Date: 2018-08-13
From: Jim & Molly Denton shelter 

To: Gravel Springs shelter
Miles today: 18.6

Today was a nice cool, overcast day. Thundered a lot, but no rain. Last night, it was just me and one other person at the shelter. An older woman named Lisa, probably in her early 60s. She had long, gray hair down to her middle back. She wore waterproof hiking boots, blue jeans (soaked from the previous day), and 2 backpacks (day-pack in the front and nearly a 50lbs hikers backpack in the back). From the prospective of thruhikers, she was a disaster. She claimed to have section hiked a lot of the AT over the years. I woke up this morning to the sound of her making bird calls from the shelter each time a bird tweeted... Lol. After eating the other half of my peach pie for breakfast, I hit the trail. South Pro: switchbacks are back!! Probably one of the greatest ingenuities in the world. I hadn¢t seen a mountain with switchbacks since Vermont, but Virginia is FULL of them. South Con: Cobwebs to the face all day. On trail, people call the early risers (those who start hiking by 6am or earlier) ¢webbers¢. It¢s because the earliest people on trail in the morning are the ones that knock down all the cobwebs for the rest of us. But since hardly anyone is hiking in the south right now, I¢m getting mouthfuls of cobwebs all morning even though I¢m not hiking until 9am! LolToday was a resupply day, so I dipped into Front Royal, VA for about 3hrs. Chatted with the folks at Family Dollar for about half an hour. They were all super nice and super interested in what I was doing. Southern hospitals is real down here. Then, I went over to this Thai restaurant where I got a tofu and vegetable stirfry dish. Even though it was fried, it was probably one of the healthiest things I¢ve eaten on trail yet. Lol I saw in the guidebook that there was something downtown called the Front Royal Brewing Co and they happened to offer showers and laundry services to hikers for free?? It all sounded a little too promising, but I made the extra steps to go check it out. Turns out, it¢s this super nice, hiker-friendly pub owned by this woman who is in the middle of doing all this remodeling so that the pub better serves hikers. SO cool, right! Unfortunately, she said I was about one week too early. They still have contractors finishing up the shower/laundry room. She gave me a tour of everything and asked for my input on different ideas. One of the things she was really excited about was this huge ¢hiker mural¢ she¢s commissioning this artist to do. She doesn¢t know exactly what he¢s going to paint yet, but he asked for pictures of hiker¢s shoes to get inspiration. So she took like ten photos of me and my feet to send to this guy. Lol Very cool place and very cool people. Down the street was a coffee shop with WiFi that I¢d figured I¢d chill at and get caught up on some blogging for a bit. As soon as I got situated though, I heard a huge crack of thunder come rolling in. I didn¢t wanna be trying to hitch a ride back to the trailhead in the pouring rain, so I scrambled my stuff together and made a dash for the road. I got picked up pretty quickly, and then was back in the trees. The thunder was loud, but it actually never rained. I officially crossed into Shenandoah National Park today. And just moments after, I saw a black bear about 40ft up in a tree! I heard they were good climbers, but DAMN. The only reason I saw him is because I could hear his claws scrapping the side of the tree as he slid all the way down and then instantly sprinted into the woods. Last time I saw a bear was like in New Jersey, so that was a nice surprise.Just me and some random at the shelter/campsite tonight. And older guy, looked like a section hiker. I said hello, but he was less than responsive. So tenting by myself next to a stream. There¢s these little black flies in VA that have been absolutely devouring me. They¢re not like the big black flies in Vermont. They¢re about the size of a gnat, but they bite! And I am just covered in scars and scabs from scratching too much in my sleep. It¢s pretty brutal. Lol