Date: 2014-06-04
From: Maupin Field Shelter

To: Calf Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 28.5
Weather: broken clouds

All four of us in the shelter - Pockets, Flower Child and Rod&Reel and I - were up early, so I didn¢t have to worry about making too much noise packing up. After yesterday, it was a great feeling to not have any specific mileage goal or destination as I hiked down the trail. I leap frogged with Pockets, Rod&Reel and Bandana Bill (who had tented nearby) all day as each of us had different but similar paces, and stopped for water or food at different times. I enjoyed the views along the way. In the photo, the gray arc just below the top of the mountain on the right is not a line of rocks, they are condos! I also stopped to help Bandana Bill with one of his trekking poles that he couldn¢t get to lock. I got it to lock, but I don¢t know if he¢ll ever get it unlocked again! :-)When I got to the Paul Wolfe Shelter, I met a SoBo section hiker who had just started out from I-64 that morning. He said although it was early, it was supposed to rain later, so he was going to stay there and enjoy the day. He said the rain was supposed to start about 8:00. There was a fairly large mountain stream next to the shelter, so I took a short dip to cool off some. C-c-coooold water! Wonder who lived here¢¦One of the cool things about hiking in the mountains is seeing signs of folks who lived here many years ago and wondering why they chose these places to settle and what life was like for them. I really can¢t relate to it very well today.Rod&Reel and Bandana Bill were planning to make it to I-64 and go into Waynesboro to resupply. When Linda dropped me off two days ago, I only had food to make it to I-64 where I¢d either resupply on my own or have Linda meet me. Yesterday, we decided to wait until Thursday for Linda to meet me and that I¢d go on into Shenandoah National Park (SNP) however far I make it, and she¢d meet me there in the afternoon. The AT Guide lists a ¢King¢s Kettle Corn¢ eating establishment being at the I-64 gap, so I figured I could resupply enough there to make it one more day. I didn¢t pay attention to the fact that it mentioned they had hot dogs, ice cream, sodas and popcorn. I discovered that¢s ALL they have! So I loaded up on three giant hot dogs and a couple of Gator Aids before heading into the SNP. I still had some food left, although not really enough for a full day tomorrow. Since the next water was at the Calf Mountain Shelter 7.6 miles north and I was feeling good and had plenty of daylight left, that became my goal for the day. I also thought a shelter would be nice since it was supposed to rain tonight, and I could easily get there before 8:00. :-)I had been to this shelter before when I did a day hike last winter to check out my winter gear, so I was familiar with where it was and the two small mountains before it. As I approached the top of the first mountain, I could hear the thunderstorms to the west. I hoped they would slide by north of me, but as I came down that mountain, a thunderstorm came right over me. Hey, it's not 8:00 yet! Since the gap ahead of me had a large open field, I waited in the woods for the storm to pass before venturing into the open area. Going up the last mountain I got good cell reception, so I called and chatted with Linda a while. There was an open field area at the top with a great view now that the storm had gone through. I knew the shelter was a short distance down the other side, so I stopped for a while and tried to email Linda an attachment (which didn¢t work since it was too big). Then it started to get dark so I headed down the other side of the mountain¢¦ except the trail kept going up! I wasn¢t at the top yet! When I finally got to the top and started down the other side it was dark and I had to use my headlamp to get to the shelter.There were numerous tents about and a group of young folks gathered around the shelter picnic table. They had all arrived before the rain and sat it out in the shelter. Mother Earth was the only one I¢d met before, but Sherlock and Hemlock were two of the others. An older guy, Uncle Buck, was also there, so I asked him if they were all his nieces and nephews. :-) There were only two sleeping bags on the lower level and Uncle Buck was on the upper level, so I decided to sleep in the shelter again. It started to rain, so everyone else dispersed to their tents and I discovered the two sleeping bags already had folks sleeping in them while I was joking around with the group - oops!More thunderstorms started coming through so I got out my ear plugs and went to sleep! Slightly more miles than yesterday, and I wasn¢t even trying!