Date: 2015-05-02
From: Hightop Hut

To: Rock Spring Hut
Miles today: 23.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Woke at 5.45am, to the sounds of birds singing loudly. Better than rainfall, at least. Deerdog and Smasher left early, at 6.30, whilst I lingered and enjoyed my morning tea. I set off about 7am, in much clearer and warmer conditions than yesterday. Almost immediately I had to remove my coat and rolled up my trousers. I stopped at the top of the first climb and looked out over the land of Virginia. After the fog yesterday, the incredibly massive view was welcome. In the valley below, the fields and towns were covered with patches of fog that looked like clouds. Deerdog described it later as 'lakes of clouds' which is very accurate. I made good time on the trail all day, mostly because of the usually gentle terrain. A lot of the trail is very close to the Skyline, so it gets a lot of tourists. Of course, since they are tourists, the trail cannot be particularly difficult. By the way, the skyline drive is a road that was allegedly built where the AT used to be. I imagine that someone walked along it and saw all the beautiful views and thought, "yes, we must build a road right here, with plenty of service stations". The good thing is that the waysides do sell food for resupply, as well as various fast foods and tourist tat. Today I stopped by the Big Meadow wayside, which is very good for resupplying. I had a footlong hot dog with fries, and one of the famous blackberry milkshakes. It was all far better than my intended dinner of plain instant mash and tea, but also far more expensive. I also stopped by the wayside bathrooms and was genuinely surprised by the automatic flush. The sink and hand drier was also sensor activated. After moving 900 miles north, I am finally reaching more truly civilised places with civilised bathrooms. Later, I actually timed how long it took to fill my camelbak 3/4 of the way with my Sawyer mini- it took more than 10 minutes!The wayside and earlier lunch stop added about a mile to my hike today, as well as the 0.2 to the shelter, which means today I did more than 25 miles. Tomorrow, the next shelter is only 15 miles away, so I think I will probably go a bit further and try to find somewhere to stealth hike along the trail. I also did a very small resupply at the wayside so that I will be able to go straight on to Front Royal. I am excited to do a full resupply, because I am absolutely sick of my current snacks. Although I know that my snacks are nice and will give me energy, I hate them all now and I am craving something completely different. This is to be expected after eating the same thing every day for nearly two months. The frustrating part is that I am getting hungry whilst hiking but have zero interest in eating the food I have. At the shelter, I met a lot of new people. That wasn't surprising, as there were many day hikers out today. I got in the shelter in plenty of time to get a space and enjoy dinner though. After dinner, once I was settled in my sleeping bag and reading, a new section hiker Lane started playing her ukulele and singing softly. Meanwhile, some other section hikers worked on making a fire and cooking dinner. Overall, it was a really wonderful and relaxing way to end the day. It was another one of those special moments that I will greatly miss when I leave the trail. (P.s. A hiker has just shown up carrying a sword. He says that he "practises medieval European martial arts" and the sword is actually dull. No one has asked him for a demonstration yet.)