprise and they gave us a ride back to Rockfish Gap. It was about 9am. While we walked across the bridge a woman stopped along the road and asked if we were thru hikers. She gave us some bananas! So tasty. It was a pretty chilly morning! Great for hiking but cold for standing around. I even started out wearing my jacket. Just a few moments into the trail we came across Mighty Mouse!! Yay! Part of my group caught up. She said Heisenburg was a bit ahead on the trail but we were all aiming for the same shelter tonight. She also said Hip, Salmon, Squabbler, Papalu, Chimney and Fireman were in Waynesboro. They were going to a concert tomorrow night so they were slack packing today to get miles in. Yay! I was excited to see them today. So was Sunny.About .5 into the trail there's a kiosk for self registration for back country camping in the part. You're required to have a permit or you could get fined. Well, we searched through the box and there wasn't one permit. Super irritating. We hiked on, not much else we could do. At lunch I had service so I looked into the permits more. We should be coming across a place tomorrow that we could get permits at. So we'll just have to take a little detour.The hike today was great. Ups and downs but not too bad. It was just a long day and i think 2 days off may have made today more of a struggle, lol. It was great hiking with Sunny again!!! Having someone to chat with and take breaks with is awesome. And we can take each other pictures at cool spots. After lunch we ran into our group slack packing SOBO! Chimney was first, we had a quick chat. Then we came across Squabbler, Hip, Salmon and Papalu! It was great to see them! We chatted with them for a bit. They were super happy to see Sunny again! Sunny got some pictires and we moved on. Then we saw Fireman. We chatted with him for a while too. Hopefully they'll catch back up before Sunny has to leave.We hit camp a little before 7. It was really crowded. We knew a few people here. Smoke Screen and of course Hiesenburg and Mighty Mouse. The guys were happy to see Sunny again as well. We found a place to set up tents. Not ideal but it works. We hung out at the picnic table while we made dinner. Met some new people but I can't remember thier names. I am so horrible with names. My legs are sore today. I'm hoping they get over that by morning. Have another long day tomorrow. Some wildlife I saw today included a beetle rolling a ball of dirt (or poop?), a very brave bunny, a turkey vulture, a deer (that stared me down as I drove past...it wouldn't get out of the road) and of course a ton of fat squirrels and chipmunks. Oh and a 6 month old sheepdog/poodle cross named Moose. So freaking cute!! And so fluffy!!