Amazingly, the nine of us in the shelter slept quietly and without interruption all night. There wasn't even any snoring to complain about! The wind had picked up overnight and I was so thankful to be warm and dry in the shelter. The sun began to lighten the sky before 7:00am, but still, the shelter was silent. I didn't want to be the first to move, but I couldn't be in my sleeping bag any longer-it had been twelve hours!
I began unzipping things, and then Misty followed, and eventually the rest of the campers slowly started to make some movement. As we started to pack up, a woman who had been tenting came up to make breakfast and told us of a bear who had been at her tent in the night. The heavy steps and the breathing were a very similar story to Chelsea’s from the night before. Thankfully, the bear moved off on its own and there were no more disturbances in the night.
Misty met Far Left, a former thru hiker, who had also been tent camping. He told stories of the AT with the other thru hiker who had been in the shelter. It made me quite jealous to hear their stories!
We had a leisurely morning hanging out at camp but finally got things together and prepared to leave.
The trail heading north from Blackrock Hut is pretty much straight uphill. We warmed up very quickly and stopped to shed a layer.
We soon summitted Blackrock and above the tree line we were met with high winds and thick fog that made everything damp. I am sure the view would've been amazing, if we had been able to see anything but whiteness!
We continued on our way, and the fog stuck around, making everything seem a little eerie.
A rice krispie break can always lift my mood!
The trail continued to climb, keeping us above 3,000 feet for quite some time. Everything was covered with climbing vines up here!
We made the choice to stop at Loft Mountain Wayside, where we dropped our packs outside and indulged in chicken sandwiches, French fries, ice cold pop, and the highly anticipated blackberry shakes, which are a must in the Shenandoahs! We had to take a very steep side trail down to the wayside and back up to the trail afterwards, but it was totally worth it.
Once back on the AT (with very full bellies) things began to get a bit rockier, and we had some foggy overlooks where we could just barely make out the world below.
I guess all that food had made me a little giddy and one of my many masks made an appearance while we were hiking up a particularly strenuous hill.
I was running low on water, so I followed a little side trail down to a piped spring. It was quiet and lovely as I had the whole trail to myself. There was a charming cabin near the spring, and I was a little jealous of whoever had the privilege of staying there.
It was turning out to be a perfectly wonderful fall day. Beauty was all around us, whether we were climbing up, climbing down, or taking in the overlooks. We even came upon this little stick man when we took a short break!
We made our way to Pinefield Hut, which would be home for the night. We had hiked nearly 15 miles but had the place to ourselves when we arrived. We decided to once again sleep in the shelter, as our tents were still soaked and muddy.
Once our sleep systems were laid out, we made light dinners and just sat and enjoyed the early evening. A couple of hikers came in, but they headed up the hill to pitch their tents. It was kind of nice, though, knowing we weren't completely alone.
Unfortunately, everything was much too wet to get a fire going, so when the darkness began to outweigh the daylight, we snuggled up in our bags and told funny made-up stories.
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We got a little spooked right as complete darkness settled in and ended up arranging ourselves so that our sleeping mats and bags were literally touching. During all the shimmying around, Misty accidentally sat on her bear horn, and it gave a loud blare!
Soon, we all calmed down and got used to the noises in the forest, and one by one we drifted off to sleep.
Total Daily Mileage: 14.98
Total Calories Burned: 3,469
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