Date: 2019-06-15
From: Lamberts Meadow Shelter (VA)

To: Mountain Pass Road, Troutville, VA/Farmville, VA
Miles today: 11.4

I didn¢t sleep well at all last night. Every twig snapping was sure to be a bear about to attack us. When I put away my phone last night, I noticed our shelter-mate was actually still awake, watching videos on his phone. His plan was to get up early and get into town early, but when I woke up around 5:45, he was still sleeping. There was a guy who tented nearby, and he also said he was going to get up super early (3 or 4am) and get in town for breakfast. However, he was hovering around the shelter. About 6am I decided to get up and visit the privy. I¢m getting my stuff when I hear a loud pop. The tenter and I turn the corner around the side of the shelter and come face to face with a bear!Suddenly SC and our shelter-mate were up and rushing over for a look. It wasn¢t particularly big, and it didn¢t seem worried about four hikers staring at it. We yelled and it got further away but it didn¢t leave the area. We noticed that the shelter was surrounded by cherry trees and the bear seemed particularly interested in the cherries. I went to the privy and when I got back, the bear was in a tree.The tenter and our shelter-mate eventually packed up and headed to town. SC and I had trouble concentrating on our morning chores because we kept watching the bear. A couple of others who tented nearby came up to get their food from the bear box, and we told them about the bear. Then someone noticed something else in another tree. It was a cub! No wonder the bear was not running away, she was staying near her cubs (eventually we saw a second cub).Now that we knew we were dealing with a mama bear and cubs, we had a little more motivation to get moving. We had 9.4 miles to get to town where Spike¢s Dad and grandparents would be meeting us and taking us off trail for a couple of days. Today¢s trail looked to be mostly downhill with a rather calm elevation profile and lots of views. There was a place called Hay Rock. SC climbed up for the view but Spike and I kept going. At the rock, there were a couple of new parents with a baby (he looked to be maybe 9 months old) out for his first hike. I thought that was pretty cool, but as I hiked, I had even more appreciation for what the parents had done. There were several rock scrambles I encountered, and it would have been difficult to do with a baby carrier. As we walked, we encountered more and more day hikers. Some of them were wearing running shoes and just carrying a small bottle of water. I wanted to tell them, ¢This hill is kicking my butt and I¢m hiking *down*.¢ We saw a guy who asked us how it was. It was about noon. I asked him where he was going and he answered Tinker Cliffs. We were there yesterday. He was proposing a 20-mile round trip and he was just now starting. We tried to tell him he probably wouldn¢t make it. He didn¢t seem to take us seriously. I saw a father looking at a map, telling his children, ¢This will be easy.¢ I wanted to tell them that their father has no idea what he¢s talking about. We finally make it to US 220, just south of Daleville. The plan is to hike .3 miles to get lunch and then see where the people who are picking us up are. When we get done eating, our ride is stuck in traffic. We are uncomfortably full and it is super hot, but we decide to keep hiking.We get back on the trail, and fortunately the next couple of miles are a walk in the park, literally. Before we know it, we are at Mountain Pass Road, the last road crossing in the area, 30 minutes before our ride. When they show up, we jump in the car and head back to Farmville.We check into a hotel, get showers, change into the non-hiking clothes they brought (yay, cotton!), and then get dinner on a rooftop. How quickly things change.