Date: 2019-05-23
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Fourth day in Shenandoah. I'm up at 5:40 despite the shelter facing west. Skyland's buffet breakfast is calling! It takes little time to pack up when you sleep in the shelter and aren't cooking for breakfast. Yet most hikers prefer tenting and cooking. Maybe it feels a little more domestic and a little less like vagrancy.The trail is stonier and rockier in the northern half of the park. I pass up the side trail to Hawksbill summit, the highest point in Shenandoah, for the second time. Last year I hiked this section with my daughter Snickers. I had the idea to climb it last evening after dropping my pack at the shelter to see the sun set. But once I reached the shelter inertia set in.I thought I couldn't eat again after yesterday, but I'm all over the buffet. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, spinach quiche, fresh fruit, oatmeal, and of course an omelet station! Thirty minutes later I can't move. I don't return to the trail for two and a half hours, and even then I'm moving very slowly.Coming down from the Stony Man summit side trail a group of dayhikers passes and chatters about a bear they just saw. I ask about it and one little boy is very excited. He asks my trail name and I tell him Valley Forge, after my hometown. Then I ask him his. It's Three Ties, after the clip-on ties he got for special occasions. We bump fists and he beams.A few miles later approaching Pinnacles picnic area I see my first bear of this trip. He's an adult and only thirty or forty feet away, browsing in the bushes. He looks at me, ambles a few steps away and stares into space, waiting for me to leave. I walk up to Rose and Clammy at a picnic table and point to the bear. He has come up closer to the trail. Clammy goes over to take a picture, against our better judgment, but the bear ignores him. On the other side of Pinnacle mountain we collapse in Byrd's Nest #3 Hut. It has a fireplace and open sleeping platform. We chat with a dayhiker named Ubi training for a southbound thruhike starting in a few weeks. He wants to know about how to find water, what guide to use, and more last minute tips. There's a front of thunderstorms headed our way. It's been warm today, though cooler than expected. Afternoon thunderstorms aren't a surprise. Clammy waits to ride it out in the shelter. I sit for a few minutes and get antsy. I've walked through rain many times. It will probably be refreshing. So I hike on. On Mary's Rock I scramble up the ledges and watch the curtain of rain cross the valley. The wind is already whipping up. It'll be here in a few minutes. Throwing on my poncho, I head down towards Thornton Gap with the first raindrops hitting my face. Within minutes it's a downpour. I hike quickly over the wet rocks and puddles. My Lone Peak shoes blew out on the sides at some point in the last few days. The puddles seep in quickly now. I pass a dayhiker couple unprepared for the weather, huddled next to a large tree on the narrow ledge of the trail. But the rain tapers off within twenty minutes. Other than my shoes and socks (and poncho), everything is dry.Mystic is at the bottom, looking for Sunshine and Bluegrass' minivan. They've offered her a lift into Luray. She heads up route 211 while I continue hiking north. I spy the van in Skyline Drive and go over to alert them where she went, then head to the crossing over 211 to find her. But she's found her way up and they're soon on their way. At Thornton Gap I'm leaving the section I hiked with my daughter, Snickers, and entering the section I hiked with my then nine-year-old son last spring. It's a good climb up Pass Mountain, where I find Food Truck drying out at the shelter with a pair of section hikers - mom and grown daughter. Soon fifteen other thru- and section hikers stream in, most of them tenting. I've seen all of them over the last several days. Outside of this group I've seen only the occasional dayhikers. But Memorial Day weekend is coming so that will change. I build a fire out of somewhat damp wood. It takes forever, even with Zig fanning it with his sitpad. A wax-covered cotton pad from the younger section hiker at least gets it started. There's a lively conversation, but I'm pretty beat and retire to the shelter loft to rest.