Date: 2015-05-28
From: Hightop Hut

To: Rock Spring Hut
Miles today: 23.9
Weather: light rain

Shenandoah National Park is kind of weird but great. I was psyched about entering the park and thrilled, looking at the guidebook, to see how often we were to cross Skyline Drive.HOWEVER, there are hardly any good views when we cross Skyline Drive. Super lame. The trail is still amazingly pretty and awesome, but not very much different in the park.Also, the shelters are called huts. Apparently "shelters" are structures only for day use. I have no idea why. I don't understand. Whatever. They are super inconveniently placed, too, especially since stealth camping is strongly discouraged. To reach a hut, you might have to put in either a very short or very long day.HOWEVER, there are so many good SNACKING opportunities! It is like a glorious backpacker paradise of campground waysides, stores, and bathrooms with running water, and toilet paper to steal. And GARBAGE CANS. And POWER OUTLETS!! A lot of these are places that I wouldn't stop at if I was hiking alone... my budget is suffering a little. However, I am getting a lot more out of the trail, and a lot of good memories. I can always make more money, right?! At least I didn't have to pay $200 to replace fat Bertha. I do love my new pack....Chris and I have basically been eating our way through the park. We stopped and assessed our food stock situation at a picnic area during morning snack time and decided we needed a little more to make it to Monday morning, when I can pick up my next mail drop. We enjoyed the exceptionally comfortable comfort station (I washed my face!), filled our water bottles, and dumped our trash before continuing on.Since we needed to buy a few more provisions (Pop Tarts and M&Ms and granola bars) we stopped for an early lunch at one of the campground stores. I had pretzels and an ice cream cone for lunch. It was glorious. So glorious. Ice cream TWO DAYS IN A ROW. I also bought a Shenandoah National Park pin. When I road tripped out west to Colorado with Jim and Holmes after graduating from university, I started collecting pins of all the parks we visited. Just a fun thing. I was excited to see the pins in the store. I didn't get one for Great Smoky Mountain National Park, but maybe I'll go back sometime.We saw Hot Chocolate, slackpacking again, at the camp store, and Yellow Bird (she is a young and pretty runner who has been suffering shin pain, I feel bad), Magnus and Cocoa caught up to us as we were leaving. Magnus and Cocoa bought a bag of Frito's and a can of chili. They then dumped the chili into the bag of Fritos and sat there eating the mixture out of the bag with their sporks. Thinking about it makes me want to vomit. People eat some nasty stuff on the trail. There are levels to which I refuse to sink. I hope to never resupply from a gas station or Dollar General. I refuse to eat SPAM. Ugh. Fritos and chili. I bet it was delicious, but that is just so disgusting.We set out early because we knew that we would be putting on a lot of miles to make it to the second shelter (oops, I mean HUT) from Hightop. Again, there weren't many good options. But we planned to stop a lot so we figured it would be a long but bearable day.We departed from our lunch stop with almost half of the day's mikes already behind us. We were feeling good. The walking was easy and the weather was wonderful. At one point, on an exceptionally gorgeous stretch of trail, I stopped, lifted my poles into the air, and called ahead to Chris, "This is perfect!" And it was. Good company, good food, good weather, good hiking. I live the AT. Chris agreed, but added that he was disappointed that he hadn't seen any bears in the park yet. We keep passing people telling is about the bears they've seen, and are jealous. We have seen a ton of deer, which clearly are not at all scared of people at all. No bears, though. "There are still plenty of opportunities, though." I said.I could tell he was keeping an extra vigilant eye out as we hiked on, eager to spot a bear. And then, the AT phenomenon struck again! I saw movement to the right of the trail. I ran forward to catch up to Chris. "Bears! Bears!" I jabbed my trekking pokes in their direction. We stopped, and a mother bear and her two adorable cubs loped across the trail in front of us. Awesome. Another perfect addition to the perfect day.SPEAKING OF AT PHENOMENON, at one pont today Chris and I were talking about Ben and Jerry's flavors. We talk about food a lot. Food and miles (Where are we? How many miles has it been? How many mikes left?). Anyway he was talking about Chunky Monkey, and I said I didn't like bananas, then admitted that they were a food I didn't like as a child, but should probably give another try because I might like them now. Like yogurt and salsa. I didn't like them as a kid, bit I could ear salsa right out of the jar with a spoon now, and I love yogurt. So like two miles later we passed a couple of day hikers who asked if we were thru-hiking and offered us their extra BANANAS. WHAT ARE THE FREAKING