Date: 2014-06-07
From: US 250 I 64 Rockfish Gap

To: Black Rock Hut Shelter
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

Stanimal from the hostel drove 4 of us by the bagel place and then to the location at Rockfish where we stopped hiking yesterday. (Duff, TN-Ned, and Siesta). We ate our Egg/Cheese bagel, drink or juice and set out for Shenandoah National Park (SNP). It was right there but we had to walk a short way to get to the self-sign-in stand in the woods. Mad-Jac and Good Vibrations were filling out the last available form. We decided to put all our names on the form. For back-country camping you a need tag attached to your backpack so I suggested we all snap a picture with our phone and show the Ranger we had registered.We had 21 miles to get to the desired shelter so I estimated my ETA of 6:00PM since I was starting at 8:00 AM and it would take me about 10 hours. The climb from the gap was the longest and most difficult of the day but not bad.Today was a day of lots of smells. Some were funky smells that had me wondering if any were like cucumber because that is a sign copperheads are around. Some were musty so that was the duff moldering like it is supposed to. Others may have been crushed weeds. After I got up on the ridge I went past honey suckle blooming, mountain laurel, wild roses and another fragrant bush. Several times I had a carpet of pine needles to walk in with a fragrant pine scent.The terrain was varied with a few rocky places to get by, but overall, was the best in days.About every 2 miles the trail intersected Skyline Drive building in regular breaks. At one crossing the 3 I started with joined White Rabbit, Rambling Rose and Real Talk for lunch.I chose the heavier items for lunch--a Gala Apple and Tillamook cheese named for Tillamook, Oregon, where it is made. On a trip up the West Coast in 1998, Wilma, Jeremy, and niece Brandi stopped there and have been I love with the cheese from there ever since. I have had regular cheddar cheese on this trip but today the difference between that and the Tillamook was as different as daylight and dark. The taste took me back to Oregon in my memory.The day has been a day of sights also. The mountain laurel looks beautiful here in the park because it growing by itself instead of being mixed in with the rhododendron as in most other places.I have heard a lot of different birds today. Seems they have different songs for morning, day time and evening. I would like to take a long hike again and just study the birds after I have learned the sounds of each. One bird today seemed to just be saying "tweet."I noticed a turkey hen standing on the east side of the trail and I stopped to take her picture. When I paused, she started clucking and a dozen chicks appeared out of the grass on the west side of the trail and went skittering over to Momma. As they disappeared into the woods, I thought I should have taken a video so they would have shown up better due to movements. An hour later, the scene repeated and I took video this time. This group didn't run off into the woods, just resumed their pecking in the leaves for bugs.Just before dusk, a deer came ambling by about 10 feet from the tent door.The temperature almost became uncomfortable but then I would emerge on top of the ridge where a gentle breeze would evaporate the sweat and cool me off. I arrived at Black Rock Hut, as shelters are called in the SNP, right on time at 5:59PM.I had wondered about the water source this far up on the ridge but it has a 2" plastic pipe that gushes out so fast it fills a liter bottle in 3 seconds.A time or two we got above 3000 feet and will again in the morning because our camp is just below 3000. It should cool off soon and be good sleeping. I already heard two whip-poor-wills singing my lullaby.