Returning to my Backpacking Roots in Shenandoah: AT Flip Flop Days 92-99

Coming Back

I took 4 weeks off to heal from my concussion and to wait for summer to start progressing into fall. I had hoped to have a mini adventure during the break, but I ended up staying around home to spend time with family. By the end of the month I was ready to start moving again. 

My dad and I drove back to Virginia over two days, stopping for a nice, but short, visit with my aunt and uncle in Indianapolis. We stayed near Waynesboro in Staunton, VA, the night before getting back on trail. 

I decided to skip the northern half of Shenandoah for a few reasons. The mileage and shelter spacing worked out better for my dad to hike with me for a week. I wouldn’t fall behind Jingle and Subtitles, who started hiking south from Harper’s Ferry earlier in the week. And since my goal had changed from hiking the entire trail this year to hiking it over a few years, I could count my 2022 section hike of the northern half towards that goal.

Day 92

While eating breakfast at the hotel, a neighbor’s pet pig wandered over and waited outside the hotel to try to yogi some food from the guests. A hotel employee chased the pig, whose name was Bacon, back home. We got a good laugh out of it.

After breakfast, we dropped the car off at a public parking lot in Waynesboro and waited for Wayne, our shuttle driver, to pick us up and take us to Big Meadows in Shenandoah NP. 

After getting dropped off, we had a snack and topped up our water before setting out. A short side trail took us back to the AT, to the point where I started my NOBO section hike two years ago. 

The trail was flat and well maintained. We saw several deer who couldn’t care less that we were there, continuing to munch on apples as we hiked past. The forest was beautiful with its lush green leaves, dark trees, and lichen covered rocks. I was reminded why I love this park.

The fog was intermittent throughout the morning hike. We stopped for lunch in a well used dispersed camping site. After lunch, the trail was a little hillier and rockier than when we started. Dad struggled a little bit with the climbs, not really being able to train for it in flat Illinois, having asthma, and having lost a lot of his conditioning over the last month with a bad upper respiratory infection early in August. I was a little worried about him, since tomorrow we have an ambitious itinerary, but we’ll see how he does. 

We made it to Bearfence Mountain Hut, our camp for the night, a little after 3PM. It felt strange being done so early. We set up the tent for Dad and my hammock then prepared dinner. I brought my camping stove for the first time on this hike, and I enjoyed having hot food for dinner. We shared camp with section hikers Monkey Man and Don, who both stayed in the shelter.

It started to rain around 6PM, so we went to bed super early. It continued to rain steadily for the next few hours. We both slept great, to our surprise. 

Day 93

We woke up around 6:30, tore down camp, ate breakfast, and started hiking around 8:20. Our first stop came just a mile into the day at Lewis Mountain Campground, where we got water and used a real bathroom. The trail was not as manicured as yesterday, but still nice and easy compared to what I left behind in the Northeast. There were some burn areas, but aside from those, the forest was still beautiful.

We had lunch at the Swift Run Gap ranger station, our only water source for the day. After lunch, we started the big climb of the day out of the gap. My trail lungs and legs lost a step while sitting at home for a month, so the climb was challenging. Dad really struggled to breathe. The air was heavy with humidity and no breeze.

We reached the summit of Hightop Mountain and were rewarded with a good view of the valley. It was a short half mile down to the Hightop Hut. A black snake surprised us on the trail, but slithered off out of our way. We made it to the hut around 3:30. It was going to rain again this evening, so we scouted the campsites and waited in the shelter for the first line of storms to pass. And storm it did. We ate dinner in the shelter while it poured rain around us. Dad decided to set up in the shelter for the night, but was nervous about it. We kept checking the weather, and it looked like the second line of rain would break up before getting to us. I set up my hammock, and just before sunset Dad decided to set up his tent. No one else showed up to camp with us.

Day 94

Although it didn’t rain again in the night, everything was soaked when we woke up. We were in a thick fog that persisted despite the strong wind. Even after the heavy storms in the Northeast this summer, my hammock had never been more wet than it was this morning. We took our time getting ready and grimaced when we had to put on our damp hiking clothes.

