Start: Stealth Site near Pinnacle Picnic Area (AT mi 938.8). Stop: Lewis Campground (AT mi 918). Today’s miles: 20.8 miles. Total AT mileage: 1275.1 miles
The wind howled all night long, whipping and swirling around my tent, occasionally so loud it would wake me up through the earplugs. I didn’t mind it though. David’s tent is a beast in the wind-not one part going slack with the beating or coming loose.. if anything it was the tension cords smacking into the tent I heard. I remember waking to the chaos at one point and just smiling as I rolled the other way, knowing I was safe right there in that glorious tent. The one I ordered for myself still hasn’t shipped, which is fine.. I just pray nothing happens to his while I’m using it, or he’ll be getting my new one.. lol
I got up at 7, even though I tried to force myself to get up earlier, since I knew it would be another long day, but I just couldn’t do it. The sun getting up at 6:45 is both a blessing and a curse, because clearly I’m incapable of getting up without it, if there’s not a big ole Katahdin to get to.
I packed and ate my Poptart breakfast. Then hit the trail by 7:45, again with my bug net on. I had a sinking feeling today would be another day of spider home wrecking with no reprieve. Luckily and completely unexpectedly, I ran into people hiking the opposite direction by 9:15! A trio! Heck YES!! And, even more exciting than this, I realized at this moment that I was close enough to make it to the Skyland Resort Restaurant with time to sit down for second breakfast!
I start practically running, well-not really running, but this odd speed walk that had a slight bounce to it that meant I was in a hurry. The ground was smooth and so well maintained that I even glanced at the maps a little on my app WHILE doing my awkward speed hike. The app comments say they quit seating customers for breakfast at 9:30, it was 9:29 when I halted to a stop at the hostess stand.. sweating, my pack outside, only my wallet and my cellphone in hand-mask on my face.
The lady didn’t come up to me until 9:33 and I knew for a fact I’d probably lose my mind if they didn’t seat me.. simply because I rushed and I made it, they just chose to ignore me for 4 solid minutes while I caught my breath and panted like a COPD patient about to lose a battle to the disease. Thankfully, for everyone involved, but mostly for me, she sweetly sat me at the window with a gorgeous view of the mountains.
I ordered coffee, orange juice, water, blackberry French toast, bacon, and cheese grits. Im here to tell you I scraped every last dish clean. I considered licking the rest of the syrup off of the plate, too, but then remembered I am in a public restaurant and that would be slightly embarrassing. I used their bathroom, twice, and got the sweet lady to fill up my water bottle for me. I also sat at that window and uploaded yesterday’s blog.
Around 10:15, I finally left my glorious breakfast haven and started walking again. I expected to have to put the bug net back on, but there were people everywhere today! I didn’t use it again all day long! The trail was gentle, even when climbing over mountains. The views were gorgeous and I took every small side trail to every single one. I saw some great stealth spots on the tops of some of those mountains, too.. what a pretty place to fall asleep!
Not far from the restaurant I passed by a barn with horses in a large fenced in “pen.” I was going to just keep walked by, but one of the horses met my eye and walked to the fence, so I backtracked to meet the sweet fella and pet his beautiful face. Horses are such incredible creatures, I’m usually quite nervous around them, because of their size and strength being so obvious, their muscles on display for anyone with eyes to see. But this horse just seemed kind, and like he needed his snout rubbed and to be called a good boy. So, he got it. It was harder to pull away from him than I expected.. he didn’t seem too mad that I left without giving him a snack, either, which was probably the only reason he walked up to me to begin with.. see, the goodest boy!
Just after 1:30 I came to the Big Meadows Campground and Resort area. I thought they were in the same building, so I just got a soda from a venting machine and sat at a picnic table to eat some of my lunch I’ve been carrying: a tortilla PB&J.. those things are heavy to tote, so I was glad I didn’t realize they had an actual restaurant, too, that I could have ordered a hot lunch at.
As I ate, I saw a deer in the field, caring not even a little bit about all of the cars and people around. I emptied my trash and headed out again.. then passing the actual restaurant and refusing to let myself go inside, because I knew I’d find something to buy. The trail stayed perfect all day long! There were some parts with rocks that made my almost 20 mile day feet hurt, but again, I think they’d have hurt at that point either way.
