Jen

After a very nice nearo, it was time to get back on trail. After grabbing breakfast at C&S Diner in downtown Elkton, I caught a ride back to Shenandoah to complete the second half of the park.

Last night was peaceful and for that I was grateful. I wasn’t in a hurry this morning since I had a short walk, but I left the shelter around 8 am, before the other hikers had gotten out of their tents.

Last night was a little rough. Ever since we had that massive storm back in North Carolina, nighttime winds have made me paranoid about branches and limbs falling on me.

No slackin’ today. Well, at least I didn’t. Janitor and I started the morning just before 10 am at Rockfish Gap. The plan was for him to hike with me for 4 or so miles and then I would continue on.

Another slackpacking day! This time I covered a respectable number of miles and even made it to my end point in time for roadside trail magic.

Today was a welcome zero day. It was nice to have a day where neither of us felt pressured to work and we could just relax.

We awoke this morning in a puddle in our tent. Well, really, Janitor’s pack and shoes (that he’d brought inside to keep dry) were in a puddle. It stormed a lot last night and rained basically the whole night.

We woke up early this morning around 6 am, but didn’t leave until around 8:15 am. Today looked like a pretty easy day on the map, so I wasn’t in much of a hurry. Janitor got his hot breakfast this morning, but didn’t sleep well last night.

Back on trail and we had a big climb to welcome us. 2,000 feet of gain, let’s go!

We had a rude awakening this morning. Some other hikers had their fire going at around 5:30 am, which was fine. But then they started burning their plastic trash and lots of it.