Greetings from lovely and scenic (and surprisingly URBAN) Front Royal, VA! There's a lot to talk about, so I'll try to get everything down before we dash off to eat as much food as humanly possible.

After Waynesboro, we dashed into Shenandoah National Park. And by "dashed," of course I mean did a 7 mile day and hung around at a shelter all afternoon. From there we ventured into the beautiful park itself. I took off, splitting up from my friends to do a big mile day to get to the planned rendezvous point with Dad. The park immediately lived up to all my expectations: the treadway is smooth, flat, wide, and well maintained! Also, I was interrogated by day-trippers (What do you eat? How heavy is your pack? etc.etc.etc.) and saw a bear in my first 2 miles in the park... classic Shennies!

I did 20 quick miles to get to one of the park's huge car-friendly campgrounds, where I grabbed ice cream at the store and waited for dad. He showed up after a long, tough hitch (see below) and a bunch of road-walking, his feet already torn up. However, we still did 6 more night miles to the shelter, where we met the gang (including Sideshow and Shanty) and distributed cookies.

Dad and I had some great hikes through the park for the next days, rising very early and spending two nights stealth camping and one more night in a shelter. He seems to be a reliable good luck charm: when he arrived the weather became beautiful (cool, sunny, breezy... perfect!) and the wildlife came out! We saw a copperhead ("charmed" by Shanty) and at least 4-5 bears... by far more than any other section.

On Dad's last day out, we hiked into Skyland for a delicious breakfast at the touristy lodge, and said our goodbyes. It was definitely tough seeing him go... he had been out long enough for us to develop a fun routine of early mornings, good hiking, and evening tea even! Exacerbating the homesickness was a voicemail from the Bonfire crew (namely Cecca) saying hello. The thought that I could be AT Tobin's that evening (Monday) by just hopping into the tired old volvo and napping through a 500 mile drive was very trying.

To get through the lonely time (a bunch of my buddies had passed us as we mosied through the park) I decided to bust big miles and catch them. Much to my surprise and delight, a single 27 mile day was enough... that night I found Tater and Dirty at the 2nd shelter just as Dad's good luck wore out and the rain returned. I slept (or tried to, next to Binjali's snoring!) and this morning, Tater and I popped out 13 miles to get to town. We lucked out and got shuttled into town, and are now settling in for a shower and meal in preparation for the easy hop into Harper's Ferry and the unofficial halfway point of the AT... just 45 miles until the 1000 mile mark!

Lots of love... missing all my Gbury folks like whoa.
Rob
Bigby