Date: 2017-09-08
From: Timberville

To: Pinnacles picnic area
Miles today: 13.9

The shadows were starting to lengthen as we approached Pinnacle Rock, but it seemed like we would still have plenty of time to get to the campground a mile or so beyond. But when we saw the gorgeous view from the top of the crag and realised it was going to have a grandstand view of the sunset, there was an instant vote in favour of cooking dinner here instead. This kind of spontaneousness is something I've always like about the hiking life, not least because it reminds us that for all the need to make miles before the onset of winter, the rules out here are what we decide them to be rather than imposed externally. The sunset was indeed worth waiting for, and worth hiking in the gloaming for afterwards. We were fortunate that all of us were carrying enough water to cope with this new development, although Train later admitted that he'd already added flavouring to his water so he had the unusual experience of blackberry-flavoured noodles. The day had also started with food, understandably enough, although after being fed throughout our double zero by Sweetblood's grandfather and uncle, we insisted on cooking breakfast for them today. Even then, Dave came down early to help us cook a hearty (IE: full of cholesterol and carbs) meal, after which we squeezed back into two cars and reversed our journey to Elk Wallow wayside. After thanking them profusely -- but, inevitably, inadequately -- for their prodigious hospitality, we headed up the trail. There seemed to be new work on some of the water bars we were encountering and this became more obvious as we hiked along, which was explained when we met a couple of trail maintainers who'd been responsible for their work. I always enjoy meeting those who help keep the trail in shape because it means we can thank them directly for their unsung work. They in turn explained that the Shenandoah's large bear population was one of the biggest challenges to keeping the trail in shape because they turn over rocks in water bars in search of bugs and worms.Our intermediate goal was Thornton Gap, where Sweetwater was due to meet Cianna, her best friend from college, to hike with us for a few hours.She was unfortunate to join us at the start of a steady two-mile climb up from the gap to Mary's Rock, 1100ft higher, but fortunate that the climb was on beautifully graded trail that had been created as a bridle path by a depression era work group in the 1930s. It was relatively painless and the views made the effort worthwhile, although the real icing on the metaphorical cake was running into day hikers who announced they have spare cold beers for us. Once we farewelled Cianna, we hiked on to Byrd's Hut and found Pan already there, along with 2am, a new college grad who I'd apparently met earlier in Vermont. He'd been hiking with a buddy from college who'd been injured and later got off trail, after which 2am went from doing 10-mile days to 30-mile days, at which point he crossed paths with us.He and Pan were both settled in but the rest of us aimed to go further and left with an informal agreement to meet tomorrow at Skyland Wayside, which had a breakfast buffet. There was much enthusiasm for this idea.It was a mile past there that we reached Pinnacle Rock and made our impromptu decision to enjoy a meal with a view.That meant we were definitely pushing dusk by the time we finally reached Pinnacles picnic ground, where we found Sriracha, Sweetblood and Dirt set up in an idyllic grassy spot on top of a small knoll. It was a good site. Too good, as it turned out, because the park police came by at 11pm and informed us we weren't allowed to camp there. They were good about it -- they could have ticketed us but instead just told us to hike out of sight and reset our camp. We found a passable site a few minutes walk into the woods, where we set up again while trying not to be freaked out by the weird eye reflections from the herd of deer that were wondering what these interlopers were doing in their world. Life is good.AT fact of the day: The closest thing to a silver lining of our late night wake-up call was I'd forgotten to drink the PBR I'd been carrying all day. If not for moving the tent, it would have ended up being a breakfast beer -- which probably wouldn't have made the day end well...