Day 71, South River Fire Road to Rock Spring Hut

Our first couple days in Shenandoah National Park have been difficult, but not because of the terrain. The trail hasn’t been challenging, but the weather has been unpleasant at times.

Today, though, that changed. We awoke this morning to cooler temperatures and a sunny sky.

We took our time packing up and didn’t leave our campsite on the fire road until 7:45 a.m.

That was followed by a steep but short descent. Switchbacks made this easy too.

Stick caught up to us as we reached Lewis Mountain Campground, where we stopped for water.

When the park was first developed, the state still operated under Jim Crow laws and policies. The federal government maintained a policy to recognize local segregation practices.

Virginia had laws to segregate the races in all public places. Initially, however, the park had no facilities for African Americans.

Park rangers began to direct African American visitors to segregated areas, and eventually Lewis Mountain was developed to become the official "colored only" accommodations of the park. A sign at the entrance identified it as "Lewis Mountain Negro Area."

African Americans were hired to operate the facility, many of whom had been fired a couple years earlier when all of the workers at other park facilities were replaced by white workers.

Slowly under pressure from Washington, park facilities began to integrate starting in 1946. Lewis Mountain and the park became fully integrated in 1950.

The trail next took us over a series of ups and downs. The first was called Bearfence Mountain.

We stopped there at a rock outcrop to take pictures. Pippi and a hiker I had not met before, Red Cap, were here.

Red Cap confirmed the commotion we heard involving the fawn was caused by a bear. He saw it.

Mike took a picture of Stick and me standing on the rocky outcrop, then we continued on.

The trail dropped to Bootens Gap, where we stopped for lunch and saw Splat and Dory again.

We then climbed Hazletop Mountain, which was about 300 feet higher than Bearfence Mountain, but didn’t provide a view.

After a long, steady and gradual descent from Hazletop we took a short side trail to reach Big Meadows Wayside. It was time to get another mass infusion of cheeseburgers, fries, and blackberry milkshakes.

We were joined here by Dory, Splat, Red Cap and Pippi, and that made the stop even more enjoyable. We stayed a long time, enjoying the sunshine and each other’s company at least as much as we enjoyed the cheeseburgers.

A couple of hikers, Bones and Van Gogh, pulled from their packs a harmonica and a guitar and provided a little background music to add to our relaxing time.

Speedy and a hiker named Young Buck were so relaxed they took a nap.

It would have been nice to stay even longer, but it was nearly 5 p.m. and we still had more than four miles to go to reach where we planned to stop for the night.

So after returning to the store in the wayside to buy a few over-priced candy bars, we continued on our way.

The trail went up a ridge, where we found a nice view of a wide valley.

Then the trail took us along the edge of Big Meadows Campground.

Several campers were cooking dinner and preparing for the evening, and said hello as we walked by. We stopped a couple times to chat with some of them.

It was fun to talk to the campers, but the conversations slowed us down and it was getting late.

We then walked along a exposed ridge called Franklin Cliffs. There were several open spots to stop for a view.

By now it was 7:30 p.m. and we still had at least a mile to reach Rock Spring Hut, but we stopped to watch the sun filter through clouds that were moving in over the valley below.

As we stopped at one of the ledges we discovered some hikers were camped nearby. They told us we had just missed seeing a mother bear and and her two cubs.

This set Stick off again on another rant about not seeing a bear.

In the remaining daylight the sun filtered through the trees. Streams of brilliant reds and yellows were caught in the leaves, as if to set them on fire.

I slowed down to enjoy this, not caring that I wouldn’t arrive at the shelter until it was nearly dark.