Date: 2015-05-23
From: Black Rock Hut

To: Hightower Hut
Miles today: 21.4

We decided for an early start this am. We had quite a few miles planned. It was a beautiful cool morning. Perfect for hiking! The Shenandoahs are beautiful and it was teaming with wildlife. I was walking along the trail, looked up and saw a deer walking down the trail toward me! I stopped and pulled out my camera. It moved off trail into the woods but just stood there and stared as we took pictires. We were standing pretty close to it too. A little ways later we came across a bunny sitting in the middle of the trail eating breakfast. I was able to get pretty darn close to it too. It was pretty awesome! We saw lots of deer today. It's amazing how used to people all the animals are. We're hoping to see bears!!We stopped in at Loft Mountian Campground to see if we could get a permit. It was a short walk off the trail and we lucked out that the ranger booth was 2 minutes down the road. We permitted up and moved on out. Before we left a couple with a baby started talking to us about bears. Apparently they saw one right on a hiking trail and it wouldn't move. They asked the ranger what to do if the saw a bear. His response "take pictures". Direct quote, lol. He said the bears are so used to people that they shouldn't bother you. As long as you don't bother it and have common sense. We were stoked, we need to see a bear!!The hike was a bit of a struggle today. Lots of ups and downs. Weather was still pretty cool though which makes things easier. We stopped for lunch at a nice overlook. Papa and 61 were there. Hiesenburg showed up a bit later. He ate lunch at the Wayside Grill. There are a bunch of Waysides along the trail and hiesenburg wants to hit every one! Lol! I don't have it in my budget so I'm totally fine with eating from my food bag. After lunch we had 10 more miles to go. But we made it. The park is a beautiful place so that makes it a little better. At the top of Little Roundtop Mountian we saw fireman taking a quick break. He said Happy 900!!! I totally forgot all about that. 900 miles on the Trail! I still can't believe it. It's such an amazing feeling. We took a break down at the road crossing. Only about 1.5 mikes left to go. As we sat Mighty Mouse arrived. Then we met Team Pie. It consists of Knock on Wood, Burnout, Honeybuns and 1 more that I can't remember. They're called Team Pie because they ask everyone "If you could only have pie or cake for the rest of your life which would you choose?" Obviously Team Pie all picked pie. I picked cake. I love pie but there are just so many cakes I can't live without. Chocolate, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and cheesecake. I just wouldn't survive without it. Hehe!Well, we eventually made it to camp. Yet again no good tenting spots. Some people bushwacked around the shelter. The problem is that the majority of the designated tent spots were taken by weekenders. The bane of our existence. They're nice people but they take all the good camp spots, hog the picnic table so people who hike 20 miles have to sit on the ground to cook dinner, they're loud and stay up late. But anyways. We set up our tents in the middle of the grass forest service road. Hopefully they don't have to drive up to this shelter tonight. Papa and 61 already set up there. Mighty mouse and heisenburg set up there as well. A few weekenders and Bud and Bud Light camped there as well. Tent row looked pretty awesome. After we set up our tent we went back to he picnic table to eat dinner. The weekenders were hogging the table so we sat on the ground to cook. Grrrr. Oh well. Fireman made an awesome fire, like always. We sat around and chatted with the people around the table for a while. I went back to my tent much later than I planned. I always mean to go to bed early but it never happens. Early start tomorrow...possibly doing 24 miles.