Rhino: One Year Anniversary Hike!

It's hard to believe that its been one year since we started section hiking the Appalachian Trail. The adventure began friday night when after a long day at work, I decided to wait until Saturday morning to travel to the trail head. I was exhausted, and didn't feel like driving in traffic or sleeping in the car. The next morning I left the house about 0530 for the long drive to Waynesboro, VA. I had a lot on my mind and the 2.5 hour drive passed quickly. I met Jeremiah and Robert at the southern entrance to Shenandoah National Park, where I had to leave the Grey Ghost. We than began the 35mph drive up Skyline Drive to Doyles Run Overlook.

Doyles Run Overlook was right were we had left off last time with Jodi. We started out with high ambitions and a spring in our step. The weather was beautiful and we made great progress. One of the early highlights was our discovery of the Black Rock Bald. It was a huge boulder field on top of a Mountain. Jeremiah and I scrambled up for a spectacular 360 degree view. We hike a record breaking 14 miles that day. My only concern was by the time we found the perfect camping site we had not refilled our water bottles the whole day. I had anticipated numerous mountain springs...however there were none. Near the end of the day I started conserving water to just a sip, not my normal gulping refreshment. We had enough water to cook dinner. We set up camp, had dinner and bedded down for a chilly night. The temperature dropped to around 40 degrees F. I was pretty snug in my 1 man Eureka Tent. In the morning we were assaulted by a troupe of acorn throwing squirrels. They made such a racket, it sounded like it was raining acorns. Stiff and sore we broke camp and started on our final leg through Shenandoah National Park. We needed to hike 10 miles to my car.
The Amazing thing about this hike was how perfect it was...except for the water concerns, we had a beautiful hike. No Bugs, No rain, No injuries It was the perfect hike. We did find a spring in the morning and replenished our water supplies for the rest of the hike. We found a nice apple tree at Beagles Gap a mountain meadow were we took a thirty minute break.
Near the end of the trail we ran into a little trail magic. Some kind soul had left chocolate bars and a case of Mountain Dew near a tree with nice note encouraging hikers.

Side Note: No matter how much I try to avoid Poison Ivy...I can't...I tried, however I got it again.