Date: 2014-05-20
From: Pinefield Hut

To: Bearfence Mountain Hut
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

No bears today! Must not like the Bearfence Mountain Hut...Left camp early because of the long day today - up before the Marines and Matt who partied hard last night. The fire got so hot last night it melted glass!A couple little ups to start out the day - not bad hiking until the last up to Hightop Hut. Not extremely steep but a long climb after 7 or so miles of hiking. Slow going up the hill and we took our much needed first break at the hut. Passed Cheeseburger and Baggie on the way up the hill - two female hikers hiking together. After resting at the hut, started heading down the hill to US 33 and our lunch break. Right after the shelter we passed 900 miles of AT hiking! Passed Long Haul Trucker and his son resting on a lookout point and worked our way down to the road. A nice lunch in the sunshine and we watched a group of bikers head up a big hill on Skyline Drive. Long Haul Trucker and his son and Cheeseburger and Baggie all arrived at the road as well.Headed up the first hill to a picnic area to rest and get water. The day was getting warmer and we passed Cheeseburger and Baggie going up the hill. Getting to the picnic area was a relief for Big Dawg since he really had to go to the bathroom! Met some section hikers from Fort Wayne at the picnic area as well as ran into section hiker Mike again. The Fort Wayne guys were ok except one went to IU...just messing they were nice older gentleman about Big Dawg's age.As we were leaving we ran into Sully and Matt going to the picnic area. Their group had reserved a PATC cabin on the way to Bearfence Mountain Hut and were all staying there tonight. We chatted briefly and hoped to run into them tomorrow.From the picnic area we only had one more hill before Lewis Mountain Campground. Not a tough hill and we passed the Pocosin Cabin along the way - nice looking cabin! Arrived at the camp store and met section hikers Webber and Scott from the Virginia area. Both graduated from Virginia Tech and were doing the entire Shenandoah Park. We resupplied in the camp store and Big Dawg decided to carry six beers with him for about 1 mile to the camp - I did not want to carry that extra stuff around!Arrived at the hut and it was an ok place - kinda watery near the shelter and camping spots up a steep hill. On the way to the hut we ran into Snackpack and Push Up doing a section hike. They are girlfriend and boyfriend hiking together and Push Up started out on a thru-hike but had to leave due to injury. Nice kids about my age and Snackpack sounded exactly like my friend Devon Hagan from Gulfstream - very strange!Another full camp tonight! We had Lynx, Webber, Scott, Mike, Long Haul Trucker and his son, Snackpack, Push Up, and the section hikers from Fort Wayne. While collecting firewood two deer came really close to camp and were not scared st all. I shared a moment with a deer in the woods - he stood ten feet from me while I gathered wood, we looked at each other, accepted the others presence and continued on our own paths. After everyone ate we started one of our famous fires and chilled around the campfire the rest of the evening. Baggie and Cheeseburger rolled into camp late and set up as we went to bed.