sooo... this past week has been pretty decent to me. :) i FINALLY got out of the shenandoahs and i'm so glad for it. if i ever thru-hike again, i'm either going to aqua-blaze the shennies or find some good side trails and do them instead of the AT. i felt like all i saw in the shenandoahs was the road. we had to come out of the woods to even get good views for the most part. i'm hiking the trail to be out in the woods; i don't feel like it's wilderness if every half mile i hear a motorcycle start up and drive by. 

regardless, i had a really good time and met some awesome people in the shennies. i met a guy named will. he was a local that was just sectioning the shennies. he showed me a really cool blue-blazed rock scramble that went over the top of a mountain. and we had an awesome adventure that included trying to out-run a lightning storm and trying to find a campsite at the same time. right when we thought we'd found a nice clearing to pitch our tents in, we began to see headstones and realized we'd come across a cemetery. no thanks!!!! but it was getting dark, so we had to decide what we were going to do, so we hiked to the road and did another two-ish miles into a sure campground. fun times.

thennnn, the fourth of july takes the cake. :) that was the morning after we outran the storm, so we woke up at the campground and went to the restaurant for breakfast... i had a big cinnamon roll, a bacon, egg & cheese biscuit, and an awesome glass of water. we started hiking, but will had to leave the trail halfway through the day because he'd forgotten his wallet or something at the campground. so swayze and i hiked on by ourselves and met some other really cool people throughout the remainder of the day. 

we stopped at the skyland lodge to wait out a rainstorm. meanwhile, i called my daddy and my mama to wish them both a happy 4th of july  and i bought a bag of trail mix and a king size hershey bar. while we were sitting there, i met a retired marine whose name i can't recall right now, but i wrote it down in my book so i wouldn't completely forget. he referred to himself at a techie and let me charge my cell phone with one of his gadgets while he went inside and drank some coffee. he was really nice, and gave me two pieces of advice: i) get a marine hat. it'll make people question you. and ii) once dark sets, move your tent. it'll make people question your whereabouts. hahaha... i don't think i'll go through the trouble of moving my tent after dark, even if it IS free-standing, but bless his heart giving me the advice. :)

once the rain quit, we hiked on. right before we got to the pinnacle picnic grounds, i saw two men gathering firewood. even though the rain had quit by then, a really huge cloud of fog had blown in and the visibility had been reduced to crap. i couldn't see thirty feet in front of me; when we got into the area of the pavilion where they'd built a fire, i couldn't even see it. one of the men sent his wife over to ask if we were hungry, and when i told her that hikers are always hungry, she invited us for leftovers. :D everybody was SO awesome!! they fixed me a plate with steak and scalloped potatoes (side note: when i was little, i thought they were called 'scalped potatoes' and it always made me think of indians) and fried chicken and fresh tomatoes!! :) we sat there and talked by the fire for at least an hour while the rain started back up, and one guy told a really funny bat story that still makes me laugh when i think about it. right before they were ready to leave, the men were so amazing that they went into the woods and basically brought me back two whole trees  to use as firewood. we were so lucky that the rain AND the fog cleared right before 9:30ish, and we were able to walk over to the trees and see some of the fireworks in the city below!! :) 

once they left, we illegally camped out on the picnic table there at the grounds. there were three or four mice that i saw, so i had to rig up my backpack with a line that the mice couldn't get to. i was actually quite proud of myself for remembering that i had all the things that i needed to make the mouse line: my paracord, a coke can, and a tent stake. so i hung my pack from the line, and i laid out my tent footprint on the picnic table, inflated my sleeping pad, and then swayze and i climbed up and tried to go to sleep. that entire night's sleep was completely restless, though. the previous day, TWO people had reminded me that fifteen years ago, two women hikers were murdered less than three miles from where we were camping. so the entire night, every sound that i heard made me turn my head or open my eyes. plus, i was worried that a park ranger would come and write me a ticket for camping there. you're not supposed to camp anywhere within a quarter mile of park facilities. i was semi-concerned about bears coming for leftover food, but the main concern was creepers. which is funny, because i know that i'm statistically safer on the trail than i am in jackson, ms or north charleston, sc or even driving on any given road for that matter. 

but anyways. :) my time in the shennies was well-lived, and now i must go because someone has threatened to call animal control because swayze is out by herself in front of the library and it is "too hot" for a dog to be outside. some people need to keep their nose on their face and out of my business. some people make me laugh. guess i should go cool my dog off. ciao, friends! =)