Date: 2011-06-03
From: Calf Mountin Shelter

To: Pinefield Hut
Miles today: 26.2
Weather: broken clouds

I didn't sleep well last night and have no idea why. I pitched the tent on soft, level ground but just had a hard time falling asleep for long periods of time. Another early start. I hit the trail at 6:00 am and filled up my water bladder on the way. I filled it completely, with three liters. The first 13 miles were completely dry. Yesterday was a hot one, so I didn't want to chance it. I came across a couple of bears pretty early on, a sow and her two cubs. They were about 50-60' to my left. The two wee ones shot up a tree while mum stood guard at the base. She didn't seem too bothered by me so I took a couple of crap photos and moved along befoe she started to get more upset. I also saw a lot of deer on and around the trail. I suppose that is because this is a national park the deer here are not hunted. This cuases them to be ridiculously tame. I am getting so tired of almost having to kick the deer off of the path! I got a few good pics though. I was rather pleased to catch up with LOTAT whom i hadn't seen since Erwin, TN. We spent some time catching up, and he explained that he and his frind were planning on hiking the Shenandoah National Park together. His friend is not a hiker, so normally a good friend would start the pace off slowly so the non-hiker has time to adjust. Not LOTAT. Their first day was a whopping 18 miles in the hot sun. 13 of those miles had zero water. Needless to say his friend was no longer on the trail. He had hitched back to his car. LOTAT felt terribly bad, and was planning on making it up to him by purchasing a favorite bottle of whiskey for the poor lad. Once i got to the first water source after the 13 miles of nonsense, I was pleased to see that I had almost consumed the entire three liters. Ace planning. There was a campsite store towards the end of the day which I stopped in for two beers and two gatorades. I had also heard about these blackberry milkshakes that these wayside resaurants had. SNP has numerous wayside restaurants and gift shops which are usually very close to the trail. These are very convenient because they can allow one to carry less food than usual. Additionally, a cheeseburger is way better than ramen and spam. I stopped at a wayside about four miles before my shelter. I thought it would be good to have dinner here and save my food for later. I had a cheesesteak and a blackberry milkshake. Portrait was right. These milkshakes are choice. After eating I did not want to continue. I felt so drained and fatigued but I had to push on because I have a schedule to abide by. I faffed around at the wayside for far too long and got to the shelter at 8:30 pm, right at sunset. There wasn't a single person there. No one was tenting in the area nor in the shelter. I walked the whole location to find the best tent spot. They all sucked. I the noticed a sign hanging inside the shelter. It had a lot of small print, but in big black letters it read: "SHELTER CLOSED DUE TO BEAR ACTIVITY" Crap... uh... I was not about to keep hiking. It was dark already, and I had no energy left. I was so mad at the park for not posting this around the place. I would have changed my plans had I known. I quickly checked the log book. It was clear that a few other hikers had stayed here within the last week. Okay, the plan was to take everything and hang it on the bear hang. I also decided that I would setup my tent inside the shelter, since ther was no one here and it was the flattest ground. I had no phone service so I couldn't call anyone if was getting eaten. I was really freaking myself out, but i knew what to do. I've been in the woods long enough. I gathered numerous rocks and found a big metal dustpan that would mae lot of noise if I needed it. Luckily i already had dinner (even if I hadn't, I would not have cooked). Everything was ready. I wanted to take one more look at the sign. I got up close to it with my headlight and that's when it dawned on me. This sign was referring to another shelter! This sign said that Bearfence Hut was closed not Pinefield Hut! Bearfence was where I was planning on saying tomorrow night. The park had, after all, given me notice of the closed shelter. I felt like an absolute arse. Ah well, at least my chance of making it through the night just increased. I went to bed feeling a lot better about the situation. LOL.