AT Miles = 15.3 / 933.1
Other Miles = 0.8 / 35.4
Total Miles = 16.1 / 967.5
What a nice day! I even saw a bear while eating breakfast in the dining room at Skyland. The bear was just outside the window. The waitress told me that yesterday morning a bear took a fawn in the same spot. That must have freaked out some of the guests!
I didn't leave Skyland until after 10:00, when the weather was finally beginning to break and the sun was making itself felt. I hiked in a very leisurely fashion northward. I even took the side trail to Mary's Rock overlooking Thornton Gap. I don't think I've taken a side trail that didn't lead to either a shelter, food, or water, since the sidetrail to the summit of Mount Rogers, weeks ago.
When I reached Byrds Nest #3 a maintainer named Dick (I think) was there cutting the brush arfound the shelter. We chatted a bit and he told me he cares for three (or maybe it was four) shelters, including Pass Mountain Hut, where I am now. Since he was going to be coming here, he offered to slack pack me. Slack packing is hiking without a backpack; he was offering to transport my backpack here in his truck and allow me to hike the five miles or so unladen. A generous offer but I had decided way back at the start of this hike that I would not slack pack, so I thanked him but refused his offer.
It is funny how hiking "only" 15 miles in a day feels almost like a day off. It takes away the feeling of pressure to cover miles, and makes the day so much more relaxing. The downside is that I also feel guilty that I am not working harder to make forward progress. I actually feel guilty that I didn't push really hard on Thursday and Friday in order to get to Front Royal this morning before the post office closed. I think this is a bit of a character flaw on my part, as I am not supposed to be trying to get to Katahdin as fast as possible. I took 10 days off, and I am only 7 days behind my original schedule, and that schedule includes no zero days whatsoever. Not bad, methinks.
There is no shelter or campsite at the right distance I want to cover tomorrow, in order to get myself situated the right distance from Front Royal to get there around mid-day on Monday, so I will be searching out a casual campsite tomorrow afternoon. If I do 16 or 17 mils tomorrow, that will leave me about 10 miles outside of Front Royal.
Monkeywrench
Allen Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com
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