Date: 2005-06-03
From: Big Meadows

To: Pass Mountain Hut
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: light rain

We all woke up pretty early this morning, even though we didn't need to. We were going to wait for the restaurant to open for breakfast so we could eat before we left. That wasn't until 7:30. We packed our gear, I took my Marmot Precip jacket to the laundry to throw it in the dryer. Apparently, the heat of the dryer does something to make it more water repellant. I got back just in time to have breakfast. I ordered an omelette with Jack cheese and sausage. It was pretty good. I had a couple of cups of coffee and a big biscuit. The timing worked out well because, we didn't leave until 9 o'clock, and by that time, we were in full raingear and within 15 minutes the rain had stopped. We had to stop and take the raingear off because it was too hot in it. These days, we are running from wayside to wayside. We are timing it so we can eat at all of them. Our next food stop was at the Skyland Wayside, 10.7 miles from Big Meadows. We timed it pretty well. We got there by noontime, which was when they opened. We sat down and had lunch there. So, today we had breakfast and lunch in restaraunts, pretty neat, considering we are on the Appalachian Trail. Once again, it was pretty good food, a little expensive, but, they have a captive audience. The guys had burgers and shared onion ring petals, which they proclaimed to be excellent. I had something called 3 Onion Soup, which was very good. I also had more coffe and the Skyland sampler which had all kinds of goodies on it. It was very filling, I actually got full for lunch, which is unusual for me these days. We went to the gift shop and did the tourist thing. We didn't get moving out of there until 1:45. We started hauling ass to the Pass Mountain Shelter, which was our destination for today. The Northern part of Shenandoah's terrain actually gets pretty rough. It's a little steeper and there's alot more rocks. Some pretty good descents too; I believe it's 1,500 feet from the Pinnacles down to Thronton Gap. All-in-all, it was still not a bad walk. Once again, we all got separated. Easy Goer stopped first because he wanted to change into dry socks. When I got up to the higher grounds of the Pinnacles, I told OC1 that I was going to stop and make some phone calls. I called and ordered some more Buzz Off shirts, then I called the place that makes my raincoat duster to see if they make a larger one. Unfortunately, they don't. It's a women's raincoat, and they only make them so large. I also talked to Diana and Tony.   I chatted with them for awhile and I have them on a hunt for a portable CD burner. That would be the only solution for me to get my journals in. I finally called Jan because Mark and Jan are planning on showing up tomorrow at a shelter to spend the night and it turns out, they might not spend the night, but, they are still coming up. In the meantime, our plan is a very short 12 miles. First, 7 miles to Elkwallow Gap to the Wayside there, and pick up some food because it's the last wayside there is for a few days. Then we should meet them by 2 o'clock tomorrow. They are coming, but it's up in the air how long they will stay now. I ran into Easy Goer at Thornton Gap, and we walked together to Pass Mountain Hut at 5:30. OC1 was already here setting up his tent. Just Bob and Goat and a few gals were here, too. One of them was a 2000 Through hiker that was here re-living a piece of the Trail. She seemed more than willing to share what she knew of the Trail, she talked alot. We set up our tents a good distance from the shelter and we cooked. Then we went up to the shelter to socialize with everyone. Just Bob had built a pretty good fire, and we sat around the fire talking.When it started getting dark, I headed back to my tent and spent a good deal of my time sewing.You would think that out in the woods, all we have to do is walk and that we have alot of free time to do other things. I don't have alot of time to do the things I want to do, like fix gear. I actually stayed up late today to do that. Or write postcards. I finally gave up on the postcards yesterday. I left the ones I have been carrying since Atkins, Virginia at the Big Meadows room. I got fed up carrying them. It's been good days. I think we are all getting excited that we have less than 2 weeks now and then we can take a break for a week. In even less time than that, we hit Harper's Ferry, the halfway point. I am more than ready to take a break here before we start the second half of this journey. It's after 10 o'clock, there's no rain, and I'm a little tired right now. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed. I really don't want to have to pack up in the rain in the morning and I really don't want to have to walk in it.That's it. Good night.