Shortly into the hike, we ran into a SOBO named Chainsaw. He started his hike carrying a small chainsaw for firewood but found it not to be useful. However he still felt compelled to carry the eponymous dead weight. He was also carrying an espresso maker, and he took a break with us to make us a cup. He knew both of the SOBOs I remembered meeting in the North and informed me they were both south of us. It was great to talk to a thru hiker and helped me feel like I belonged out here again. 

It remained cloudy and foggy throughout the morning. I was concerned that we wouldn’t be able to dry everything out. If we couldn’t dry our gear, I would have to get us off the mountain, because it was going to be a cold night. Fortunately, the sun came out as we approached the Simmons Gap ranger station where we took our lunch. We took a long lunch break and had a yard sale (putting everything in your pack out to dry in the sun). 

The last two miles to Pinefield Hut after lunch were easy. We set up camp on arrival and laid our hiking clothes out to dry. A section hiker named Joe arrived and set up in the shelter. Dad took the trail name Bacon, after the pig that made us laugh at breakfast on the first day. We had a couple Mountain House meals for dinner as a treat.

Day 95

We packed up quickly in the cold, but thankfully dry, morning. We ate breakfast at the shelter with Joe before setting out for the day at 8. Dad had a few blisters, so we taped them up. We had a short day in store and wanted to knock it out early to have a full afternoon to rest.

Early in the hike, we came to Ivy Creek. It was in a beautiful hollow with hemlocks and big rocks. The temperature in the hollow was 10 to 20 degrees cooler and felt really refreshing.

We had a few good views to the east after that. We didn’t see anyone on the trail until we got on the blue blaze to the Loft Mountain Wayside. It was nice to have the trail to ourselves.

The blue blaze to the wayside was a steep uphill. We were both looking forward to a big lunch and iconic blackberry milkshakes, but when we got there, the wayside was closed due to a multiple day power outage. Devastated, we walked up to the camp store. I got a microwave burrito and Dad got some salami and cheese. It wasn’t the burger and fries we hoped for, but it was still good. We found the campground check-in station, picked a site, and paid for the night’s stay. We stashed our stuff in the bear box and headed back to the camp store. 

Dad is gluten free, and I didn’t know what the store would have, so we were carrying all of his food for the week from the start. To lighten his load, I carried some of his food and only brought enough to get me to the camp store, so I needed to resupply. I was pleasantly surprised by the store’s variety and got a good resupply. We also got firewood and hot dogs for dinner and got some beer and wine as a little treat.

We had a nice evening with the campfire and hot dog dinner. Dad had a huge blister on the ball of his foot. We protected it with moleskin and leukotape, but I was worried he wouldn’t be able to finish. However the reason I chose Shenandoah for him to join me, and why I think it’s the best backpacking area for beginners, is because there are plenty of opportunities to bail with the trail paralleling and crossing Skyline Drive throughout the park. We’ll see how he does tomorrow. 

Day 96

I slept great in the front country campground, but Dad did not with the cars driving by in the early morning. It was cold when we got up. We both used the flush toilets one last time before getting on trail. 

The trail coming out of the campground was super easy. We had a few good views early at Skyline Drive overlooks and hiked on the road for a short stretch. In no time, we had hiked 3 miles to Dundo Picnic Area and took a short snack break.

In the late morning, we arrived at Blackrock, the highlight of the southern section of Shenandoah. We took our time enjoying the views and impressive rock field.

We arrived at Blackrock Hut right around noon as a PATC crew was finishing some maintenance. (Potomac Appalachian Trail Club maintains the trail and shelters in this section.) This was our planned stopping point for the day, but it was easier than expected. We took a good lunch break and decided to push on to a dispersed camp site to make tomorrow, a planned 13 mile day with no water until camp, easier. We carried as much water as we could and hiked on. 

We planned to stop at a site about 4 miles from the hut, but when we got there it looked very slanted, so we kept going. We didn’t see another site for a while after that. The next site we saw was occupied, and the occupants had spread out over the entire site where we could have set up and were not around. Annoyed, we continued on, starting to worry we might not find something. 

We finally found a spot about 3 miles further than we intended to walk. It was tight, but we made it work. We cooked dinner down trail away from camp and found a good tree for a bear bag hang. It was hotter than expected overnight, and I had trouble sleeping, but Dad slept great.

