Day 107
We left the awesome stealth site all at different times. There was a short and easy 1.9-mile walk to a spigot with potable water, so I was motivated to say the least. I got there as Raindancer was leaving. She was saying she just wanted to shower in that water, so I decided to do what I could. I ended up washing my hair in the spigot and it made me feel like a brand new woman. We walked further through a beautiful area that looked like an old railroad bed and the waking to Fahestock State Park was easy. We passed a crew doing trail magic and I was the first hiker to walk on some new stone steps! I got to the top and Nokey caught up. We walked together for less than 500 yards when I rolled my ankle HARD. It popped twice and I nearly fell off the hill. I yelled it out for a bit before feeling better and walking. By this time, there was a due trail down to the lake area, which Nokey and I skipped. Turns out, the whole park was kind of crappy with no drinking water (a salt supply, like the kind for icy roads) had leeched into all the water. The lake was low and made for bad swimming as well, so I feel we made a great choice. We walked uphill twice, first up an unnamed and rocky summit and then up Shenandoah Mtn. There was an American flag painted on top, but it was way to hot to stop for photos. On the way down, it was hot and the air was stagnant. We stopped off at the Shenandoah Tent Area for water at a pump and it turned out to be a real oasis for us! There was an awning, picnic table, and a pump for water. We took turns washing off and washing our clothes in the pump and then laid out to dry in the shade. After sitting for an hour, Chiba joined us and we sat for another hour before deciding to hike on. We made it steeply downhill to the RPH Shelter at 5 and there were a ton of people there. It turned out to be epic trail magic from the crew working on all those steps! They cooked us giant steaks with salad, chili, corn on the cob, and all the cold drinks we wanted! We ate until 7:30 or so and decided to hike on to get in some more miles since we were fueled up. Testament decided to stay behind and catch us in the morning. Manboy, Voice of Reason, Catnap, Raindancer, Nokey, and me decided to head up the mountain to flat spot to camp when all of a sudden VOR had news we could stay at a woman’s house who was doing trail magic! It was nearly 4 miles and be barely made it before it was crazy dark (9:10 pm!) but it was totally worth it. When we got there, there was an entire deep freeze full of Ben and Jerry’s and we could have all we wanted! We ate happily before setting up our tents in the yard and calling it a night. The photo is the trail sign outside of RPH shelter. CT, here I come!