LEAVING SHANANDOAH NP

AT Day 058:  Sunday June 4,  2023

Mile 951.5 + 21.5 miles / 34.6 km

Total Distance Hiked: 972 miles/1564 km

Camp – Elkwallow Wayside – Rattlesnake Point/SD – Skyline Drive – Hogback Overlook/SD – Little Hogback Mountain – Skyline Drive – Gravel Springs Gap – Skyline Drive – North Mount Marshall – Skyline Drive – Compton Peak – Compton Gap/SD – Tom Floyd Wayside Shelter – VA Route 602 – US Route 522 – Front Royal

A: 3547 ft /1082 m  D: 5348 ft /1631 m

Hammer, the roof repairer, did a great job with the tenacious tape repair of the leaky seams.  The rain arrived around midnight and we stayed dry throughout the night, until the rain intensified just before sunrise. Droplets of water came bouncing inside the tent. But we had a mostly dry good night’s sleep, so the day was off to a reasonably good start. 

We waited till after 7am  to break camp as we were going to Elkwallow Wayside for breakfast. It’s located just off trail on Skyline Drive and it did not open till 9am. 

The rain had stopped but it was rather cold and completely fogged in. We were getting wet from the trailside vegetation and the drops of water falling from the trees interspersed with a little rain.  We hiked through the woods excited for another milestone descending down towards Skyline Drive  and the Elkwallow Wayside.

 

We seemed to make it there relatively early. We got there around 8. The Wayside is located in a large open area off Skyline Drive, it was raining and a cold wind was gusting through the carpark. There was nowhere to take shelter while waiting for the store to open, except the bathrooms which strangely were heated. Hammer wouldn’t join me to wait in the Ladies, even though there was no one around. 

We found a little spot next to the shops front door to hunker down out of the wind and rain. We thought, well we’re committed now we’ll wait till the store opens. At around 8.30 I just happened to look up and saw the lights were on in the store and tried the door and it was open.  So the store opened half an hour early, hooray.  We got coffee, drinks, muffins and some sandwiches and again we had to sit outside because there was nowhere to sit under cover or anywhere remotely comfortable. By 9am, we were back on trail, happy campers and happy to be moving so we could warm up. Well as happy as we could be considering the cold rainy weather after yesterday’s summer like conditions.

We had no telephone service there so we couldn’t check the weather, till we were up on ridge which we hiked for quite a bit of the morning. Because everything was fogged in there were no views from the ledges and cliffs the trail traversed along the ridgeline.  

Once we got service, we found that the weather was predicted to clear with the sun coming out around 3:00 p.m. Our original plan was to hike a shorter day today and leave about 4 miles for a nero into Front Royal tomorrow and then take a full zero in town on Tuesday. 

Since the weather was so dismal we decided that we will  push on today to make it into Front Royal tonight and have two full days in town. There’s a bit of replacement gear we need to get before we get back on trail on Wednesday. 

While we were chatting about changing our plan we passed two hikers who were just breaking camp: trail names Firewatch and Mega. They seem to be quite interested in our hiker number, checking out Hammers tag: hiker #2361. Firewatch was hiker number 400 something, having started on trail back in February. He said was  having a great time and really doesn’t want to hike any faster as he would miss out on so much.  Further commenting that the last person to Kathadin wins. I’m not sure what anybody is winning.  It is also quite curious that the very people who say that hiking the AT is not a race, are the first people that will ask you your start date.  I know it’s not a race but holy doolly I just want to get it finished. 

By 11:00 a.m. the fog appeared to be  beginning to lift. This  was only temporary, it descended again well and truly. It was actually quite pretty at times hiking through the fog. There were obviously no big views from any ridge overlooks, but it wasn’t as cold as it was earlier and there was a nice earie silence. We just focused on finding something interesting at ground level along the way.  Only  couple of orange  salamander showed up  – they feel like rainy weather friends now. They look so vulnerable in their bright colour right in the middle of the trail.  

We crossed Skyline Drive several times. Each time it felt like coming out of the dim darkness into the light. And plunging back on trail was dispiriting, knowing that the road offered a much better view today. The trail passed near Jenkins Gap and from here  was the start of a long climb up Compton Mountain.  When we finally got to the top there were no views, the fog was still hanging around.  It was Sunday and on our descent off the mountain we started bumping into day hikers coming up to the top because it was a cool day, so it was a good day to be out for what is a difficult hike for some. We descended to Compton Gap where there were even more day hikers going north. The trail here was perfectly groomed and stayed that way till we exited the park around 3pm. 

Then it was back to a rocky goat track descending towards the Tom Floyd Wayside shelter which we soon passed. This was our original destination for today until we changed our plans  The sun was finally out but too late, we were heading into town.

The last four miles towards US Route 522 were quite unpleasant. The trail follows a long fence line which we were told by a passing hiker was an old zoo.   There was a strange an unpleasant smell in the air. It was nice to get to the Highway, and find we had almost half an hour to wait till the scheduled 5:20pm town bus arrived. So we waited, but the bus was a no show, so our only option was to hitch.

Hammer was annoyed as we could have done this half an hour ago. Standing by the roadside, the sun was burning hot. Our only reminder of the wet cold morning at Elkwallow was our wet and still cold feet. Quite a weird sensation. Eventually a local couple Andy and Tyler and their dog,  turned around and offered us a ride into town. I think I was almost a bit teary with tiredness, with gratitude and with relief. I could soon get my pickled feet out of wet shoes and have a shower, we could get off our feet and sleep under crispy clean sheets. Heavenly!