Just before 1:00am, I was startled awake.
Chelsea: Hey!
Chelsea: BEAR!
Kara: HEY BEAR!
*More shouts of BEAR*
All the men in the shelter: HEY BEAR! HEY BEAR! GIT! GIT! GO ON! HEY BEAR!
Misty: *loudly sounds bear horn*
Chelsea: *blows rape whistle*
I stayed perfectly still in my tent, listening for any sounds of rustling or footsteps or anything resembling a noise that any animal might make. Eventually I heard a guy from the shelter do a lap around the tent area to make sure the bear had been scared away. My heart was pretty much beating out of my chest. We called out to one another to make sure we were all okay; it seemed that we were. How was I going to sleep now?
I think I slept with one eye and ear open all night. I was sure at various times I could hear all of our bear canisters being moved around. I was certain that bears were among us.
And then it started to rain. It was light at first, but then the rain became more persistent, and the wind picked up. I was thankful to be dry in my tent, and thankful that the wind and rain was helping to drown out any suspicious noises from the forest. I kept telling myself that bears didn't wander around in the rain and that we were all safe, thanks to this storm.
By 6:30am, the men in the shelter were awake and moving, and we were anxious to get moving, too. The rain had continued all night long, and while we were dry in our tents, the tent pads we were on had kind of turned into giant mud puddles. I could press my fingers down into the bottom of my tent and feel the squishy mud below me.
There was no sign of the rain stopping, so we packed up our gear and our muddy, soaked tents and ran to the shelter to make coffee and breakfast. Oh, and as it turned out, our bear canisters were exactly where we had stashed them and had not been tampered with by any kind of animal in the night! We chatted with John, aka Iron Heart, and he informed us that after New Jersey, the Shenandoahs had the next highest concentration of bears on the entire Appalachian Trail. Great!
Chelsea told her bear story, which started when she heard what she thought was someone walking around. She had called out, "hello" a couple times, but when the footsteps got closer and substantially heavier, and no one answered her hellos, she started to get nervous. Then she heard the sniffing. When she turned in the direction of the sniffing, she noticed a large dark figure across the back of her tent. That's when she screamed.
What a first night on trail!
We were chatting with all the guys, talking about where everyone was going and where we had already been, and basically stalling to see if the rain was ever going to let up. When it became clear that "wet" was the word of the day, we packed away our final things and prepared to leave camp.
Originally, we had planned to hike 21 miles on this Sunday, but prior to today, the Shenandoah region had been so dry. Many water sources were completely dried up. Our original mileage would've had us carrying a ton of water for a very long time, and it just didn't make sense to do that. We were already going to be slower due to the rainy conditions and adding more weight to our packs with all that water sounded torturous. So, we set our sights on Blackrock Hut, filled out water bottles at the last spring we'd see for many miles, and hit the trail.
Although the rain was still falling, thankfully the temperature was quite comfortable. If it had been twenty degrees colder, we would've been pretty miserable. The trail was quite beautiful in the fog and the rain, and I enjoyed the morning.
A long climb up Turk Mountain had us shedding our rain pants and just getting by with raincoats. We didn't need to be drenched in sweat while trying to stay dry from the rain!
If you're wondering how we eat lunch when it's raining, well, we just stop and sit in the rain and eat. Once you're fully IN the rain, you just kind of accept it and carry on!
And then we were climbing again, up to Wildcat Ridge and back down, crossing over the infamous Riprap Trail. I needed a little boost, so I whipped out another one of my rice krispie treats. I am so glad I brought these on this trip!
Mid-afternoon, the rain finally took a break, and even the deer came out to play.
We crossed Skyline Drive twice today, but the trail always ascended up and away from the road quickly. We were getting close to the shelter now, and we were anxious to get there. We had decided we'd try sleeping in the shelter tonight, since our tents were still wet and muddy, but with the break in the weather we hoped to set up our tents and dry them out a little!
We made it to Blackrock Hut a little after 3:00pm and had the place to ourselves. We quickly unpacked and chose some floor space to set up our sleep systems and then set about drying our tents out.
It seemed like as soon as we had our tents pitched, a wet, misty fog settled in, and it was not helping our wet tent situation in any way. I even had this invasive guy try to hide out from the weather in my tent! Reluctantly, we packed our tents back up and decided to make some dinner.
Soon, a father/son duo hiked into camp. They, too, planned to sleep in the shelter. This particular shelter had space for about ten hikers, including the main floor space and about four upper bunk spaces. These two guys chose to set up their beds on two of the upper bunks and then got busy making their dinner. They were out for a long weekend together and didn't seem to mind the rain at all.
It was far too wet to even attempt making a fire, and being damp all day had chilled us, so we crawled into our bags around 6:00pm just to stay warm.
Not long after, more people showed up to camp. This time, there was a husband and wife, along with another woman, and then we were told the couple's son would also be arriving shortly. He had thru hiked the trail last year and this foursome was out here just for the night to reminisce. They decided that three of them would also sleep in the shelter and then one woman would sleep in her tent nearby. The shelter was filling up! I wondered if I'd sleep at all with nine people all under this one little roof.
Then, just before dark, one more hiker came into camp, but he hustled to get his tent set up a bit further from the shelter.
Now it was dark, but we weren't tired, so the four of us laid in our bags, making up silly stories and playing 20 questions. When it seemed like everyone had settled down for the night, we ended our games, and all drifted off to sleep, thankful for the roof over our head, sheltering us from the lightly falling rain.
Total Daily Miles: 13.51
Total Calories Burned: 2,970
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