Date: 2004-06-11
From: Lewis Mountain Campground

To: Simmons Gap
Miles today: 17.7

We woke up to--you guessed it--more slugs. Our tent definitely needs a good washing now. Fortunately, only the outside is affected! Hoover put a baggie on his hand today when he performed the de-slugging duties. It took a LOT of scrubbing yesterday to remove the slug slime from his fingers...something he didn't want to have to repeat. Our "slug trap" (beer in a tuna can) did lure thirty or so slugs to their death, but our tent was still covered. Lonesome Dove and Scholar are tenting nearby, and they did not get a single slug on either tent. Go figure.It was drizzling out when we got up, and we packed our gear as quickly as possible. We hadn't decided whether we wanted to hike in the rain today or not, so we dropped Lonesome Dove off at Simmons Gap with her full pack to resume her hike. We planned to wait a while and decide to either hike and then camp at Lewis Mountain Campground or take a day off and go to Harrisonburg and get a motel room. The idea of a zero day was appealing, but we're so close to the end now, we just want to finish the hike and go home.We said our good-byes to Scholar this morning. We could tell that she was conflicted about leaving the trail, even for a few days. She mentioned the possibility of going to Maine and hiking south, as she thinks her migraines are made worse by the heat and humidity. We left Scholar at the Wayside at Loft Mountain, and she'll wait there for her mom to arrive in a few hours. I'll admit it, I had tears in my eyes when we left. I've grown very fond of her over the past couple of weeks.We drove over to Lewis Mountain Campground to check it out. It is much smaller than Loft Mountain, and seemed to be pretty full. As the rain was still holding at a drizzle, we decided to claim a campsite and hike back to Simmons Gap. We're tough, a little rain won't melt us!Once we were hiking, the rain stopped. By ten o'clock, the sun was peaking out, and it turned out to be a nice day. The temperatures stayed cool, so we hiked without working up much of a sweat. We ran into Hawk and told him we had a campsite at the campground that he was welcome to share. As soon as we mentioned that we planned to go to Big Meadows for dinner tonight, he decided to stop at Lewis Mountain for the day and wait for us. Oh, the temptation of a restaurant meal and a brew! Before we knew it, we were at Swift Run Gap, where we stopped to eat our lunch. Day packing has the advantage of permitting us to carry heavier than normal food, and we scarfed down fresh berries and sub sandwiches. This hiking business sure does rev up our appetites. All we can think about is our next meal!Shortly after lunch we came across Lonesome Dove. She was happy to see that we had decided to hike after all, since the day was so beautiful. We agreed to rendezvous at our tentsite at day's end. Towards the end of our hike we met up with Catdog and Wags. She's been trying to catch up to Hawk and LD, so she's done several 20+ mile days lately. Her plan was to make it to Big Meadows by tomorrow night, and then the gang should be together again.Just as we reached our Jeep--literally as my hand hit the door handle--it started to rain again. We were laughing at our good fortune when we saw a man, a woman and their dog huddling to keep dry. They asked if we were headed south, as they needed a ride to Loft Mountain Wayside. We were headed north, but gladly got them out of the rain and back to their car with a slight detour. It's nice to be able to "trail angel" now and then.It was still raining hard when we got back to Lewis Mountain CG. We found Hawk, Quest, Krispy Kritter, and LD hanging out on the porch of the campstore. We offered them all a trip to the Lodge at Big Meadows for dinner and a beer. KK and Quest opted to hike on, but LD and Hawk were ready to go. After we showered and LD set up her tent, we were preparing to leave when a woman approached us. She asked if we were the hikers going to Big Meadows, and could she have a ride? Her name was Edna, a graduate student who had decided to hike the Shenandoahs during her two month break so that she could get herself in shape. She'd been hiking for twelve days and was ready to quit. She wanted to get back to Big Meadows and a room at the Lodge. I guess this was our day to help out stranded hikers!Our dinner at the Lodge was yummy, and the company was good. We went down to the taproom for a beer afterwards, and then drove back to Lewis Mountain on a foggy Skyline Drive. Just after we got into our tents, the rain resumed and lulled us back to sleep.