Date: 2013-04-14
From: Daleville

To: Bobblets Gap Shelter
Miles today: 18.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Today started out a little slow and it was hard to leave behind the comforts of the hotel and civilization, but as the day progressed I felt much better and was glad to return to the mountains.Flo and I set out in the morning after enjoying the continental breakfast at the hotel. We crossed some grassy terrain for a mile or so before crossing I-81 followed by a set of RR tracks. Soon after we crossed a small pasture and noticed a dog hanging around in a backyard of someone's home and Flo whistled hello to it. It turned and traveled across the yard and under a fence and approached us with a friendly disposition. The dog was named Angel, and she was an old looking lab mix with her tail cut off. She followed us across the field and into the adjacent woods. As we continued uphill Angel kept following us, and depite our attempts to encourage her to head homeward she kept on following.. Eventually we reached the Fullhardt Knob shelter atop the mountain, which featured a cistern system for collecting water. We turned on the spigot for Angel and she drank a good bit, then I left a message on the phone number I saw on her dog collar. Soon Skeetbutter, Daypack, and Sunny arrived and we told them about Angel while we enjoyed some lunch.After lunch we headed down the other side of the mountain and soon we came to a gravel road where we spotted a woman with her children out on a day hike. We made sure Angel came with us down the mountain, and the woman gladly took her and said she would make sure Angel got home safely. It felt good knowing the dog would make it back home okay. We climbed a small knob, then descended to a nice large creek to wet our shirts then make the uphill climb towards the Bobblets Gap shelter. Today we had our first encounter with the Blue Ridge parkway (which later becomes Skyline drive in the Shenandoahs), and with it the ensuing rocky terrain found on many of the sections underneath the road. There were a few parts where we seemed to follow either a fire road or possibly an old section of the original road. The first road section seemed more like it was a service offshoot, but when I noticed around one of the bends there seemed to be an old pulloff area it made me wonder if back in the day it had indeeed been part of the parkway. Daypack and I had been keeping pace for quite some time, but when we soon realized only 7 miles remained till the shelter he wanted to shoot for reaching the shelter by 7pm. I jogged along for a while but decided ultimately it wasn't worth the extra pain for my shin so I slowed down and reached the shelter not too long after 7. I found the shelter was partially full, and although there would have been room for me inside I opted to set up my rainfly-footprint to save room for Flo and Aloha who I knew would be arriving much later. Unfortunately there was only one decent tenting spot which was along the path to the privy and right near the drainage path for the shelter. Had I known it was going to rain I would have taken the shelter spot, but instead I cozied in for a good night only to awake to rain all through the night..