Date: 2006-05-17
From: camp

To: Terrapin Station
Miles today: 17.0

Casey and I were both fairly nonplussed by Shenandoah. It was much more like a state park than a national park--not bad, but probably not worth the entrance fee. We've heard it's pretty good by car on the Skyline Drive, but you may as well cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway which is the same thing only free. Now the Smokies, while admittedly I wasn't crazy about some of it while I was there, were definately NP material. I've come to expect lots from a National Park. GSMNP is unique and especially beautiful, and much more wild. I only remember one road crossing the whole time as opposed to the 23 times daily on SNP. We had heard that SNP would be much easier than surrounding terrains, and that was true. But to be honest I'm getting a little bored with the relative flatness--I'm ready for some big climbs and rocks and maybe even a little inclement weather, just to spice things up a little. Still though, we did see some animals. It's neat, now that wildflower season is well past it's peak we're seeing more animals--always something to look at. More pileated woodpeckers, my first ever scarlet tanagers (they're about 50 times brighter red than cardinals--they're so shockingly bright it's like seeing a flying highlighter), lots of deer, and a couple bears. Casey saw more bears than I did because mostly we'd hear then rooting around in the dry leaves at night. He'd wake me up--'Emily, there's a BEAR outside! Hear it?' 'uhhhh...yeah i guess...i don't know just gobacktosleep....zzzz' And Casey would go out to shoo it away while I was busy ignoring it. One did run right across the trail in front of us, that was neat.We are now accidentally at the Terrapin Station hostel after a highly irregular evening. We got in to Front Royal with a quick resupply in mind, with a brief stop at the outfitter to get a new bite valve for my Platypus (mine was thoroughly busted). Then back to the trail to camp. Such plans did not pan out. First, the gear store stop took hours--they were out of bite valves, but the dude working there noticed that my tube was broken too--apparently the 'taste-free lining' had delaminated, probably when it was frozen solid in the Smokies. He berated me--'Look at how you're abusing your outdoor equipment--bringing it outside and such.' Cascade Designs was contacted, and a new tube was procured free of charge.At the same time, Casey had accidentally bought a Greyhound ticket for a day too early and was on hold with the Greyhound folks for mabe 30 minutes before hanging up. We resigned ourselves to a faster pace than we thought capable and I bought my ticket a day early on purpose so we could go together. It was all a bit of a fiasco.We walked back tot he Food Lion when we were struck be Trail Magic to lift our grumpy moods! An SUV rolled up and the window rolled down to reveal a car full of little kids and a dad (a 5-year old girl said 'Look Dad, hikers!' He leaned over to us: 'You hikers?''Yep''You hungry?''...of course...''Here's 20 bucks, go buy yourselves dinner.'Flustered us tried to sputter ample thanks, but he waved us away saying 'no problem' with a smile and drove away. Thank you amazing SUV-encapsulated trail angel dude! It was brilliant. So we headed to the Italian place adjacent to the Food Lion and both had the special. Delicious. By the time we made it to the store it was way too late to get back to the trail to find camping. So we called up Mike from the Terrapin Station hiker hostel, and here we are. Interesting.