Day 68, Rockfish Gap to Campsite at Mile 876.9

The Quality Inn in Waynesboro offered a free breakfast, so we made sure to take advantage of that this morning. Several other hikers were also there doing the same.

The breakfast offerings included biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, yogurt, fresh fruit, and cereal.

The man with the yellow truck who picked us up yesterday arrived shortly after we finished breakfast, but he said he was booked up for shuttles.

Stick called a local hiker hostel, which also provides shuttles, and arranged for a ride back to Rockfish Gap.

When we were dropped off at the trailhead, a kind man there offered us some donuts.

It was foggy at Rockfish Gap, but this is a common occurrence. Fog sensors and a warning system have been installed to warn motorists on Interstate 64, which we crossed as we began our hike.

Rockfish Gap is a wind gap, a geologic feature defined as a gap between two mountains where water once flowed, but now is dry.

Soon after re-entering the forest, we reached a registration kiosk. We were required to fill out a form and carry a copy of it with us. This was similar to the registration form required for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, except here the registration was free.

Starting at Rockfish Gap, the trail and the road stretch north on a narrow ribbon of land.

To understand why more land wasn't set aside for the park on the southern end, you only have to look east of McCormick Gap. An apple orchard was located near here, where a prized variety called "Albemarle Pippins” was grown.

A story is told about how Queen Victoria was presented a gift of several dozen of these apples. She became so fond of them that for decades apples were sent to Britain duty free. The orchard became known as Royal Orchard.

Because of the popularity of the apples, when the federal government began attempting to purchase land for Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive, the orchard was considered too valuable, so only a sliver of land was acquired to connect from Rockfish Gap to the main section of the park.

At McCormick Gap we met three men who were preparing to do some trail maintenance work. Don, Kevin and Brennan said they were members of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, the club that maintains this and most of the trail through this part of Virginia.

Even if Don hadn’t told us he was a trail maintainer, it would have been obvious by his license plate.

After a nice chat with the three men, we continued on our way up the mountain. It wasn’t a difficult climb. By now it was just past 10 a.m., and normally low-hanging clouds would have lifted, but today they hung around.

A long, flat section of the trail took us through a meadow that had grown thick with tall grass.

As strange as this might seem, I fear sections of trail like this. I fear them because I know they are a good habitat for ticks.

Ticks are trouble. They are extremely small. They can easily attach themselves to humans undetected.

Once a tick has grabbbed onto a human it will crawl to a warm and comfortable spot where it can burrow in, cut a hole in the human's skin, and begin to feed by extracting blood. If the tick is infected with pathogens, it can transmit them to its host.

The pathogens can cause a long and troublesome list of symptoms, starting with a rash, neck stiffness, headache, nausea, weakness, muscle or joint pain, and a fever. And that's just for starters. Symptoms can progressively get worse.

As the weather turns warmer and the grass grows taller, ticks become a greater concern.

I mentioned yesterday that even though we had already picked up all of the food we needed to get us through the park, we made a grocery stop at Kroger. The reason I wanted to stop there was to pick up a can of Off insect repellent.

I had been carrying insect repellent, but decided to be more proactive in defending against ticks. Now I can spray down my legs and ankles a couple times a day for an extra layer of protection.

Seeing the thick grass today made me glad I did.

When we neared the top of Bear Den Mountain, a set of communication towers came into view. They are said to be used by the Virginia state police.

Seeing communication towers is nothing new or unusual. What was unusual on Bear Den Mountain was what we found just a few feet away from the towers.

Leaving the mountain, we headed toward Beagle Gap and Calf Mountain.

At 11:30 we reached Little Calf Mountain, which lies just below Calf Mountain. The mountain seemed to act as a roadblock for clouds, as they appeared to be jammed up against the mountain.

On the other side of Calf Mountain, the sky was much clearer.

A couple of springs and a shelter were located on the other side. The shelter was too far off the trail to be a good place to stop, but the springs were right on the trail.

I loaded up with three liters at one of the springs because there weren’t going to be any good spots to refill for a while. I stayed behind at the spring for a few extra minutes, while Mike and Stick continued on.

Shortly after 1 p.m. the trail left the narrow ribbon of land it shared with Skyline Drive and entered the more substantial portion of land that makes up the national park.

Near here I met up with three of my favorite hiker friends.

The first was RedEye. She was slackpacking southbound with her father, who had traveled from Canada to be with her for a few days.

Next was Dory. She was followed a short distance behind by Splat.

Splat and Dory were also walking south, with a plan to meet up with Mama Splat each evening for the next few days.

All day long the sky looked as though it would rain. Finally by 3 p.m. it began to clear, making certain the rain would not materialize.

The trail crossed Skyline Drive a couple more times this afternoon. The first was at Sawmill Run.

As I crossed the road, I saw three men walk out of the forest on the other side of the road. They were carrying a child’s plastic wading pool.

This startling sight became more easy to understand when I saw the vehicle they were walking toward. It had a Mississippi State University emblem on it. I figured out they were researchers. The pool was likely used to hold some kind of aquatic life, perhaps to count or study it.

After we had finished setting up and were getting ready to prepare dinner, a hiker named Pippi arrived. I had met her a few days ago, but had only talked to her briefly.

She set up her hammock nearby, then joined us for dinner.