Date: 2017-08-21
From: Gravel Springs Hut campsite

To: Byrd's Nest #3 hut shelter 
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: broken clouds

Up sometime between 5:30 and 6 a.m. normal routine with a tarp. On the trail after feeling all bottles with treated water at about 7:45. Nice view to the west from little hogs back Mountain at about 8:30 again at 8:45 and other places South of that. Sometime around 10 a.m. is stopped at the Elkwallow wayside. I had a Coca Cola and a cinnamon bun and I talked to to section hikers that I had seen at the gravel Springs Hut yesterday evening. I Also met to retirees and we chatted for awhile while I charge my phone. I also filled to bottles of water from a spigot. Just after 11 with a little over 80% charge on my phone I got back on the trail headed south.Sometime just before noon about to and a half miles south of the elk wallow wayside I saw two members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club traveling North checking out the trail. I paused to talk to them briefly and and after a few minutes of conversation one of the gentleman asked is your trail name GI Joe? I replied, "it is." And he introduced himself. He was the father in law of my cousin James Martin. His name is John Hedrick, and he is a retired Brigadier General in the US Army signal core. We talked for a close to half an hour and as intrepid caught up to us she was kind enough to take care a picture together. After while we're said farewell and safe hiking. And continued on our way, he to the north and I to the south.At about 1:20 p.m. I stopped at the Beahm's gap overlook just off the trail as it crossed Skyline Drive north of pass Mountain. Other than the spelling I thought this would be a particularly cool place to check on the status of the total eclipse of the Sun which was supposedly about to begin. I sat on the guardrail at the overlook parking area and checked the internet for the status of the Eclipse and found the website I had used a couple days ago to use my GPS location to track the Eclipse progress. Apparently the Eclipse had officially begun at my location 5 minutes earlier and was to reach its maximum at 2:40 p.m. Out of my backpack, I retrieved the Eclipse glasses that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters had given me. I used them to look up briefly and determined that if the Eclipse had begun it wasn't yet visible at my location actually. Because the maximum would not yet occur for another hour or more, I decided to keep hiking and potentially try to observe the Eclipse from pass Mountain or the past Mountain Hut which was 1.9 miles south of my current location.As I started to climb pass Mountain, I noticed it began to get darker. However this was because the sky had become mostly cloudy. Just before two o'clock, as I started to get near the summit of pass Mountain I came to a break in the trees and simultaneously a break in the clouds and I took a couple pictures. However, the Eclipse was still not visible to my camera. On the other hand, when I used the Eclipse glasses, I could see that the Sun was about 1/3 blocked on the right hand side as I was looking South Southwest toward it. I tried taking a picture through the Eclipse glasses quit that did not work that camera wouldn't focus.I got to the pass mountain hut around 2:30. It had a nice clearing from which I was able to view the eclipse as it peaked about 2:40. I also ate lunch while there. Then, I hiked back out to the trail. As I reached the trail, intrepid arrived. She said she couldn't tell if the eclipse was happening. So i lent her my glasses. She also pointed out the pattern of light and shadow on the forest floor that had made her think she might be missing it. Curiously, all the little light patches in the shadow of the trees were crescent shaped! Maybe caused by diffraction of the light from the eclipse, but at low enough intensity that the pattern actually showed? Picture.We kept hiking and passed an entrance point for the park. Picture. We got water at a rest area, and hiked over Mary's Rock (pictures) and further, to the Bird's Nest #3 hut shelter. Pictures.  There were a couple other hikers there, camping. There was also a group of about 10 students from William and Mary, on an orientation outing.I had gumbo from packit gourmet for dinner -- excellent. After hanging bear bags on a bear pole, it was almost bed time. I tried to work out my strategy for meeting and hiking with Joey next week, south of Waynesboro, VA, which was now about 75 miles away.