Morgan Stewart Shelter
For some reason today I awoke at 5:59AM feeling refreshed and ready to go. Not wanting to waste such a happy circumstance I got my start at 6:30 while it was still cool out. Early on I am came across something that set me wondering. For about a mile the trail was perfectly flat owing to a stone walkway with dirt top. At some places the walkway towered at least 15' above the forest floor. I am sure it was very old made for some other purpose, I suspect narrow gauge rail. It is another one of those times when I wish there was a historical sign explaining the area.
Through out the trail we can see numerous old stone walls that were all built by hand 100, 200, or even more years ago. I wish I knew the stories of the people who clear cut these woods, picked up the rocks, and managed to presumably scrape a living up from the steep and rocky slopes.McGyver caught up with me as we reached Canopus Lake. The lake had a very inviting beach as we rounded one of it's sides and then headed back up the mountain.
When we took a lunch break and were lucky enough to find some wild blue berries right where were sat. They are much smaller than the ones we normally get at the grocer but still taste great. Thus the lunch of thru-hikers today was blue berries, a handful of nuts, and a Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie.
The top of Shenandoah Mountain was a disappointment with the summit scared by numerous fire rings, a flag painted into the rock with "Never forget Sept 11th", and trash strewn all over. On the upside some of the trash was unopened and McGyver and I got a few candy bars. We could have had beer or vodka if we had chosen to but it was too hot for that. We cleaned up and packed out as much trash as we could which turned out to be about 2/3 of what was up there and made a small pile of what was left.
At the next road crossing we were lucky to find someone who agreed to haul out the trash in his car saving us from carrying it around all day.
At RPH shelter McGyver decided to take a long break and I continued on. The trail has continued the climbs and descents all day that is again becoming the status quo. My climbing legs are pretty much back and I am finding myself generally cruising throught he elevation changes. The trail surface is very good though, especially the segment over Stormville Mountain where it was obvious someone had put a lot of effort into this trail. The trail switchbacked frequently to make for a very easy slope and it was lined by rock walls that were the rocks that had been removed from the trail. There was a short article about how this section used to go steeply up and down the mountain until a local maintainer decided to to do something about it. The trail was well built that I didn't notice the 500' of uphill. It just shows what good trail can do for a difficult section! Just after that I did my walk to a deli to get another sandwich and keep the deli tour alive.
When I reached the road on the other side of the road was a deer munching away at the grass. I got a couple of pictures before grabbing my sandwich and slice of pizza.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful until reaching the shelter where I was greeted by a busy shelter. Fortunately everyone turned out to be very friendly. Seven of the my fellow hikers tonight are a transplanted Ecuadorian family out for a weekend trip. They have collected the most firewood I have seen yet on this trip so I am sure the fire will be going strong all night. They were very kind and made space for me in the shelter for the night when I arrived and were very interested in the life of a thru-hiker. The interest went both ways with me learning about their Andies hikes and jungle hiking. Later we were joined by Joel, a reporter for the Wallstreet Journal, ad McGyver who caught up after taking long break.
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