Date: 2018-06-18
From: Blackrock hut

To: Powell Gap Viewsite
Miles today: 18.1

Last night the whipper willow didn't stop. It seemed to be right above the shelter. I put my earplugs in to block its sound. In the morning I packed up and ate my cold soaked oatmeal. There was a group of Canadians from Ontario eating breakfast as well. They had the fancy food packets for breakfast, lunch, dinner. They said weather was too hot compared to where they're from. I headed out around 8:30 am planned on doing a 20 mile day.  About a half mile from the shelter I was cruzing along a flat path when I looked to the right I saw a black bear staring right at me. He was about 30 feet away and just stood there staring for a minute. Then he just slowly walked back into the forest. It was my first black bear sighting in 884 miles! In about another mile I ran into Rebel Yell and Stealth. I thought they were way ahead of me. They had a bear visit their camp last night. He was rummaging through the ground looking for something. Stealth used his metal plate and spoon as noise makers to scare the bear away. Rebel Yell got a ride back into Waynesboro the night before with some fellow hikers. One of the hiker's mom put them up for the night in a hotel. She also paid for their food in town. He also managed to yogi some pulled pork sandwiches off some visitors in the park. He had all the trail magic.  We pushed onto to the first camp store in loft campground. The Shenandoahs are filled with camp stores and waysides where one can get food. At the camp store I bought a couple beers and hung out back. Stealth asked Rebel how he chipped his tooth. Rebel talked about the time he got into a fist fight with a guy in his local town. This guy had been stealing from houses and Rebel was able to put him down until the police showed up. He chipped his tooth somehow during the fight. From the camp store we hiked another mile to the access point to the wayside. It was a half mile down a steep trail but we were determined to go. At the wayside we ordered burgers, fries, and black berry milkshakes. It really hit the spot. I became pretty sleepy and took a siesta near a tree outside. It was a proper one and we didn't really move for two hours. 4 o'clock rolled around and we made our way back. Stealth was considering taking the easier trail back up to the AT but then he would skip .3 miles of the trail. At the fork where we needed to decide which way to go Rebel Yell said "Fuck it" and we went back up the trail we came down on. It was a rough steep climb up but at the end we didn't skip the .3 section of the AT. In 2 miles we took another long break. Rebel Yell took out his slingshot and we all practiced shooting with it. After about 30 minutes we were back on the trail.  We arrived at the pinehut shelter. It was packed already with hikers. There were not many flat spots left. I decided to push on to fight a stealth spot up the trail. There were none the whole way to the ranger station about 2 miles away. I ran into Melody and Bob at the gap. They were going to push on to find a stealth site as well. On the way we crossed the 900th mile and got a picture. Bob stopped in a flat section near the summit. Melody and I pushed onto a view site about another mile away. It was getting dark and we eventually had pull out our headlamps. When we arrived we could see another hiker's headlamp. He said he was chasing a black bear away from his camp. He went to look out at the view and when he came back a bear was about 20 feet away from his camp. He banged on his metal pan and scared him away. Melody and I pitched our camp at the site. I made a bagel sandwich for dinner while trying to swat away June bugs from my face. They kept trying to fly into our head lamps every 15 seconds. After dinner we all hung out on the rock ledge overlooking the valley below. The sky was clear and we could see a decent amount of stars even with the moon up. I saw a shooting star burn up over the horizon. It was worth the extra push to make it here.  Tonight I have my pot lid and spoon ready for any bears that might come wondering into our site.