Appalachian Trail (day 41) - Browns Gap to Bald Face Mountain / mile 914

Pleasant day with fireworks at the end.

It was the first sunny day in 84 hours, I've started it early but decided to stop at the Loft Mountain Campground which had a store, I had to wait an hour before it opened but it was OK. I've got a chicken burger and a coffee and carried on.

The special thing about Shenandoah National Park was that every 10 or so miles it had a chain of restaurants and shops called "Waysides". They weren't cheap but an option to have anything else rather than trail food was tempting! There was also few tourist campsites with showers and toilets opened to the public. It made hiking Shenandoah way more civilized than any other stretch of AT so far, it was an interesting change but I don't think I would enjoy it for more than 100 miles as the amount of people and car traffic was taking away from nature side of things.

During last resupply in Waynesboro I've updated my trail menu substantially. I was getting fed up with SPAM at this point and amount of sugary snacks I was having throughout the day was bothering me. This time around I've got some boiled eggs, ham, cheese, unsweetened porridge and nachos. Ham, cheese and some mayo wrapped in a tortilla with crushed nachos for lunch was a seller! I was also adding egg and ham to my ramen bombs for dinner, absolute win.

Trail was a gentle rollercoaster for the whole day and it looked like it will remain that way until the end of Virginia which was a great news for my legs.

I've had a brief look at the weather at about 5 PM (it was bright and sunny at this point) to discover a "severe thunderstorm" heading my way, I had to find somewhere to set up the tent and rather swiftly. Fifteen minutes later it started to rain, I was scanning the sides of the trail frantically trying to find somewhere half decent to camp. Finally a small grassland came to my view, that was it. I was setting the tent up in heavy rain, shoved everything inside and zipped the entrance behind me. Ten minutes later a heavy thunderstorm rolled directly above, there was hail and torrential downpour. Because I've set up the tent on a slight angle, water started to flood the floor and soon enough I was sitting on a waterbed. For the lack of anything better to do I had my dinner and hoped it will stop soon so I could reset tents position or if the whole area got flooded I would have to move on somewhere else.

An hour later, the storm ended as quickly as it has started, I've got out, managed to find a spot less likely to flood. I relocated the tent there, hoping that the next portion of the storm (as apparently there was more to come) would be less violent than it's predecessor. It was a crazy finish to this otherwise peaceful and enjoyable day.