Miles: 916.4 | A steady, rain-soaked Shenandoah day marked by quiet resilience and small morale boosts. Crossing 900 miles, news of a tax return, and an impromptu camp store stop lift spirits despite wet miles and broken gear. Familiar faces reappear at Bearfence Mountain Hut, followed by a calm daytime bear encounter and an evening of wildlife drama—ending with a raccoon successfully testing the limits of a bear pole and everyone’s patience.
I slept in because of the rain over night. It mostly slowed by the time I got up. Miles was still there, too. We left camp in the rain together and got water on the way out. My water bag broke. It had a bunch of pinholes in it. I wouldn’t be able to get another one for a while so I tried to make do. We passed mile 900 first thing in the morning:
And crossed a sketchy road in the rain shortly after:
We walked through the rain all day. It was tough but we stayed positive. My parents called halfway through the day to tell me my tax return came through! That news really helped keep me moving. On our way to camp we stopped at a park to get water and found out there was a drought so the water was turned off. We sat for a minute anyway and met Dirtbag Dave and Playboy. They told us there was another Camp Store coming up that they were going to stop at. We decided it would be nice to get some more snacks so we followed them there.
When we arrived we saw Strawberry Milkshake sitting outside! We hadn’t seen him since the Smokies and we were told by some other hikers that he had to get off trail for injury.
We were so excited to catch up with him! He was traveling with Dirtbag Dave, Playboy, Pegasus, and a few others. I got a beer and a bag of Munchies mix and sat outside to eat with the guys. After our snack Miles and I headed off. We had planned on going further this day but we got a text from Josh that he was at this hut! We decided we’d stop and say hi.
As we approached the shelter, I heard a loud sound from the woods to my right. I looked up the slope and saw a big bear! As Skywalker always taught us with his story, I yelled, “Hey there, whoa bear!” It looked at me and stopped moving. Miles yelled, “Whoa!” from behind me. “Okay bear go on!” I yelled toward it. It shook its head and turned its big butt to us. Eventually it climbed back up the hill. My heart raced a little bit after my last bear encounter I was a bit less scared. Especially because this time it was during daylight.
We went down to say hi to him and Murdock and Mark. Twinkie was there, too. After having a snack with Josh, we decided to just stay there for the night. I went down the steep water path before the rain started.
All evening we watched a large doe circling camp, keeping an eye on us. Josh suggested her baby must be near by. Rain started to come down hard. We all retreated to our tents and shelters. I set up my bed in the shelter with Twinkie, A section hiker named Soggy, and a few other hikers. After a while one of us went to go get more water and saw the bear get close to the shelter! Everyone ran outside to take photos. I’d had my bear experience for the day so I stayed in the shelter and read. We all went to bed around 9pm. I took a melatonin to help me sleep.
Sometime in the late evening I awoke to some yelling. The next morning I heard the story:
Just around dark, a raccoon came and climbed the slippery, wet bear pole. Once at the top he reached out his little raccoon paw and grabbed someone’s cuben fiber food bag. He lifted it over the hook at the top of the pole and dropped the bag to the ground. He then slid down the bear pole and dragged the bag away from the pole. Josh, Mark, Miles, and Rambo (it was Rambo’s bag) watched as the raccoon stole the bag. Josh found a large stick for Rambo to scare the raccoon with. Rambo threw the stick at the raccoon (apparently not Josh’s intended use of the stick). The raccoon ran, but not after shredding the food bag and stealing some of his food. He eventually got it back.