Start: Milam Gap
End: Pocosin Cabin
Today's miles: 8.1
Total (cumulative) AT miles: 52.4
Time: 6 hrs (but who cares?)
Just catching up on the blog...it's been too long. I'm trying to recall all the great things about this section, especially since it's been over a month ago. We camped at Big Meadows on Friday night, which would allow us to get an early start on Saturday. 8.1 miles is pretty aggressive miles for Gimpfoots! Jen rented Pocosin Cabin for Saturday night, so we were committed to get there.
We started our Saturday morning with a photo-exped. It was worth it! Our 2nd bear of the season...and we had him all to ourselves. We wouldn't have seen him, but a couple of young velvet bucks kept alerting to something on the other side of the stone wall. On a hunch, we investigated and found a nice sized bear! Kewl!!
After the photo-exped, we dropped the Escape off near Pocosin Cabin, then shuttled back to Milam Gap to start our looooong hike. We had hiked this section before up to the Laurel Prong trail, which is the cutoff to Rapidan Camp. It's pretty flat and easy, even though we were topping out on Hazeltop. The trail was so flat and straight that we started calling it "the runway". At one point a group of 4-5 deer crossed the trail in front of us. Jen had her fancy pants camera (I had a dog) and I started coaching her to just aim at that spot on the trail and start shooting. Sure enough, she managed to get a shot of the last one scampering across the AT. That was cool!
After almost 3 miles, we stopped at Booten's Gap for a break and snack. Rosie was hungry too...all that running back and forth worked up her appetite. We then pushed on to try and get to Lewis Mountain. There's a campground there, and a campstore with supplies. We (well, I) was counting on the campstore to resupply the water. We still had 3.3 miles to get there and between me and Rosie, we had sucked up most of the water already and we still hadn't conquered Bearfence Mountain! After a short break, we pushed on to Bearfence. It's a real popular hike in Shenandoah....it's 1.2 miles round trip and has a rock scramble. They call it the "mini Old Rag". We didn't get to see the rock scramble, since the AT goes AROUND Bearfence and not over it. But we did get to experience some of the rocks from another angle.
After Bearfence Mtn, it became a push to get to Lewis Mountain and the promise of a long break and resupply at the campstore. By then, we were already into the Gimpfoot chant..."Oww, Ouch, Owwie". Jen was even wondering if I could hitch a ride to the Escape and rescue us. Oh, silly Jen.
Just past Bearfence, we hiked through a recent controlled burn area. It was such a surreal landscape, but perked us up a bit. We took some pics, then pushed on to Lewis Mtn with a new energy. We FINALLY arrived at Lewis Mountain, but the puzzle became how to get to the campstore by the shortest route possible. We ended up hiking up an approach trail, then through an empty campsite to the campground hosts. They told us the quickest way. Whew! We finally made it. It was probably about an hour before they closed since they were still on limited hours due to not being "in season" (i.e., pre-Memorial Day). What a relief that they were still open! I sat outside on the bench with Rosie while Jen went inside to scope out the bounty. We had packed our lunches, and were mainly thinking "water" and "Diet Pepsi" (but not necessarily in that order). Next thing I knew, Jen stuck her head out the door and asked if I wanted ice cream. My response? "Hell, yeah!". Some lady outside chuckled outloud at my response. Turns out Dove makes vanilla ice cream dipped in dark chocolate on a stick. Holy shit!
We also got Diet Pepsi's and cold water to refill our camelbaks. And Rosie got a ham and cheese sandwich! It was all we needed to push on to Pocosin! But first, we had to mark our halfway point. Yes, we were now officially at our halfway point to finishing 101 miles! Truthfully, we were a teeny bit past halfway, but now we had the energy to celebrate. I had downloaded Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" on my iPhone in preparation. We took about 10-15 minutes to shoot some video of us jammin' to the tune. We had a lot of fun doing it. We had picked the tune because of an AT thru-hiker had used the same tune on his halfway video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnFMQ2NAgyk). Fun times! (Notice the Diet Pepsi...that kept us going for at least the next mile).
So the only place to go from there was Pocosin Cabin and the promise of the Escape, a hot shower, dinner at Big Meadows, a cold six-pack & toasty fire at the cabin, and a quiet comfy bed with four walls and a roof. Holy crap! Once we got to the Pocoson fire road, we had to hike .1 miles up to the Escape to drop of our day packs and the dog and pick up our gear for the night. Then, hike .2 miles back down to the cabin and drop our gear, then hike .2 back up to the Escape to drive to Big Meadows for a shower and dinner. So technically, we were at 8.6 miles already. Ouch. After a hot shower, we got our six-pack on ice and then had dinner at the wayside. That was another awesome cheeseburger! We lugged our six-pack, some firewood and the dog the .2 miles back down to the cabin for the night. That was the best night of the weekend. Rosie enjoyed being loose in the cabin and free to jump from bunk to bunk all night. She would switch bunks everytime she'd finish chasing the many, many mice that lived under the cabin. And we didn't have to put up with any noisy neighbors ALL NIGHT!
On Sunday, we discussed a short hike, but we were pretty well done for the weekend. We did a photo-exped instead, which included a snake rescue. We planned to get to Swift Run Gap on our next hike as soon as we could fit it in our schedules. Definitely after Memorial Day weekend.
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