The nibbling went on all night long. ALL NIGHT LONG. Around 4:30am, all four of us were awoken. This time, it wasn't the little nibbling. This was gnawing. It was definitely a noise too loud to be a mouse. Misty turned on her headlamp to see what it was, and there, above us in the rafters, was a giant RAT. A rat! This was definitely not on my Bingo card! I could handle sleeping with a little nibbling mouse, but there was no way I'd be going back to sleep with a giant rat crawling all over in that shelter. I laid there the next two hours, praying for daylight and praying a rat wouldn't crawl across my face.
The infamous sleeping men woke before dawn, and we waited in our bags while they packed up their gear and hiked out of camp. I am sure after sleeping for 16 hours they were ready to go!
Then it was our turn to crawl once more from our sleeping bags and pack up our gear. In the light of day, we could see a few other tents that had been pitched after dark the night before. This was a popular spot! Before long, we were ready to go. It was time to hike our final 11 miles of this trip.
Our first order of business was hiking up and out of the shelter area a back to the AT. We were warm in no time.
Once back on the AT, we had more climbing to do. The trail climbed nearly 1,000 feet, up to North Mount Marshall, which gave us some amazing parting views of the Shenandoah Mountains.
And then, it was literally all downhill from there. The day was warm and sunny, and the leaves were perfectly crispy underfoot. I hung back from the group a bit, just soaking it all in.
We stopped for one last pack and snack break while we were officially in the National Park.
In another mile, we were at the northern end of Shenandoah National Park. We had officially hiked it end to end!
We had a couple more miles to go, down a steep rocky trail. Our eyes were peeled for the side trail we'd need to take to get back to our car. We reached a sign with a little arrow and decided to take a chance. We had guessed correctly and soon we were approaching the Northern VA 4H Center. In the summertime, there is an open pool and snack bar, which I am sure hikers absolutely love, but everything was closed up this late in the year. We didn't mind, though, because we were done! We hit pavement and we could see Kara's car in the distance!
And then it was all over. We had hiked 111 miles in the last eight days. We had traveled on foot through rain, wind, fog, and sunshine. We had encountered deer, bears, mice, and even a rat. We had met people from all walks of life, each contributing in their own ways to our journey. We leaned on each other during the rough times, laughed together during the good times, and came away with stories to tell for years to come.
Total Daily Mileage: 11.87
Total Calories Burned: 1,984
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