Day 91 – A Rainy Fourth

Day 91

Start: Lewis Rd

End: Pass Mountain Hut 

Miles Hiked: 19.7

Miles on AT: 945.8

July 4th! Today I was hoping to see fireworks on top of a mountain, but that didn’t quite happen. I didn’t feel the greatest when I woke up this morning. I’m not sure if it was the beer (I don’t drink super often) or something I ate, but I felt off.

I got a late start to my morning, leaving camp around 8:45 am and arriving at Loft Mountain wayside for breakfast. Breakfast wasn’t as spectacular as my lunch at the previous wayside, but maybe that was mostly due to me not feeling well. I got a sausage and egg biscuit, but only ate about half the sausage because it was so greasy.

I took my breakfast outside, enjoying the view of Big Meadow. Today was the first time I had seen it, and, wow, was it beautiful. After breakfast, road walked for a while so that I could enjoy the meadow view.

However, I was soon back in the forest. A few other thru hikers passed me among the masses of day hikers out on the trail for the holiday. Everyone was in Shenandoah today – youth groups, couples, families, you name it. The trail was busy!

Eventually, I made it to the horse stables and decided to take a detour to Skyland, the big hotel in the park. It was almost like being back in town. There was a restaurant and multiple stores, even a Starbucks. I ran into Cinderella and a group of other hikers. So much for being at the end of the bubble.

We chatted for a while. The larger group of hikers was waiting on their hotel room. They invited me to crash, but I still had about 9 miles left for the day, so I declined.

Just then, it started to rain. I contemplated going out in the rain, but decided to get Starbucks and wait out the rain instead. I charged my phone and waited until about 3 pm.

The rain had started to let up, but it was still drizzling a little. This was about as good as it was going to get for a while, so I bit the bullet and headed back out in the rain.

The rain didn’t last long, but the rest of the day moved a bit slowly. There were a bunch of beautiful rock outcropping views to be had, though.

At Pinnacles Picnic Area, I found real flush toilets (a luxury!) so I took advantage of that and was happy to do so.

During the rest of the hike, the views were mostly the same. There were so many, I couldn’t stop at all of them. But, I did notice that clouds were starting to roll in.

During my last long descent, I felt like it was going to take forever to get there. I tried to focus on my Stalin + Russia drama (Lenin was about to die), but it was difficult to keep my head in the game. A bunch of day hikers were continuing to climb up even as the skies got darker. I guess they were there in hope of getting a July 4th show as well.

About 2 miles before my shelter, it started to rain, but only a little, not enough for me to put my rain gear on. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see fireworks in the distance, so I gave up on that idea.

I made it to the shelter pretty late, probably around 7:30, so I only had time for dinner and chores before darkness set in. Now, it’s time for lights out!