Date: 2004-06-15
From: past Dripping Rock Prkng

To: Calf Mtn Shelter
Miles today: 21.5
Weather: light rain

So we woke to a new challenge. After breaking camp and eating breakfast we conspired to get the bear string out of the tree. We tried to climb the tree but it refused to be climbed. There were some pretty funny stunts involved here. It was ¢Kids, don't try this at home¢ kind of stuff. But neither of us got hurt just our egos. Next we went in search of a good long stick. Most everything was kind of rotten. We dragged some long sticks back but none were long enough. Then we had the bright idea of lashing them together. We gathered all the little stringettes we had in our packs. Buick lashed the two longest sticks together while I lashed short sticks to the forked top end. These were to become the hooks to pull down on both sides of the sting bound stick. It took the both of us to guide this monstrosity into place but in the end we succeeded in out-smarting the the tree-string-stick trio. Yes we were victorious. The whole thing had to have taken a good hour but we had a good laugh.Oh, that's right. My tent had a visitor last night. Unknown to me, a little critter, probably a mouse, ate a hole in my tent last night. This is of course my fault. Foolishly I thought just once I could get away with bringing my snack sack into my tent. Silly goose. Well, that's why there is duct tape wrapped around my water bottle. The tape took care of the problem.Once again we came across Gray Squirrel. It was a good thing too because this gave me a chance to get a picture of him. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. After a quick look there is no question where he got his name. The sad thing was that he would be spending tonight in Waynesboro and that meant we would probably never see him again. He was just such a cool guy we were going to miss him.Another nice meeting was with a fawn complete with white spots on the little brown deer. It was maybe ten feet off the trail. I got a nice photo.It was 14.5 miles into the day and just past noon when we arrived at Rockfish Gap and the intersection of I-64 and US-250. This was also the spot where the Blue Ridge Drive becomes the Skyline Drive. It was hot. We made our way to a visitors center in search of a ride into Waynesboro. The folks behind the counter made a call and a few minutes later a trail angel appeared. It was a miracle. Ok, so she drove up in a big old car with her son on board. Still, it was pretty cool. Another hiker had arrived by now. We all piled into her car along with her son who was maybe ten. She dropped Buick and me at an outfitter and took the other guy on into town.Buick was looking for a replacement cartridge for his water filter. They had the same filter but no cartridge. Finally they pulled the cartridge out of the new filter and sold that to him. The trail angel came back and gave us a ride to Gavid's Steak House. We had read that they had an all-you-can-eat food bar and that sounded like a good idea but really it wasn't. We each had at least three full plates of food before desert. It was hot outside so the cool inside was nice. Next we rolled out the door and waddled down the street to a Radio Shack where I tried to borrow a soldering iron to fix my solar charger rig. They didn't have one open so I had to buy one. After doing the repair right there on the counter and no longer needing a soldering iron, I just gave it to the guy behind the counter. It was pretty silly. Buick found a computer that was online in the Radio Shack and sent some email. That was cool. That's a good thing to remember for the future.Now we had to get to the super market and it was just pouring out there. The super market was on the other side of town and Waynesboro was pretty big as trail towns go. I accosted customers as they were getting ready to leave Radio Shack. The third one caved. He brought his pickup with cap around and we piled in. He dropped us at the store and that was great. People are cool.We did our normal shopping thing. Repackaging our food and packing our packs outside in the rain was not an inviting proposition. There was a bench beside the service desk so we just parked there and tore into our packs. It was kind of crowded and busy but no one bothered us.By the time we left, the rain had stopped, yahoo. Hitching in the rain would not have been fun. We walked a few blocks out to the main drag and started hitching. It was a good 4 or 5 miles back up to Rockfish Gap and we were not looking forward to the road walk. Lots of people passed us by. Then the Tastee Freeze came into sight. My ice cream alarm went off. It's like Pavlov's dog. Just as we turned into the parking lot a van or SUV pulled over. Drat! Just too lucky sometimes. It was a family or at least a dad and daughter. The girl, maybe 12 or 13, seemed to know the answers to many of dad's thru-hiker questions before we answered, which really confused him. It's tough for folks when their kids start to know things they don't know. Of course we all know it's just about some things. Any way they dropped us off and we were quite grateful.There was fog blowing about back up in Rockfish Gap. It had been over 6 hours since we first arrived here to hitch into Waynesboro. It was well past 7pm by now. Finding the trail again at this highway interchange was a bit tricky but then, there it was. A half mile up the trail we came to a big kiosk. It was the registration kiosk for Shenandoah National Park. We filled out the forms and stuffed the copies into the little box. Of course the box was overflowing which was a bit disconcerting since not registering was a violation of federal law. Blast, it was starting to rain again.We hiked on into the night with the rain starting and stopping but never coming down hard. The shelter seemed to get further away. Dark does that. The trail passed through some ridge top meadows which made path finding a bit tough in the dark. The fog didn't help either. Buick admitted that this was the first real night hiking he had done. That made it even more exciting. Of course, in my book, that meant he had to lead. Finally we made the 7 miles to Calf Mountain Shelter. Since everything was rainy and wet the shelter was of course full and folks were already in their sleeping bags. We made and ate our dinner. Then we put our pads and bags along the edge of the shelter floor at the foot of everyone else's bags. The floor was wet and muddy in lots of places. It was tough to find a clean place to sleep. It rained some more that night. There was gear hanging over our heads so sitting up was hazardous. All things considered it was a good night at the end of a 21.5 mile day that included 6 hours in town. That still amazes me.