22 miles

Leaving our campsite was hard. I had one of the best nights sleep I’ve had in a long time surprisingly. I actually feel slightly rested.

The best part of the Shenandoahs is that they have these waysides along the road that sell food and beer and whatnot so you don’t have to carry more than a days food. Keeps our packs as low weight as possible. It’s Usually for the tourists but it’ll do for the hikers as well. Today we come across one around early and it was a welcome sight. About 8 of us hikers sat outside eating half frozen half lava hot sandwiches that were defrosted in their only microwave and tons of other snacks. We stayed there for an hour or so just eating as much as possible.

Eating as much crap as I did I realized I had eaten about 2000 calories in Hostess Fruit Pies, a half sandwich, and beers. No wonder I was feeling like so much shit after that. I was slightly uncomfortably full and very lethargic. We hiked a couple more miles feeling like this before we actually stop and sat on a rock next to the trailhead and contemplated why the hell are we doing this again. We needed a pick me up and just like that the trail provides.

After a brief nap a white car pulls up and offers us sodas, water, and snacks. Just what we needed. A little pick me up. Turns out the two older gentleman that we’ve been leapfrogging the past couple days Gandalf, and Captain BJ are being slackpacked and trail magiced by Captain’s sister. She’s living vicariously through her brother and is helping him out any way she can. Anyways we convinced her to slackpack us the next 5 miles right before camp. Just gotta roll with it sometimes.