Date: 2004-07-19
From: Rock Spring Hut

To: Pass Mountain Hut
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Interesting day today. My morning hike took me up to Skyland Lodge and Resturant. The place was pretty crowded, and it felt strange to be all stinky and grimy with all the well dressed tourists around. I went to the main office part of the lodge and made a call to Mary. The telephone was in an old wooden telephone booth. It reminded me of something out of the 40's. I went to the lodge resturant and they made me leave my backpack outside of the dining area. It felt strange to leave my belongings away from me, but I put them in a place I could still see them, and kept my money and camera with me. Imagine a dirty hiker, sitting at a window with a nice view, surrounded by couples and families eating a nice sit down dinner. I even had a white table cloth. Surreal! I had a small dinner pizza, but for dessert I had a homemade Blackberry cobbler a la mode! Heaven! I would hike the Shenendoah again just to have this cobbler. After stuffing myself with cobbler I ascended to Stony Man Summit. There are rocky cliffs where you can look out over the Shenendoahs. I pulled out all my gear and let it and myself dry out. It was a nice place to let my food settle, and relax. I heard storms in the distance quite a bit today. As I was ascending to Mary's Rock (a place I was really looking forward to), the storm started really building. Everything around me was exposed, including the 2 mile descent to Thorton Gap. I wanted to stop at the rocks, but the storm was promising to be a bad one, so I picked up my boots and moved. I flew down the trail on a very exposed pathway. If the storm hit here, I would have no protection. I reached Thorton Gap, and the storm seemed to drift off another way. It was only a little over a mile to the shelter from Thorton Gap, so I hiked fast, but wasn't too worried. I was in a groove, and it was pretty pleasant hiking. SUDDENLY, I heard this rustling beside of me. I look up and there is this bear swaying in a tree. The tree is only about 20 feet tall, and the bear is much bigger than the tree. He does this for a short while, doesn't like how close I am, and then shimmys down the tree and off into the woods. My heart is beating fiercely, and I couldn't believe how close I had come to this bear. At this point, I was only about .3 of a mile from the shelter, so I just hiked on. A minute later I see ANOTHER bear! This bear is lying down in the middle of the trail, only about 50 yards in front of me. It shows no signs of moving! I take a picture, then try to figure out what to do. I've been told that you should talk to the bear...let it know you are human, and not prey. Usually, they will just run off. I say..."Hi, Mr. Bear, please don't eat me!" He just lays there. I've also heard you should make yourself look bigger and make noise. I start hitting my poles together and shouting "Bear go away!". He gets on all fours, looks over his shoulder at me, and waddles down the trail. I slowly walk behind him, keeping the same distance. He gazes at me again......then lies back down on the trail! Geeze! How am I supposed to get to the shelter, he's between me and the blue blaze trail. I ponder my situation, then decide to try noise one more time. I shout and yell...wave my sticks and beat them together. All the time I'm hoping that this bear isn't really hungry. He gets back up, looks at me again, and walks down the trail, NOBO and then heads out into the woods. My heart is beating out of my chest, and I wait a minute to let him go a ways. Then I walk fast to the shelter.At the shelter is a man and his son. I tell them that I had just seen two bears, and that they should be really careful with their food tonight. They tell me that they had been in a serious storm, with lightening strikes all around them. The storm that had missed me, had caught them (they were hiking SOBO). They also told me that a church camp group was hiking in tonight. I decided to pick out a spot for my hammock in a place that was unlikely to see many visitors. After setting up my camp, I walked back to the shelter, and the guy and dog from last night hiked in. He said...you won't believe this...there was this bear lying in the middle of the trail....This bear must really love the Appalachian Trail!