Day 97

After packing up and eating breakfast, we hiked the first 3 miles quickly to Sawmill Run Overlook on Skyline Drive. We took a break to enjoy the view. With our longer than expected day yesterday, we could either take a very short day to Calf Mountain Hut or push to make it to Waynesboro in the late afternoon. I left the decision to Dad. He decided we should push to get to town so that he could have a zero on Friday before starting the drive home. He made a hotel reservation and I arranged a ride before we started hiking again. 

We had a little more descent before starting the long climb up Calf Mountain. It was a rough climb. We stopped at the shelter a half mile from the summit to refill our water and take a break to make it the rest of the way up. Even after the break, the rest of the climb was hard, but we finally made it to the anticlimactic, forested summit.

We continued on and stopped for lunch on the meadow summit of Little Calf Mountain. It was a nice view, our first lunch with a view on this trip. We both ate a double lunch, since we were hungry and were getting off trail a day earlier than planned.

I thought the long descent to Rockfish Gap would be easy, but the rocks and steep climbs that interrupted the descent made it hard. Some of the stretches of trail reminded me of Pennsylvania’s rocks.

We made it to Rockfish Gap a little after 3:30 and got a ride to Waynesboro from Dairy King, who thru hiked in 2019. We retrieved our car, checked into the hotel, and took our showers. Dad revealed that he had been pushing through some bad feet and knee pain. He threw his worn out boots away at the hotel as soon as he could. We went to Outback Steakhouse for a good dinner. Afterwards we stopped at Walmart to get laundry detergent and some meds for Dad to nurse his feet and joints. It was a relaxing night, and we both slept great. 

Day 98

We had the hotel breakfast and then a slow morning in the room. I did laundry and decided what gear I wanted to take from between our two packs. I’m switching to my tent to reduce some weight and bulk from my pack. I’m also keeping my stove for hot dinners.

We checked out and headed to Charlottesville, where Mom was scheduled to fly in tonight to help Dad with the long drive home. We had a great lunch at a taphouse and passed time at an outfitter and outdoor mall. I resupplied at the grocery store, and we headed to our hotel.

We continued our lazy day at the hotel. Mom’s first flight was delayed to the point that it wouldn’t be possible to make her connection, so Dad encouraged her to take the refund and return home. Dad and I were both tired, and I was having some stomach problems, so we just had dinner in the hotel restaurant. 

Day 99

In the morning, Dad and I returned to Waynesboro and had breakfast at Cracker Barrel. He stopped to gas up, I got my stuff together to stay at Stanimals 328 Hostel, and we said our goodbyes. I got checked into the hostel and started working on the blog. As I was sitting outside, Fresh Grounds stopped in for a quick shower and to refill his water cans. He is supporting Tara on her FKT attempt, but said he would come back up and find me after she finishes. 

Subtitles arrived a little after noon. It was great to catch up with him. Jingle is currently off trail, but we hope to have her back soon.

I realized I had left my trekking poles in the car. I called Dad to let him know my stupid mistake. I’ll have them sent to Glasgow. I just switched to my trekking pole tent too. I figured out a solution to get me through the next week, but felt really dumb for forgetting them. I replaced my poles during my break, as the Lekis I had bought in New Jersey had corroded to the point of being unusable. They also had a poor strap design and slippery grips. Overall they were very disappointing. My new Black Diamond poles performed very well in Shenandoah, and I can’t wait to get them back.

I got a message from Steps that he had summited Khatadin. I sent him my congratulations and let him know I was back on trail heading south. I wish I could have finished with him up there. 

Lack-of-Shower Thoughts

It was hard to get back into the hike mentally this week. I absolutely enjoyed having my dad with me and being back in one of my favorite National Parks, but I have struggled to find peace in my decision to not finish the thru hike with the Northern miles I missed. Getting off to heal was absolutely the right call, but it is hard coming back to hike another 900+ miles when I’ve already failed to achieve my original goal. It has been, and will be, a process to adjust my mindset to focus on the revised goal to hike the rest of the Southern portion and finish the trail over time.