CHANCES?! Seriously. That's a bit of a creepy coincidence, right?!Anyway the banana was pretty good. I think in would have enjoyed it even if I wasn't starving, which I was. So I guess I like bananas now. I feel like I am growing as a person.We put in good miles early and stopped at the next campground's Wayside, which includes a restaurant and a good-sized store. As soon as we stopped, I took off my trail runners and started to stretch before pulling the duct tape off of my heels in anticipation of switching into my camp shoes. A lady walking by looked HORRIFIED. "Does that hurt?!" she asked, staring at my dirty toes, which are about 90% callous at this point. I started at my feet. I didn't think they looked THAT bad. I guess I am just used to my gross sausage toes at this point. I assured her that they were fine, and talked to her a little about the trail and backpacking. One of her questions was, "Do you cook?!". It is weird to remember that so many people know nothing about backpacking, after being constantly surrounded by hikers for nearly two months!After being publicly shamed for having monstrous hiker feet, it was time to EAT. For my 4 o'clock dinner, I enjoyed a HUGE turkey wrap with fries for dinner. Chris looked at my plate, then his own, then mine. "I think you got more fries than me." He said. My sandwich was SO HUGE that I didn't mind sharing some of mine. Besides, I had to save room for dessert.AND HOLY APPALACHIAN TRAIL GODS, WHAT A DESSERT. I ordered another big scoop of ice cream, but blackberry this time. Chris ordered a blackberry milkshake. When the waitress delivered our treats, she put one cup down in front of Chris. "Here's your milkshake."Then she put down another cup, 3/4 full with MORE MILKSHAKE. "And here's the extra."Chris and I just looked at each other. Could the day be any more perfect?! He shared some of his milkshake and we leaned back in our chairs, our bellies swollen and sugar coursing through our blood.I was so cold from the ice cream and the AC (my body can't handle it after being out in the heat all day!) that I went back outside to get my jacket out of my pack, which was leaning against the outside of the building. As I was walking out, a father and his little boys were entering. One of the kids was looking at Chris's pack next to the door. "Is that a JETPACK?!" he asked. I almost died. How hilariously adorable. Can you imagine?! If my pack was a jetpack, I could get to Katahdin SO FAST. It would be AWESOME. In reality I would probably jettison myself straight into a tree and break my neck, but a girl can dream.Very satisfied with our early dinner, we set out to cover the last 5 miles to the hut. We were tired and our feet hurt and we wanted to be done, and as thunder rumbled in the distance I was thankful to have a full tummy to give me the energy to continue.As we passed the campground, we saw familiar faces! Funk and his family were standing outside an RV. Funk's brother has been hiking with him for the last few days, and we have run into them a few times. I helped Funk change the brightness setting on his phone the other day when we met up with them at a shelter at lunch time. Their parents parked their RV next to the trail and were giving out sodas and snacks to passing hikers. We stopped for a short chat before excusing ourselves so we could get to the hut before it got too late. They were SO nice, and gave me nice cold water and potato chips. Amazingly, I still had room in my stomach. I eat SO MUCH. As we departed, Funk told us that we are the nicest couple on the trail. Awwww. We aren't really a "couple", just a couple of hikers, but the compliment still made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.Tomorrow, we plan to sleep until six instead of five, and put in fewer miles. We tried to plan our stops for the next few days so we can get my box first thing Monday morning and get to Harpers Ferry on Wednesday so Chris can meet his parents. We can afford a rest day. Before departing to our individual sleeping places (his hammock and my tent) tonight, we discussed the hiker compulsion to keep putting on miles. We don't want to wreck ourselves. We want to enjoy the trail. We passed Rickshaw on the trail today, who thinks he has a stress fracture in his foot. I think that kind of hit home for Chris, another dose of perspective. I agreed with the sentiments he expressed. I don't want the trail to end too soon. I have been enjoying myself so much lately. I want it to last for three more months AT LEAST.I am thankful for TWO ice cream cones and real food today. And for a near-perfect AT day. I am thankful for Chris, espexially since he hung my bear bag for me. I tried but my wimpy arms just couldn't take it. It is so pathetic. I feel like I have chubby hiker legs of steel, but my arms are just so lame... I really AM like a T. rex. He actually got my bag down for me this morning, too, before I could ask for his help. What a good hiking companion I have found in him. I am also VERY thankful that tomorrow will be a shorter day, because my sausage toes need a break.