Day 76: Wipeouts

Hiked 19.0 miles, tenting at Dick's Dome shelter.

 

We woke up this morning and checked the weather from the hostel.  3.5 inches of rain predicted for today with flash flood warnings...terrific.  The hostel owner gave Srocket and I a ride into the town of Front Royal to resupply.  Dip'n'sip and Why Not did not need anything so they just started hiking.

  

After resupply we walked the half mile back to the trail from the hostel and started hiking.  After .2 miles we waved goodbye to the Shenandoah National Park.  The trail goes right past a huge compound owned by the Smithsonian Institution which studies endangered species like panda.  You can't see any animals but it is a huge farm with tons of buildings and we spent a few miles going around it. 

 

9 AM photo

Looking through the fence at the Smithsonian Institute

Another look at the institute

For once we get a boardwalk over the mud!

As predicted, it rained a lot today.  The trail in many places was ankle deep water.  The soil here is a lot of clay and as a result it doesn't absorb water very well and turns into giant puddles with thick mud underneath.  The good news is that we had a ton of stream crossings today and instead of precariously attempting to cross on slick rocks, my shoes and socks were already drenched so it was easy to convince myself to just plow through the water instead.  In fact the trail was just about the same depth, just slower moving, as any of the river crossings we did.

Jim and Molly Denton shelter

Mountain meadow

Cicada

 

The mud was slick and we had some steep downhill today.  Up to this point I have only fallen once in 950 miles.  Today I wiped out three times.  Two of those times were in the span of a minute.  I think I bragged about my record on my blog recently, bad karma.

 

Covered in mud and soaked to the bone, I stopped at the Denton shelter for lunch.  Dip'n'sip and Why Not had already come and gone.  It is a really nice shelter with a covered picnic area and even has a solar shower.  It would be a really cool place to stay if it weren't nine miles into our day.  Srocket showed up just as I finished eating.  After talking for a few minutes I noticed the sky was getting lighter and decided to wait a little longer to see if it was clearing up.  My hunch was correct and I walked out of the shelter to only dripping trees.

 

Cicadas have these scary looking red eyes

Continuing through the meadow

Looking back the way I came

As soon as the rain stopped the cicadas came out in force.  There was one field I crossed especially where they were everywhere.  From this point we had to descend a long way down to cross under I-66 and then ascend back up.  The climb back up was steeper than we've had for a while.  I'm not sure what it is but horseflies somehow only seem to pester you on the uphills.  I had one following me for the entire climb.  Somehow they just know when you are too tired to swat at them and only bug you then.  Jerks.

 

Turtle in the trail

He wasn't happy about the photo op

The rain held off for much of the afternoon with only drizzles here and there.  I arrived at the shelter and talked with people for a bit.  The shelter is interesting.  It is nicknamed the geodesic shelter and understandably so.  It is a really neat building architecturally, but because it isn't square it is tough to fit a lot of people in there.  When I arrived it was already full so I went to find a tent site and set up.  No sooner had I got my tent up and inside it than round two of the storm hit, this time with booming thunder.  I had originally planned to head back to the shelter to eat dinner with everyone...I decided to wait a while.

Lots of historical signs in this area

After crossing under I-66

This was a drier part of the trail today

Srocket was not so lucky, she got caught in the storm and arrived soaked to the bone.  After the rain died down a bit I went back to the shelter and hung out.  Blimey and Elf were here along with Mama and Papa Bull.  The four of them were just eating and then going to hike more.  Staying in the shelter are three new hikers we haven't met, Hot Dog, Apple Butter and Lost.  Also staying there is Grizzly, I think the last time we saw him was Partnership shelter a couple hundred miles ago.  The creek at the shelter has turned into an enormous river and engulfed pretty much the entire area.  More storms tonight, hopefully we have some sun in our future.