Trip Miles: 945.00
A very late start after watching Germany beat the U.S.A. in a wet, sloppy, uninteresting World Cup match. We watched the game at Uncle Buck's in Luray and enjoyed great service (thanks to our waitress, Betty) and good food. Yellow Beard, who had met Andi and Yvanna before, joined us for the game and lunch.
After the game we did a bit of resupply and hitched out to Thornton Gap. Andi and Yvanna got a ride right away from a woman who worked at Uncle Buck's. M and N went ahead of me and I waited to see if they'd get a ride. While I waited a truck pulled over and asked if I needed a ride, and when I said yes they asked if I'd mind if they pick up the couple up the road. I said that'd be great they're with me. So we all rode out together. Thanks for the ride.
At the trailhead we saw Sweet as Peaches and Odysseus who were looking for Hat Trick. We told them he'd been in Luray, but had headed out here earlier. They left to find him. We hiked into the woods at about 4:30 p.m. not knowing how far we'd go. A couple of miles in we saw Yellow Beard being dropped off. He hiked with us for a few miles to the campsite we decided to use, but chose to move on because he had no water. Our water was low too, but we knew there was a stream about a mile further on we could use and campsites were few and far between.
Mike and I got all the water bags together and headed out to fill them while Natalie, Yvanna, and Andi set up camp. About a quarter mile out we saw the biggest bear either of us had ever seen. It was massive. I couldn't get my camera out in time for a shot because I was too busy gawking at it. I was thinking that maybe I wasn't that thirsty after all, but we continued down the trail a little more cautiously.
Not much further along we saw a cub on our right walking nonchalantly through the trees. We didn't see his mom though, which made us nervous. He crossed the trail in front of us and moved away on our left. We looked around, never spotting the mother, and moved gingerly down the trail.
We reached the spring, filled up and walked/ran back to the campsite eyes wide open for anything that moved. When we got there, Odysseus, Hat Trick, and Sweet as Peaches were there. We warned them about the bears and they moved on. We ate a little dinner and made sure to hang the bags high and away from the camp. Tick check tonight because we all had some on us today. Try for twenty miles tomorrow. Nice chance to chat with Amy on the phone.
Night All.
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| Morning Light |
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| Cub scampering off |
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| Leaving Luray |
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