Day 25 - Blackberry Ice cream - Prof

I slept like a rock last night. The bed was nice and firm and the room warm enough that I only needed a small blanket, all after I had showered and was wearing clean clothes. I think as my head of the pillow last night I was perfectly content. I didn't even wake up for trains that came by in the night. 

After a stop at the gas station for nicotine for Two Dawgs and corn dogs for myself (both are addicting kids, don't start them) we were off to the trail. The morning was pretty boring there weren't any views for the first stretch and overall the day was pretty flat.  

For lunch I stopped for the first time at a wayside in the park. Yep, that means I could finally get Shenandoah blackberry ice cream! It was amazing and the chili cheese fries and grilled cheese that I followed it with were great as well. I surprisingly don't look too dumb in this picture despite the massive brain freeze I had at the time. 

 

While I ate I listened to a presentation a park ranger was giving on bears in the park. A group of people gathered around him so I couldn't see much since I wasn't going to stop eating long enough to move to a closer view point. But I could hear him well enough. Apparently when the park was originally opened there weren't any bears. After two years a pair of black bears wandered in from West Virginia, on the other side of the blue ridge mountains, and took up residence in the very southern portion of the park. The park is now home to the highest concentration of bears in a national park. I don't remember off the top of my head and I don't have service to look it up, but if someone wants to comment the year the park opened to show the timeframe that the growth took place, I would really appreciate it. The current estimate is that there are around 400 bears in the park. I have seen 7 so far. I have about 3 more miles of trail left before I am out of the park though so it might be difficult to see all the rest in  time. 

The afternoon wasn't bad, I had some decent views and I climbed on some fun rock. The last shelter I passed had a warning about an aggressive bear but that is 6 miles behind me so I'm hoping it's also a lazy bear and won't bother us.

 

I think we ended up hiking almost 22 miles today despite our late start. I didn't get into camp until late so I pretty much just ate, wrote, and am heading to sleep. I think it's supposed to be cold and raining tomorrow and then the next day it will be 90 degrees. In short idk what is happening with the weather. If it is raining in the morning I might just pretend it's still night and stay asleep until the sun comes out. It's nice being ahead of schedule for an activity that is best done without a schedule.

Goodnight

-Prof