devil's backbone brewery to waynesboro, va.

we woke to sunshine! bugs, lyric, and i packed up and moved our tents to a sunny field to dry out and found a picnic table in the sun for breakfast. i had left over short ribs and oatmeal.

we finished packing up and went to the road to try and get a hitch. a woman picked us up and took us to the trailhead. she was retired and currently painting landscapes to pass her days.

i had a tough day on trail. i think i bruised the bottom of my left foot yesterday, and it hurts to walk on it. the terrain was loose rock and that definitely didn’t help. generally i don’t see bugs or lyric through the day, but every time i stopped except lunch they were right behind me, so my pace was definitely suffering.

i called magz in the morning, and then to take my mind off the pain i queued up my very first audio book, michael pollan’s “this is your mind on plants”. i listened to almost 3/4 of it.

in the afternoon, i stopped at paul c. wolfe shelter for a break and to filter some water. bugs and lyric caught up just as i was leaving. we talked about the hostel and ultimately decided it would be cheaper to split a hotel. lyric made the reservation and we set out for the last 5 miles.

i pulled ahead a bit and passed an old house foundation and just after i took a photo, i heard a rustling nearby. i turned and looked and there was a bear! it did what every bear i’ve ever seen. it looked at me, and turned and ran.

a few miles later, i was at the end point for the day, rockfish gap, the entrance to shenandoa. bugs and lyric showed up a few minutes later. we called a shuttle and fifteen minutes later we were on the way to waynesboro.

we checked into the hotel. the laundry was in use, so we set out to the grocery store for resupply before taking showers and getting dinner.

some additional images from today: