Date: 2019-06-28
From: Calf Mountain Shelter

To: Blackrock Hut
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: clear sky

Today we all got up early, which was awesome! Salamander came over and we all ate breakfast together. There was a family of day hikers in a huge tent and they were packing up. I used the privy and noticed a lovely nest made out of poop paper from the privy. And those same mice are crawling over us at night. Yuck yuck yuck. Thumper and I got out at a good time and Salamander left a bit before us to meet her professor. There was a little detour at first around some power lines they were working on. The day had many ups and downs again. We saw Salamander and her professor eating berries and we all stopped at an overlook together. They headed on and Thumper and I continued. We didn¢t run into them again. There were a few overlooks, which is what I had heard about the Shenandoahs, and they had very nice views, but there were climbs in between each. Up down up down up down. We stopped for a moment at one of the parking areas and I was really ready to lose it. Every day is just a struggle right now trying to beat my own demons, in addition to the heat and the bugs and the stress of it all. Thumper was very understanding. He¢s a lot of fun to hang out with. He¢s only here on a section hike, but he¢s a good buddy to have and I¢m thankful he¢s hiking with me for a bit. I need someone right now to at least be with me, and as much as I love Salamander, I think she¢s doing her own thing and I knew that might happen when we weren¢t quite on the same page about slackpacking and such.Thumper said we should just go to the next shelter and not worry about the campground. I was upset at possibly losing Salamander, even though we might not have hiked together. We were still buds. I was also just trying to push miles. But I agreed with him. Just the next shelter today. We got to another road and it was looking like rain. It sprinkled a bit and we put our pack covers on. We met a day hiker who was running down to her car out of the rain. She took some trash from Thumper, as we had had trail magic earlier today (some granola bars and water from folks in a parking lot) and he had the box and wrappers. That was very nice of her, it¢s annoying to carry trash sometimes for long periods of time.There wasn¢t a lot of water today, so that trail magic was very nice. It was done by a trail maintainer and he was very friendly and enthusiastic about the trail. He made me feel good, although he also talked about the hard sections in New England and not having that much time and I was stressed again.Thumper and I got to the shelter and it was a bit off trail unfortunately. We got down there and there was tape across all the trees, but one tent tucked in the corner. We set our packs down and a ridge runner came out from the tent. Her name was Four Eyes and she explained that the tape was there because there had been an aggressive bear the night before. Ahhhhh. She said the bear had gone into someone¢s tent and taken their pack! Umm!! They got the pack back, but there was damage to the tent. So as of today there was no camping allowed here, but people could stay in the shelter itself. The trail maintainers had come down today and installed a bear box and now Four Eyes was here to make sure no one camped and to enforce the new protocol.Thumper and I set up inside the shelter and two other folks showed up. They both had hammocks unfortunately, so they didn¢t have sleep pads for a shelter, but made it work. Thumper and I made a fire and had dinner. The two section hikers were hilarious and pulled out a bottle of bourbon. And then in came Cakes! I met Cakes a few days ago. He¢s so entertaining. He¢s hiked both of the other trails so he¢s going for his triple crown. He pulled out weed, so people were partying it up at this shelter and it was a lot of fun. It really raised my spirits. Thumper somehow had Brandy even though he¢s underage. Four Eyes had an air horn ready and we all expected a bear to show up any time, because they often repeat the same actions and continue to come back. But he didn¢t show up. No bear!We had a good end to this day and it made me feel good after a difficult time. I was so happy to have good company and to have hiked more today. Slowly making progress in miles and mind. Little Debbie