Wednesday, April 13th

Bear Fence Mountain Hut (919.0 mi) to Skyland Resort (934.7 mi)

Hiking Miles: 15.7

Total Ascent: 3165.4 ft

Total Descent: 2578.4 ft

Total Grade: 356.0 ft/mi

Steps: 43,904.

I got up at 5:07 am to pack up my tent, quilt, ThermaRest, and to change into a new set of clothes. As I suspected, Bubba J (aka Hell Raiser) coughed uncontrollably during the night, waking me up at least 3 times. Also, my ThermaRest was positioned over 3 or 4 sharp rocks protruding out from the ground, and on a sideways slant (incline), the best I could place it. I was slipping to my right on occasion, but nonetheless slept okay. I used my puffy jacket as a pillow.

Stevie and I grabbed some water from the stream on site and we started hiking from the trailhead at 6:18 am. Hell Raiser got up with Winston, and he was smoking again while he struck up a conversation with us. We politely said we would meet him later but knew that wasn’t going to happen since we planned a 16-mile day. Besides, we guessed that he would travel back to the camp store to drink a few more tall boys once he heard Big Mountain Lodge was closed.

Anyway, Stevie and I planned on hitting the Wayside restaurant for a late breakfast at mile 8, but found out it was not going to be open until May. So instead, we stopped at a community campground and ate lunch from our packs. I texted my work team to give them our first AT update. And Tarryn called us on trail which was so cool!

The day was warming up quickly. While reaching a high point later in the morning, I was able to connect with Teresa. She was so relieved that we were okay, and figured we had lost signal in the mountains whereas no one had heard from us. We had a good chat and she also booked us a night at the Skyland Resort for the evening (11 miles ahead of where we were), which saved us a lot of time. She was able to reserve a cabin with a queen bed and a pull-out couch. She’s the BEST!!

As a fun interaction, Stevie introduced a puzzle that he left for Christina to solve while he was on trail (more about the daily gifts and puzzles he left for her later) and to get me thinking more critically during our morning hike. The puzzle was “What do these three words have in common?”: August, Celt and Polish. I was intrigued and thought perhaps this would be an easy one to solve, particularly with not having too much thought on my mind to interfere with a little brain challenge. It even included a bonus: March/May. Even with pondering about this all day, I honestly couldn’t solve it. I will leave it for you to try!

After lunch, we hiked for 8+ more miles to the Skyland Resort. Along the way, we saw many hikers, including 20 boys and a pack leader. We met “El Doctoro” (a 73-year old grandfather) who was finishing up the AT, and was the oldest of 3 generations who all accomplished it. His wife “Fiddle” also section hiked the AT and completed 1500 miles. And we met a woman who completed the AT last year (she had to take 2 months off to heal a broken ankle). She told Stevie the experience was basically miserable! She was hiking the Shenandoah’s this year because that was her favorite part.

Now – when we were just .6 miles from Skyland Resort, we hit an “AT Detour” which was not clearly marked. It eventually brought us to Skyland Resort but the first sign that I saw “Skyland” was at the checkin point. It was an exhausting climb up the resort driveway to the check-in desk; I was definitely done hiking for the day!

We checked into the Byrd’s Nest Cabin – the oldest one on the resort (116 years old), named after Richard E. Byrd, who was the speaker of the VA House of Delegates (I took a picture of the history.)

Stevie purchased his first postcard on trail (and mailed it) at the Skyland Resort store, which was fully stocked with gifts and resupply goodies. We bought a lasagna dinner pack there, to have on trail the next evening.

We ate dinner in their restaurant; our server’s name was “Precious.” Stevie ordered pasta (Cavatappi?) and chicken, and I ordered pulled pork. That was after we ate a hummus plate (with veggies) for an appetizer. During dinner, we actually talked about potentially taking 10 days off and chilling at our homes after our pick-up to attend Joey’s wedding. We estimated that would take us to the 500-mile mark. The only drawback with that plan was how difficult it would be to return to the trail after living in comfort and companionship back home. That would be a true mental test.

Once we returned to the cabin for the evening, we each called home. Back in Hollis – Teresa cooked dinner in the new air fryer she purchased for the first time (chicken, cauliflower and squash – enough to eat for several days!). Stevie and I also decided that we would “sleep-in” the next morning since camping spots were few and far between and we only planned to hike 10-miles due to a rainstorm coming in.