Miles: 929.0 | A heavy morning in Shenandoah, a tense wayside mix-up, solid food, wildlife sightings, and an early stop to rest before heading into Luray.
We awoke to the sound of a deer bleating. It didn’t sound good. We thought maybe the baby strayed too far or something. The shelter started stirring after the noise and most people were packed and gone by 8am. I made my oatmeal breakfast and sat and ate.
The local ridge runner (like the RAs of the trail) came down to get water and offered to fill my bag up, too. When he came back up the hill I asked him if he knew what that noise was. “Oh that doe we saw around... her baby... she left it too long.” He paused a few times while trying to tell me, “That bear you saw around, um, attacked the baby this morning.” The fawn had died.
I was a bit saddened immediately. Bears eat berries and people food, not fawns. I had thought. Apparently, according to the ridge runner and a Penn State study, bears are omnivores and will eat whatever is convenient. The bear probably stumbled upon the fawn, an easy prey, while the doe was gone and the bear ate it.
After this news and the last of my breakfast, I headed out with Miles. We had talked the night before with Strawberry Milkshake and his crew about the next wayside. It offered food and blackberry milkshakes (famous in Shenandoah). They all said they’d be going for breakfast. I decided it’d be nice and convenient. It’s one of our last opportunities for a wayside so we might as well go.
Miles and I were both grumpy this morning so we split up. He hiked ahead of me. Somehow, I arrived at the wayside before him. After waiting ten minutes Berry’s crew and Twinkie started to show up. None of them had seen Miles. Maybe he kept going and missed the shelter.
He had borrowed my tent stakes the night before because he had lost a couple of his and he hadn’t given them back to me. We hadn’t agreed on a meeting place. If he didn’t show up this morning and he wasn’t at the next Hut, I’d be forced to do a 26 mile day to be able to stay in the Hut after the next one and still make progress.
I started getting nervous. The guys in Berry’s Crew offered to eat with me. We all went inside and I kept an eye on the window for Miles. I ordered a BLT and some coffee. About 45 minutes after I arrived Miles finally showed up. He doesn’t really look at his guidebook much and he missed the side trail to the Wayside. He walked a mile back on the lodge road to get to the Wayside. I was just glad he was ok and I got my tent stakes back.
I contemplated getting a blackberry milkshake since that’s what Shenandoah is known for, but after tasting one of the guys’ shakes I decided against it. It tasted extra sweet and almost artificial. I was disappointed. The BLT was satisfying, though. I filled my bottles at a tap inside. After lunch, we all went out in the sun and dried our socks.
We hiked we saw some beautiful views during the day. A deer crossed our paths as well as a bear. We saw Josh and Mark later in the day! We got to camp at Rock Spring Hut early. We relaxed in our tents and read. I called the hostel in Luray, Open Arms, and the woman made arrangements to pick us up around 3pm the next day.
