I am back in Philadelphia after a wonderful weekend in Shenandoah National Park with Shawn. Teresa and I drove down on Friday afternoon, and as their location changed from hour to hour (“we’ll see you in Elkton,” became “there’s nothing in Elkton… meet us in the park,” became “we’re at mile marker 65 having a party on the side of the road with some other hikers.” Yep, that’s how they roll on the trail…) Just before we pulled onto Skyline Drive, a small black bear ran in front of us … this means I saw a bear on the trail before Shawn, which he finds incredible unfair. We pulled into the wayside off Skyline Drive, and words can’t describe how wonderful it was to see him across the parking lot. I almost forgot to put the car in park! It was just amazing. We got to meet a bunch of hikers, and finally can put some names with the photos I’ve seen and stories I’ve been hearing.
It turns out that shortly after Shawn wrote the previous post at 6:45 am, he hiked 27 miles (!), his personal best day, and then 18 miles the next day, in order to make it up to where we were meeting them in time.
We stayed at Big Meadows Lodge in the park on Friday night and listened to some live music at the Tap Room that night. We hiked an 8-mile stretch of the trail on Saturday afternoon – I had a full AT experience (except for the 30 pound pack) as it started to rain on us as we were nearing the end of the trip. We were able to get a ride with a park ranger back to Skylands to meet Teresa and Johnny Thunder, and then we all headed down into Luray, VA, for dinner and an overnight in town and off trail.
Sunday we spent some time hunting down a VA keychain for Shawn’s pack and some chicken sandwiches for Johnny Thunder. It was impressive and maybe a little gross to see the two of them polish off 5 KFC snacker sandwiches. Each.
Overall, a great, great trip. The last 2 ½ months have been rough, but this weekend made it all worth it. Luckily it won’t be that long again – believe it or not, they should be entering Pennsylvania in the next few weeks!!!
1 comment:
Shawn looks GREAT !!!!!! He looks healthy, happy and really good...Nice picture of the two of you, smiling, but I'm sure inside a little sad to be saying goodbye again....Can't believe the miles he hiked on Thursday and Friday, but of course he had a real incentive to keep him going....So glad all went well....Love, Bev
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