Magic trail in the rain

Another rainy day in Shenandoah

After a few zeros at Luray VA with the family, it was time to walk again. We woke up that morning and ate pancakes before leaving our Airbnb. Our family took us to the trail where we had left off. As we walked to the trailhead to say our final goodbyes to the family, it started to rain. And like a pair of scolded puppies, we trudged into the rainy fog.

Fortunately, the rain was scattered throughout the day and never lasted more than an hour at a time. We walked about 6 miles before meeting another Shenandoah road, Elkwallow Wayside. As we got closer we noticed several familiar faces.

The microbubble

Before heading off the trail to hang out with family, we were part of a small bubble of hikers hiking together through the national park. They were all lovely people, but we’d be lying if we said we didn’t want to have some space between us and them.

When grouping more than 12 hikers, it can be more difficult to find tent sites or shelter space. In addition, since it is so rainy, places in the shelters become more coveted. Additionally, there are fewer dispersed campsites in the national park, which can make it difficult when there are crowds of hikers. We think that in our time with family we allow them to get ahead of us a little bit. But lo and behold, they also coincidentally took some time out of the way. As we rested on the Elkwallow trail, we talked about wanting to get ahead of the rest. We decided that in the next few days we would do some bigger miles to see if we could create some separation.

Looking for a place to camp

After leaving the trail we planned to walk 13 more miles. On the way to camp the weather began to clear. The sun made an appearance just as we arrived at Hogback Overlook. It was one of the best views we’ve seen in Shenandoah National Park and felt like a great reward after walking in the rain all day. Finally we arrived at the Gravel Spring Hut. There was already a crowd of hikers at the shelter so we decided to grab some water and continued down the trail.

Salt the Mander

On FarOut there were several comments about dispersed camping spots just a couple miles further down the trail. We finally found a place we both liked and settled in. Avalanche prepared dinner while I started setting up the tent. These nightly tasks had become second nature at this point. After dinner we snuggled in bed and talked about the next few days on the road. We were planning on doing 25 miles the next day, the most we’ve done so far. So we needed a lot of sleep.

Throughout the night I woke up several times because our mattress kept leaking air. I would wake up, inflate it again, and within a couple of hours it would be flat again. Needless to say, we didn’t get a good night’s sleep.

The rain continues

The next day we woke up tired but ready to hit the ground running. The rain was supposed to start around 6:30am, we wanted to try to have everything packed by then so we kept our tent dry. We hit the trail around 6am and by 7am it was pouring rain. It rained all morning and the trail turned into a mud puddle. All our clothes were soaked, especially our socks and shoes. After leaving Shenandoah National Park, we came across a cooler on the trail with a sign that said «magic trail.» It’s amazing to me how this small act of generosity and kindness can make the day so much better. We both grabbed a soda and a bag of chips and devoured them.

More magical trails and seeing a friend

Around lunchtime the rain started to clear up a bit and we arrived at the Jim and Molly Shelter. It was an unusually beautiful shelter, equipped with a pavilion, a solar shower and horseshoes. In addition to the shelter being nice, there was also more magic on the trails! It seems like we haven’t had trail magic in a long time and now we’ve had two in one day. We felt truly blessed while eating our magical homemade cookies.

We packed lunch and waited for some of our gear to dry in the shelter. The sun came out and things were looking up. We were packing our bags when an old friend showed up at the shelter. It was Shaggy! We met Shaggy on the approach trail on our first day and haven’t seen him since. We weren’t sure if he had gone off the road or was way ahead of us. It was very nice to see an old friend and hear how well the trail treated him.

Ending a great day

Blueberries!

We still had a lot of miles to go today, so we got back on the road. Fortunately in the afternoon the weather was on our side. We stopped at the Manassas Gap Shelter for dinner and to refill our water bottles. We gathered around the picnic table with some hikers from the section and ate one of our dehydrated meals. Then we expected to be judged again. Only 4 miles left in the day! We met our friend Speedy who wanted to accompany us in these last kilometers. It was really nice to have another hiker to talk to as we finished the day. We arrived at the Whiskey Hollow shelter, we traveled 25 miles! All in all, it was a pretty good day. We chose to take a spot in the shelter tonight and went to bed as soon as we set up our sleeping pad.

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