I spent an uneasy night alone in the shelter. I woke often. Finally around 5:30 I woke up for good. I stayed in my bag but turned on the phone and read a book for a while. Around 6:30 it was light(ish) so I retrieved my food bag and ate breakfast. Even with dilly dallying I was packed up and ready to go by 7:30. I slowly walked up to the car and got in. I turned on the car and started the heater to keep warm. I was surprised to see that the outside temperature was 45. It had felt much warmer to me. In fact I had been a little too warm in my sleeping bag.
Weaver and Sarge were a bit late. They intended to arrive between 8:30 and 9 but with whiteout fog to navigate they arrived at 9:30. We changed our plan for the day to shorter mileage. Then Weaver's husband helped me shuttle my car a few miles down the trail. My permit now lies about my car location and my campsite. I doubt the rangers will care too much.
Weaver and Sarge walked a couple of miles while we were moving cars. I walked north to meet them, then we proceeded south. They both have very heavy packs. No services in Shenandoah are open right now so they are carrying a whole lot of food. Unfortunately none of us thought of stashing most of their food in my car. That would have been a good move. Alas.
The weather was hypothermia weather all day. We didn't stop much, and when we did I added a layer right away. We made out all right, but we were all tired by it.
We contemplated trying to stay at Elkwallow, but there was no good, legal place to stay, and all the illegal places were too high visibility. Instead we made a hot meal and used the privy, and got water. So much water. We knew we would have to camp dry so we carried a lot of water for the last hours of the day. My shoulders have convinced me to finally get rid of my Gossamer Gear backpack. It just doesn't provide enough support, leaving the weight of my pack to dig into my shoulders and neck. It was bearable for a short trip but I'm done with it.
Weaver and Sarge found a nice protected spot for their tent. Mine is rather less protected. This will be the first real test of my cuben fiber Hexamid tent. We have plenty of rain and wind. If I'm going to get wet in it, tonight will be the night. I expect I'll be drying the tent out in my bathroom again when I get home. With luck, my seam sealing job was sufficient. And my tent-setting-up skills.
We had a very nice dinner together. I'm really glad I took the time to come out and hike with them as they restarted their thruhike. And that they wanted me here. They're good people, as JD says. Even when we're tired and sore and cranky, I like their company. And they told me that if my setup fails and my sleeping bag gets soaked, I'm to come to their tent and they'll figure something out to get us all through the night. Now those are good friends. So far so good on the tent though. I think my major concern might be dense fog wetting out my bag. I'm all bundled up and expect to take off a layer or two overnight. I desperately hope it stops raining so I can water a tree without soaking my sleeping clothes.
In the morning we'll walk down to my car at Panorama, and I'll drive them into Luray for lunch. Then I'll drop them off back in the park and drive home to my real life after a nice little interlude in faux thruhiking. And they'll walk south for several hundred miles.
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