It was sooo cold overnight. I had pitched my tent on a slant and spent my night sliding down to the bottom of my tent and didn’t sleep well. I couldn't wait to get moving!
We were up by 7am, packing up and doing our morning routines. We had the added bonus of a bathroom with flushing toilets and running water nearby, and we took full advantage of it. Plus, it was warmer in there! How long can you just hang out in a bathroom before it's weird? Haha!
The sun was coming up, and I hoped that it would hurry and warm things up. The deer were nowhere to be seen this morning, and I wondered how long they had stayed near us in the night.
Before leaving camp, we filled up on water. Even with the recent rainfall, water sources were still either dry or barely trickling. We were ready go, complete with our winter hats and mittens. Brr!
The trail was literally steps from our campsite, which was a great luxury. We started the day with a big downhill, which didn’t help us warm up! About four miles in, we made a group decision to skip the wayside today and go 18 miles instead of 14. It was going to be a long day.
Soon enough, the trail started to climb again. Up and up we went to Crescent Rock Overlook. We finally had clear skies and got to take in that gorgeous view!
As we continued on, a hiker from Pennsylvania joined us for a few miles. He hiked behind me, and we chatted about our adventures as we went along.
When we reached the turnoff to the wayside, we said goodbye to our hiking friend and stopped on trail to sit and eat some lunch. This was a busy are filled with a lot of day hikers coming up from the wayside. We greeted them as they passed, enjoying our little trail meals and the break from our heavy packs.
Then we had a big climb up Stony Man Mountain. We had originally intended to go to the very top, but there were so many people on this section of the trail! We stopped to take off a layer of clothing and then decided that when the Stony Man trail spurred off the AT, we'd stick to the AT. We had many miles to go and just enough time to get there.
We headed up to Stony Man Cliffs, which we were sure were as stunning as the top of Stony Man Mountain. On the way up, I made a quick pitstop bathroom break before we were out on the exposed cliffs. I caught up to the group, and we took turns posing out on the cliffs which gave amazing views in every direction.
And that's when I noticed that my tent was not in the side pocket of my backpack where I had been carrying it. My tent was gone. My literal shelter from the storm was missing!
Chelsea and Kara offered to wait with our packs while Misty and I backtracked to where I had made that bathroom pitstop, which was about a half mile back. We were already short on time, and this was not a hiccup we needed. When we got to the spot, there was no tent. Misty offered to go back with me to the stop we had made before this one, but that was about a mile and a half further back, halfway up Stony Man Mountain. If I had lost it there, either someone had found it and kept it, or found it and turned it in to a ranger station. I decided I'd post on the FarOut app when I had service next to see if it had been found. But we really couldn't afford the time to go back further looking for it.
There was nothing to do but continue forward. We'd planned to sleep in shelters the next two nights anyway, so I didn't necessarily need it for the rest of this trip. But what if we didn't make it to the shelter? Or the shelter was full? And it was an expensive tent! I was feeling very uneasy.
Ahead, we had a huge downhill section, which was steep and rocky, and didn't allow us to make up any time. Of course, at the bottom we crossed Skyline Drive once again and the trail went right back up into the mountains. This time, we were climbing up to Pinnacle Mountain. The view from the top was the best one yet!
We had eight more miles to go now, and only four hours of daylight left. We had been covering about two miles per hour all day, and this left no room for error. We had to keep moving.
As we were coming down the trail, we turned a corner and came upon an older hiking couple. They greeted us with big smiles and said, "Did any of you happen to lose a tent?" Are you kidding me?! Of course, I squealed and said it was mine, and the man pulled my tent from a small pack on his back. What a glorious sight! He said that he and his wife were here day hiking, doing short out and back sections, and they had passed us way back when we had been sitting on trail eating lunch. We had greeted them as they headed south. When they came back through northbound, we were gone, but a tent was sitting there. He figured it must be ours. So, here's the craziest part: They decided to get into their car and drive north to where they thought we might come through and then hike in and try to find us. I cannot tell you how many stops we had made since losing my tent, or how many side trails there had been crossing the AT. It is nothing but a miracle that they guessed correctly and were able to find us. In fact, if we had been just a half mile further on, we would've been past where they had parked and gotten on the trail and we would've missed them. It was actual perfect timing. Talk about the best trail magic ever! I obviously thanked them profusely and even declared my actual love for them and off we went, my tent back in its pocket, secured with bungees, and also tied by the strap to my pack!
We came through the Byrd's Nest #3 shelter area and I realllllly wanted to stop. This had originally been where we planned to stop for the day, but we had already decided to go four miles further to make the next day easier. Fine. On we went.
The miles seemed to be passing very slowly. We had one more big climb-up to Mary's Rock. We climbed and climbed and started encountering more and more hikers. Apparently, this was a popular spot! They didn't get up there from the AT, so they must've hopped on side trails to get up there. We had a little more than three miles left to go, and we needed to get down off of this mountain! See that smile? It's totally fake.
Finally, we started our descent. And it was a doozie. The trail down off of the mountain was not only steep, but very rocky and technical. We were literally picking our way down the trail. These were our slowed miles of the day, and it was very frustrating. Our feet were killing us and we were so tired! People kept passing us going up the hill, and we wondered what the heck they were thinking. None of the people seemed to be in the best of shape, and they had two hours until dark. Why they were heading up at that time of day was baffling to us.
Once we made it down off the mountain, we passed through Thornton Gap via Skyline Drive in Luray, Virginia. And you know what that means: Once you cross Skyline Drive, it's all uphill from there.
So, we made the long climb back up. We had a mile to go, and we looked like the walking dead. The trail was relentlessly rocky and we were moving as slowly as snails.
After a torturously long climb, we finally came to the turnoff to the shelter. What a glorious sight!
Pass Mountain Hut was tucked away, well off the AT. We had the whole place to ourselves, which might have been a bit spooky, but we were too tired and hungry to care. Once again, we set up our sleep systems in the shelter and quickly made dinner.
After scarfing our food down and hanging our belongings out of the reach of critters, we slid into our sleeping bags. It had been A DAY.
Total Daily Mileage: 18.85
Total Calories Burned: 3,910
