Date: 2011-06-09
From: Camping near Skyland Resort

To: Camping near Elkwallow
Miles today: 18.1

We got up, not in a rush. The next wayside store/restaurant seemed a little far but the second shelter wasn't far enough so we weren't real sure what we wanted to do. Do we just started hiking. We stopped for a quick snack then continued until we got to Thornton Gap where had lunch. All along the way, we weren't sure about how far we wanted to go and whether we wanted to try to make the last wayside for dinner or breakfast. We then got the idea to hike to the next gap and hitch a ride to the wayside. When we almost down the mountain, I stopped to write a few short lines of poetry that is now included on my signature life of my journal. That meant "Half Man" got to the road crossing a little before I did. We crossed the road and decided that we would try to hitch a ride and if 3 cars passed, we would give up and continue the hike. We got a ride with the 3rd car which was great. What we didn't pay attention to was the fact that we were hitching a ride in the wrong direction. We got to the bridge crossing near where we had lunch and realized our mistake. We thanked the folks who have us a ride and went to the other side of the road to try to hitch back. "Half Man" could see her husband laughing about the whole thing. We got a good chuckle out of it. Thomas, I'm going to just blame it on her :D. We finally got a ride back in the other direction from someone who lived in Melbourne, Fl. He even knew of Dawn's mom who drove an ambulance. The thing that have it away was the brevard county fire/rescue sticker on the back window. He have us a ride all the way to the wayside restaurant. There we met "Brazil Nut" and were spoon joined by "Catfish" we sat around the picnic table eating dinner and just talking. I wanted to get back to point that we got off the trail so as not to miss any part of the trail. "Brazil Nut" laughed and called me purist because she thought that the 5.3 miles was insignificant compared to whole length of the trail. Good discussion followed about what a purist really was. I still wanted to hike that part though. "Half Man" wasn't interested in hiking it so if I was going to do it, I was going to have to do it by myself. I noticed that the same guys who have us a ride to the wayside were heading back the other direction and were giving a couple of others a ride southward. What luck! I quickly grabbed my stuff and told everyone that I would be back by 8. I got on the trail at ten til six and completed the 5.3 mile section in 1 hour and 50 minutes. That time included making a wrong turn that added about 7 minutes. It is the fastest I've hiked. These little performance test don't seem significant but it does give an indication of one's fitness level. It's just a confidence boost. I now know what can do. The little quick jaunt wasn't just pure speed hiking. Along the way, I got to see my second bear for the trip! As usual, it took off once it saw me. We found a camping spot near the wayside and pitched our tents. The cool thing is that we can eat breakfast at the restaurant in the morning. I've called our hike through the Shenandoah Park the Shenandoah restaurant tour since we've stopped at just about every restaurant along the way.