Date: 2023-03-29
From: Rockfish Gap

To: Blackrock
Miles today: 14.3

Weds, 3/29Hiking with a car is different. As we entered the Shenandoah NP I dropped Abe off at the Appalachian trailhead and then Snoopy and I drove about 12 miles up to a parking area that the trail crosses and parked. I tossed a few things into a small backpack and we started South. Passed Abe a few hours later at a big old field, ate some lunch together there while we talked about trail conditions and passed off the keys and then we continued South while he hiked to the car. We did pass one couple going Nobo and also taking this week to get thru SNP, Juan Valdez and Corncob. I¢m sure our paths will cross again. After Snoopy and I exited the park on foot, we turned around (Snoopy looked at me like, ¢what are we doing¢¦ we just came from there?!?¢) and entered it again, this time stopping to fill out the hiker back country permit at the kiosk set up along the trail. The paperwork wants you to guess (or plan¢¦ WHAT!) where you¢ll be sleeping each night so I wrote down some of the shelters (huts, they are called in SNP) and filled out the rest of the form to the best of my ability. Abe met us at a roadside pull out and we decided we had enough energy for another couple of miles so we drove a little farther than where we started/Abe stopped and did the Northbound/Southbound crossing key swap again. This is really cool for a couple of reasons: 1. a light day bag! My shoulders are getting a break. 2. Each of us not only gets to hike the AT but we each get to drive the Skyline Drive through out the entire length of the Park. Both offer unlimited but different views and experiences 3. Reuniting at different points throughout the day so we can share our experiences and pass on advice. Anyway, at around 5pm we decided to call it a day. We had hiked past the first hut so we drove to the closest parking area near the next one (Blackrock) and grabbed/loaded up our big packs and made the almond one mile trek to the next one where we met a couple of Sobos (Moxie and Wild Boar) that were already posting up for the evening. Great conversation and  a weird dinner combination of gf dehydrated steak and mashed potatoes and sardines and we slept soundly.Abe - Dad made a wonderful breakfast of pancakes. He¢s so sweet, similar to the 3 year expired maple syrup we had on our corn pancakes. They tasted more like sweet tamales, no complaints. We head up to rockfish gap to start our journey into Shenandoah. Today is the first day of our ¢flip flopping.¢ Essentially, one of is dropped off wherever we had left off the hike previously, the next person drives a while until a good parking area near the trail, and starts hiking south. Once the two of us meet, we switch keys and continue in this way. I get dropped off first and start the chilly climb into the park. It starts rocky for the first few miles but gets more and more graded as I go along, allowing me to move a touch faster and less hesistant. Dad hands off the keys to me around the midway point. I meet an older gentleman named Abe who hiked the AT between 1969 and 1987, cool guy. About a half mile past us meeting, I run into 6 different blow downs, how annoying.  Have a nice phone call with Cay, it¢s great to hear her voice, makes my day a little better. We  meet up, and decide to do a few more miles until we total around 15 or so. We skip ahead to blackrock shelter and hike about a mile in for the night. Meet up with ¢moxie¢ and ¢wild boar¢ at the shelter and share some stories. Dad decides to make mashed potatoes and sardines. I don¢t recommend it. It was a chilly but fun evening.