Date: 2016-05-04
From: Pen Mar Park 

To: Quarry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: light rain

Even in hotels, hikers wake up with sunrise... Even when it's raining so hard you can barely see evidence of the sun. I don't do anything without coffee in my system, so I head straight for the continental breakfast. It was standard continental breakfast fare- muffins, toast, inexplicably Wolfgang Puck branded coffee, and a make your own waffle set up. I was still south of the Mason Dixon, so there was also something gelatinous that resembled biscuits and gravy. I ate all of it. I'm not even sorry.Eric was eager to get going early and decided to walk the 2 miles back to the trail head. I was not and therefore did not. I paid for that room until 11, I'm staying till 11. I reorganized my stuff, dried my hammock in the bathtub, and watched several episodes of Supernatural, because of course it was on.A nice guy named Roger runs a shuttle out of Waynesboro and gave me a ride to Pen Mar. The weather was foggy and gray, but the rain held off. I sang 40 verses of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. I listened to a podcast. I jumped in puddles. I didn't see a soul all day.I stopped at Antietam Shelter, along a beautiful creek, to eat cookie butter (best food ever) and soak my feet. From there it was a short jaunt to Old Forge park, then to Tumbling Run Shelters which are BEAUTIFUL! The caretakers are awesome, they come up to visit nightly. There are two shelters, labeled snoring and non-snoring. I shared the latter with a NOBO thru-hiker named Postal, while Traveling Tom, Precious One, and Quiet Guy staked a claim to the snoring section. I got there quite early, knowing that rain would be coming in. Tom and I chatted about the Rainbow Family Gathering, which he has attended for 30 years, world peace, and birds. I also braided his hair for him. Needless to say, Traveling Tom is an interesting character. Just as the rain rolled in, so did Seam, another NOBO hiker, the first I've met in several days who was my approximate age. He decided to hammock, despite the rain.We also received a nice dose of Trail Magic from a group of Outward Bound instructors camping nearby, who accidentally made too much food. Gratefully, we scarfed down their leftovers.By hiker midnight, we were all ready for bed, so up went the bear bags and into the sleeping bags we went. In the middle of the night, I woke suddenly to the sound of rustling and snuffling nearby. The bear pole was only ten feet from me, helpless in a 3 sided shelter. "Crap crap crap crap." I did a quick mental inventory of my pack- is there anything scented in there? Anything to draw the bear closer? I turned toward Postal, to see if the bear had woken him up, too, just as the snuffling of the bear changed... Into a long drawn out snore... Coming from Postal.I almost threw a shoe at him for snoring in the non-snoring shelter, but instead I turned over and tried to slow my racing heart. Eventually, I fell back asleep.The trouble with hikers who wake up early is that everything we own is made of nylon. Which makes it noisy when you're trying to be quiet and thunderous when you're not trying to be quiet. Such was the case with the next morning's wake up call. As if the bear incident wasn't enough, I was also roused at 5:30. All this made for a grumpy Rigby, so I ate poptarts and scowled at the rain from the safety of my sleeping bag while the others began packing up. The trail started with a 1000 foot climb up to Chimney Rocks, which the Outward Bound instructors claimed was beautiful. It was raining, so I'll have to take their word for it. After that, the trail snaked along a windy ridgeline for a while. I ate snickers, picked up 2 lbs of trash, and eventually resorted to a podcast to keep myself entertained. That is, until I hit the boulder fields. It's hard to pay attention to Sara Koenig AND giant stabby, slippery slabs of granite at the same time. The wind really picked up, so I dashed the best I could to Caledonia State Park to eat lunch. I owe Road Runner an apology for mocking his disgusting sandwich the other day, because I made my own this afternoon. Buffalo peanuts + Mediterranean flavored tuna + tortilla = magic. Hiker Hunger is real, y'all.I hadn't seen a soul all day, so I got real weird and awkward when I ran into a group of NOBO hikers in the park. They all look so legit, with their gaiters and their grime. I just waved and walked on. They caught me a few miles later and I was right to be intimidated. They were a lot cooler than me...Now I'm resting at the magical, Disney-esque Quarry Rock Shelter, built in the 30s and religiously maintained by the Innkeeper, as he's known. There's a babbling brook, potted plants, and checkers! It's completely surrounded by dense rhododendron forest, filled with lively birds. They've been threatening rain for hours, but so far, nada. Which is really a nice change. But it's chilly tonight, and it's just me and a section hiker named Rhino, so it'll probably be an early night.