I walked and listened to an audiobook, snapped pictures and just thought about how incredible this life is that I’m living. I’m in the woods, enjoying my hard earned mileage, and I’m happy. I’m not crying because I couldn’t save the life of someone younger than me, or the mother of someone my age, or someone’s grandpa. I’m not so stressed out that my anxiety causes tunnel vision and makes me feel like I’m going to pass out at times because people “just don’t get it” and can’t relate to what I do for a living, and the personal toll it takes on your heart and soul on any given day.
My most irritating or infuriating or inconvenient thing to happen at all in the last few days has been getting smacked in the face with sticky spider webs-and now-THERE AREN’T EVEN ANY OF THOSE! It’s surreal. It’s beyond my wildest dreams that this is my life currently, while simultaneously being the one thing I always knew I’d eventually be doing.
Anyway, as I was less than 2 miles from the campground I was aiming for, I saw a man hiking ahead of me. I picked up my pace to catch him, hoping it was Jerzy, and luckily IT WAS!! I was so happy to see him! He was aiming for the shelter, just before the campground and I talked him into coming to the campground instead. I was getting a site either way, so he might as well come stay with me!
We hiked together and chatted about any and everything, and then we passed a huge black snack that naturally had me freaking out. Jerzy even did the “they aren’t dangerous..” speech. Don’t care, they’re way too damn big! A little bit later we found the campground and set out to find an open spot that would house his hammock and my tent.. a little tricky in a drive up campground. Finally, after maybe 15-20 minutes of searching, we found the perfect spot for him to hang his hammock and for my tent to be in flat grass.
I went to the kiosk and paid for our spot, then walked up a hill to the camp store. I knew it would be closed at 5 and it was just after 6 now. I just wanted to peek in the windows and see if there was anything in there that I’d want to stick around for in the morning when they reopened at 9am. There were two gentleman drinking a beer and rocking in rocking chairs on the porch. I politely said my “hi” to them and told them what I was doing. One of the guys said, “well if you’re wanting anything right now, I’ll let you in to buy it.. I don’t mind..” OMG!
So naturally, I got 2 beers, a Gatorade, and a soda! The beer for now, the soda for the caffeine in the morning, the Gatorade to pour into my water bottle to sip on tomorrow. When I got back to the campsite, Jerzy was already set up and was chatting to a guy that was quizzing him about the AT. I started setting up my stuff, so then the questions were turned to me. We all 3 chatted and worked on chores.
The guy left us when Jerzy and I started making dinner. Then, a while later he came back by and gave us some trail magic! Chicken and tuna and some protein bars! We split the bars but I let Jerzy have the packaged meat, since even looking at the packaging was making my stomach turn. Once we cleaned up our dinner stuff and put everything in a bear box down the way, another camper came over and gave us his homemade Venison Jerky!! We did split that evenly, because holy hell, it’s good!
There’s a bathroom house close to our campsite and it has a plug in with power, so, I’m using that to charge my phone before bed and I’m going to leave my power bank to charge here over night. I’m actually sitting on the bathroom floor (in an unused corner.. lol) to write all of this out, so when my phone hits 100% I can just go to bed instead of then having to write this out, too.
Also, there’s a story board outside of the bathrooms with the history of this campground.
This campground was originally created for “coloreds only.” Harold Ickles, secretary of the interior first brought up the issue of race with the national park service, since this park is in Virginia and was then part of the “Jim Crow” era. They made this campground for black visitors, recognizing that they should also be allowed to enjoy the natural beauty of the area, even if they had to still conform to the areas ridiculous laws of keeping whites and blacks separated.
Not shocking to me, they eventually let whites come to the dinning hall here at the blacks only area because, well-the food was awesome. Then, in 1950, the Pinnacle Picnic Area (that I camped near yesterday) was the first ever area that didn’t require separation by race. That’s 14 years before the civil rights act making it illegal to force segregation.
This history blows my mind in so many ways, but mostly that this wasn’t that long ago. It was before my time, obviously, but it wasn’t before some y’all’s time, it wasn’t before my grandparents time.. it was literally happening during their prime! How on earth could something like keeping people separated based off of the color of their skin-something quite literally NO ONE ON THIS EARTH had a choice in making a decision on-have been a normal way of life for our grandparents, or parents, or ourselves? It’s wild. And while we’ve made so many changes for the better, so much progress in equality, we still have so much farther to go.
Anywho-I would say I’ll get off my soapbox now, but it’s more like I’ll get off the bathroom floor now instead.. lol Thanks for following along.. and be kind to one another. We all have the ability to do that, at the very least for each other. We’re all the same in some way or another.
Goodnight y’all, sweet dreams!