Saturday, October 11, 2025. Up at 7:45. Cold, cloudy, no wind. Sun should come out later this morning and get up to 60. Rain late this evening.
We had a group arrive at the shelter way after dark at 8:00. Noisy. But I could not sleep so no big deal. They left before sunrise this morning.
I forgot to open the vents on my tent last night and woke to a very wet inner then fly. Outside is dry but wet inside from condensation. Fully disassembled the inner and outer tent to keep the inner dry today. Hopefully the sun comes out and I dry the tent before the rains get here this evening.
On trail at 8:50. We have a .7 icky uphill then we get to have fun on the Bearfence Rock Scramble.
Bearfence rock scramble about 10:00. Lots of fun and lots of people. Mainly families. I always love this scramble and Ed really enjoyed it as well.
Had to make this little girl give us the trail at one point. Did not think she was going to budge.
Stopped at Milam Gap parking area at noon to dry my tent on the grass. Only took 20 minutes in the full sun and light breeze.
Reached Big Meadows wayside for supplies and a Coke at 1:15. Very crowded with the holiday crowd. Pushed on to Big Meadows lodge at 2:00 to charge electronics and get a hot meal at the Tap Room. Talked to Pitcrew for a while. Had to wait until 2:30 for the tap room to open. I got 2 days with of blogs uploaded. Will catch up on the rest tomorrow at Sky Land. I had a pizza and beer and Ed had wings and beer. And all was right with the world.
We got sandwiches to go and headed out 3.8 miles to our campsite at 4:00. Reached Rock Spring Hut at 5:40. As I was afraid, no room at the inn. Must have been close to 20 people in an area that can hold 12-15 max.
We moved on to our alternate stealth camp site in the woods about .3 miles further north. Reached the camp spot at 6:10. We are moving fast as sunset is in 35 minutes. Decent spot in some trees just off trail underneath Hawks Bill rocks. Several dead trees so we tried to be careful about picking our exact tent sites as we will get wind and rain tonight. There is a nor’easter coming up the coast.
Had our carry out sandwiches for dinner in our tents at 6:50. Getting chilly fast.
About 7:20 a group of 4 hikers all with nice new shiny gear walked by using their head lamps. They took a wrong turn just past us and got off the AT onto a side trail. At least the figured that out and turned around fairly quickly. They must be headed to Rock Spring Hut where there is zero space to camp. I will be curious to see if they push on to who knows where or turn around and come back here. Night hiking can be tricky and hiking without a good plan even more so.
It was a nice short day with a fun rock scramble and a good hot meal. And a good alternate camp site. I love it when a plan comes together.
Technical Notes:
- Pop Tarts 360
- Fig bar 200
- Skittles 120
- Root beer 140
- Large latte 200
- Pepperoni pizza 600
- Corona 148
- Corona 148
- Club sandwich 400
- Potato chips 300
- Skittles 120
- Water liters 1
- Miles 13.5
- Time 9:00
- Up 2713
- Down 2208
- Calories consumed 2740
- Calories burned 2757
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