Date: 2017-09-09
From: Pinnacles picnic area

To: Bearfence Mountain shelter
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: scattered clouds

"You're hiking the AT?" a day hiker asked."Yes," I replied, expecting the usual questions: Are you doing the whole thing? How long will it take? Did you start in Maine? How much does your pack weigh? Do you poop in the woods? Etc etc.But no. This was something else."If you're on the AT," he said, pointing in the direction I was about to head. "You want to follow those white blazes on these trees.""Oh... Um, thanks." I said, suppressing an urge to add: "So that's what those white things I've been seeing since Maine are! I've been wondering."When the tramily gathered once more a couple of miles later, we quickly discovered that we'd all interacted in this way with this day hiker.Sweetblood and Dirt were convinced he was mansplaining, as defined by men explaining condescendingly towards women, but Sriracha and my own experience suggested there was no gender divide involved. "He was dorksplaining," I suggested. "He did this to everyone."This was a discordant moment on a day which had been shaping up as one of the best, at least based on the town-food test, because we were due to hit not just one but TWO waysides, with their restaurants and all the hiker fuel they contained.The first, Skyland Lodge, had lived up to the billing, which is good because there needs to be a powerful incentive to see me hiking by 7.15am. Being up early and the first on the trail meant I came close to a bear encounter, finding instead a very fresh scratch mark on the trail where some hungry bruin had been hunting for bugs -- apparently until detecting my imminent arrival.It was only 3.8 miles to Skyland Wayside, which proved to be far bigger than its Elk Wallow counterpart and spanned many accommodation blocks, an expansive store and -- thankfully -- a restaurant with a buffet breakfast. The waitress was a little perplexed when I rocked up solo and asked for a table for eight but I looked slightly less delusional when Pan and then 2am rocked up soon after, despite having to an extra two miles. They were clearly fast hikers. Sriracha and Train followed suit, arriving an hour before the end of the buffet but still more than capable of getting their money's worth out of it. Sweetblood and Dirt took their time and arrived shortly before we waddled out of the restaurant, our pockets stuffed with some cupcakes to share with them.From there it was easy hiking on good trail that contoured around the hills on the opposite side to Skyline Drive rather than going over the top of every knoll on the ridgeline. Soon after we'd been dorksplained by our day hiker about the trail being marked with white blazes, we were still comparing notes when we arrived at Big Meadow wayside, which proved to be even more lavish than Skyland had been. It included an upmarket hotel as well as the usual camping and cabins. And, of course, a restaurant for more chilli cheese dogs and a blackberry milkshake.The rest of the afternoon was more cruisy hiking towards Bearfence Mountain. Once again, we were pushing the available daylight to get down from the viewpoint to Bearfence shelter. And once again the prospect of another session of the sunset cooking club was more enticing. (Fortunately Train seemed to have learned his lesson from last night and had plain water rather than flavoured to cook with.) The sun was long gone by the time we reached the shelter. Such is the effect of our proximity to the DC area, the niceness of the Shenandoahs and being here on a weekend, it was packed with people and even all the available camping sites were taken. I managed to find a place to pitch my tent right next to the shelter, but even the presence of two loud and annoying people next to my tent, talking over each other about the Jersey Devil (a local equivalent of Sasquatch or the Yeti) long into the night. I was tired enough -- and still full enough from two lots of town food -- that I didn't care.Life is good.AT fact of the day: We'd only needed to carry one day of food after the mountain house sojourn because of today's pair of waysides. At Big Meadow, we only needed to stock up for one night because there's another wayside tomorrow. This, as much as the scenery, is why the Shenandoah National Park is rated so highly among AT hikers. I could get used to this.