None of us slept great in the motel for some reason, but we were up by 6:30, getting our gear packed up and chugging some coffee. Wayne showed up thirty minutes early, and we hustled to get the last of our things together and get to his van. As we were loading up, he pointed out a mountain in the distance. It was Hightop, where we had been the day before!
On our way to the trail, we made a pitstop at Wayne’s place. He lives in the parsonage next to a small church where he is the pastor of a congregation of about 35. You could tell from his stories that he was so proud to be the leader of that church. In fact, as we visited with people in town, we realized that everyone knew Wayne! He is a really great guy and had been so accommodating to us.
We bid Wayne farewell at the trailhead and headed north once again. We had 17.5 miles ahead of us, and we needed to get busy. (Unfortunately, my camera was misbehaving for this group shot!)
The morning was not too chilly, and blue skies greeted us. Soon, the sun rose above the mountains and man, was it a nice change from the rain and fog from the days before.
After a long climb up, the trail somewhat leveled out and we cruised through a bunch of miles, only stopping now and then for quick pack and snack breaks. We met this little guy along the way, as well!
The four of us had some extra motivation today, with a wayside 16 miles in, and we wanted more blackberry shakes! Our destination was Big Meadows, the halfway point of the Shenandoahs for tourists and thru hikers alike.
Our 17.5-mile day seemed to have flown by so quickly. We made it to Big Meadows wayside earlier than planned and ate smash burgers, French fries, onion rings, Coke, and shakes. It was glorious! There were lots of people here, as it is the most popular stop for tourists in the Shenandoahs.
A one-mile paved trail led us from the wayside to the campground. The Big Meadows campground was pretty big and had space for everything from solo tents like ours to huge motorhomes.
The friendly attendant helped us choose a campsite at the back of the park, right near the AT. When we got there, there were so many deer just hanging out everywhere!
We set up our four tents, with the doors all facing the center. Around us were other tent campers as well as big RVs. Once we were settled, we tried for a long time to make a fire. We all but gave up on it and decided to make some hot cocoa. There was a brief few moments where the fire flared up, but it wasn’t giving off any heat and once the sun set, it got chilly quickly. This was the highest elevation we camped at this trip, and it sure made a difference temperature-wise! I hoped the deer wouldn’t invade our camp in the night-they were bedded down so close to us! We settled into our tents and said good night.
The hot chocolate seemed to go right through us, and at 8:30pm we all crawled from our sleeping bags to head to the bathroom. The deer were still hanging around our campsite in the tall grass, and we could see their eyes shining in the darkness. We went to sleep, feeling safe and warm in our tents.
Total Daily Mileage: 18.41
Total Calories Burned: 3,801
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