Date: 2017-06-27
From: Hog Gap Camp

To: Priest Mountain Summit
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 56Tuesday, June 27, 2017 Hog Camp Gap (812.7) to Stealth Site atop Priest Mountain (827.5)Miles: 14.8 miles in 8 hours with two breaks2017 AT trip miles: 827.5Total AT miles to date: 2117Weather: Sunny, cooler, 60sDinner: Lentil Chicken CurryHikers: Red Beard and Kaitlin, Tinker and Bell, (another) Flash--who is hiking a section southbound, half a dozen others in passing, plus a large camp group of teenagers having forced funWildlife: Bolting deerWoke up to the sounds of huffing and heavy breathing in an otherwise dark, silent night. And it wasn't coming from my neighbor¢s tent. I had my food bag hung high, but it was at the end of a light branch and tied to the trunk of the same tree, meaning that an habituated bear making the rounds in an established and well-used campground could easily scale the tree trunk, cutting through the paracord and down the bag would fall. I listened breathless and slightly  paralyzed. The tree was not very far from where I was entombed within the walls of my thin nylon tent. Now I'm not certain I actually heard a bear, but I didn't wait to find out. I yelled and made some noise. There wasn't any crashing, but the huffing moved on. On the other hand, it might have just been a deer¢but they snort more than snuffle. I finally fell back asleep listening to a pair of barred owls hooting like Amazon rainforest howler monkeys. A much more relaxing sound.The spring for this campsite is located .3 miles away and I needed to fetch more water. Water bubbled up from the ground within a large metal ring. Not sure about the history of this campsite, but it would appear to have been some sort of homestead¢with cleared land (this meadow is huge), apple trees and the improved water source. Or maybe, like the name, this was a hog farm. Yesterday, the trail meandered along Brown Mountain Creek, where stone walls and a few crumbling chimneys still struggled to remain standing within the encroaching forest, remnants of a former freed-slave community. I only know this from the two kiosk signs located along the way. Like the reservoir lake I lingered at yesterday, AWOL¢s guidebook doesn't call out anything not specifically relevant to a hiker¢s need.I was the first one up and about at 7 a.m. All the other tents were still zipped up tight. I know the family is only headed to Harper's Ferry, but if the other tents hold through-hikers, I continue to be surprised that they aren't on the move by 7. Especially with the longer days of summer now stretching out for them and Kathdin still three or four months ahead. With only a 14-mile day for me today, I can linger over breakfast.A friend of mine, Laurie, will be able to meet Sam and I for breakfast on Saturday after I finish. Coincidentally Laurie was able to meet me during my first week in the Shenandoahs last year while she was in Virginia visiting her daughter. She had emailed suggesting I might be walking slower, reflecting and savoring these final days and miles. I am trying to make the most of this time, but today, like all the other days, the trail looks more or less the same and I still am looking down most of the time. I conjure up moments now and then, but mostly I just keep placing one foot in front of the other. I am going slower¢holding back until Sam¢s arrival.One thing I do recall, however, was the overwhelming feeling while reviewing the maps after summiting Katahdin last year. I saw a bunch of big peaks I¢d have to hit when I'd flip and it was not making me happy. It looked like hell. But now, tonight, more than half a year later, I am camping atop the Priest¢a 4000-foot summit that had caused me such consternation and is turning out to be of my best campsites to date. I made dinner sitting upon sun-warmed boulders overlooking a sea of mountains as the sun set. This is how I had imagined the trail to be. It's how the trail was for me in Maine. Three other people are present sharing this completely obvious stealth campsite with me. Three days, 35.1 miles and only one and a half guidebook pages left.