Date: 2017-08-23
From: Big Meadows Campground

To: High-top Hut shelter
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Had some difficulty sleeping last night and the campground do to nice made by campers next door and other campers a little farther rough will light shining brightly into the open and of my tarp. It also rains lightly on and off during the night but this was not really a bother. By morning my tarp and most of my surroundings dry.I got up at 6 and got ready for the day. instead of cooking, I ate my oatmeal dry. As I was packing up it began raining lightly again. Are you just cussed with intrepid my plans for arriving in Waynesboro on the 26th to link up with Joey. She said that aligned with her plans because she needed to get off the trail in order to get food there. So at about 7:30 we headed up past the big Meadows lodge and took the Black Rock Trail back to the Appalachian Trail. We stopped at a viewpoint on the way. This guy was dark with great clouds but we had a good 180 degree panorama of the valley to the west including the site of rain falling on the hills to the south west of us where we would probably have to walk today.As I was walking up the trail around 8 a.m. I happen to see a large turkey and a deer on the trail in front of me at the same time. In general the morning hike was relatively easy. The trail was wide and relatively flat even the climbed up to hazel top which looked into dating on my elevation profile was only 600 feet up over 3 miles. At the top of Mount Hazeltop, I took a couple pictures of nice westward views.The climb over bear fence Rock was stepper and slower going. I arrived at the turnoff for the blue trail to the bear fence shelter at about 10:15 a.m. I decided to hike the .1 mile distance to the shelter and take a break. The blue trail to the shelter was made of a grey gravel road bed so I scratched and arrow into the ground is an attempt should let intrepid know which way I had gone.At the bear fence shelter, I had snack and some water and I met 3 other southbound hikers. These were "Backwoods Ken" "Backwoods Barbie", and "Cattywhompus."The latter got his name from the way his backpack always seems lopsided. I chatted with them for a while and took a picture. In the photo, Cattywhompus is in a lower right for ground and his pack is in the upper left with huge circular to person tent strapped to it. I left the shelter after signing a log book and headed back up towards the trail at about 10:45. Intrepid had not shown up yet and must have either been further back on the trail or chosen not to hike the extra distance to this intermediate shelter. In any case my arrow on the ground was on disturbed so I erased it And drew another pointing straight ahead on the Appalachian Trail. I figured she'd probably passed by and that I would catch up with her.I didn't fact catch up with her at the Lewis campsite 2 miles later. She was having a snack and talking to two northbound takers. So I stopped when she offered to share peanut butter crackers that she gotten as trail magic but wouldn't eat. After Lewis Mountain we went over Saddleback Mountain or at least parts of it. And from there down to a park entrance station where we took a break at about 3:30 p.m. interrupted was getting some blister sister watched your feet and put on some band aids. We both also had lunch. For me that was a tuna salad tortilla and I ate the remnants of my jar of peanut butter and jelly with a spoon.Afterward we headed back to the trail. That is we were crossing the bridge over a4 lane road coming in and out of the park I saw a large animal near a road sign about 200 yards ahead. Its was a black bear. That is number 6 that I have seen since beginning my Appalachian Trail hike in April. Shortly after we saw the bear we had to turn right and go up the trail into the woods about 100 meters from where the bear head run up into the woods as a pickup truck had just come by. And it was a long 2 mile climb to the top of high top Mountain. But the slope was gentle at least.I stopped for a while at an overlook near the peak. I took some pictures of the view to the Westover the Shenandoah Valley and what intrepid said she believed was the Massanutten mountain range. Intrepid caught up shortly thereafter and she took off her shoes and sat on the rocks at the peak and had a snack. She said she was going to stay there for about a half an hour. Meanwhile I put my backpack back on and height down the south side of high top the short half mile to the high top Mountain shelter. At the shelter, I set up, got water, made dinner, discussed hike plans for the following days. I also used my new "bear-proof" Ursack as my container for hanging food. Picture.