May 3rd: First Day Through the Rain

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We will be making a change on our blogging. There will be just one for the both of us, instead of individual entries.
Today we got a fairly early start out of the shelter. The rain kept up most of the night and continued into today. Our record for not walking in the rain has ended. We started out at the Paul Wolf Shelter five miles from Rockfish Gap. Elevation is 1,700'. We started up Humpback Mountain, 13 switchbacks over six miles of trail and elevation gain of 1,900'. We crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile marker 9.6. This is our second day out of Shenandoah Park and away from Skyline Drive. We then bounced along in the rain between the 2,500' and 3,200' level through Reeds gap to the Maupin Field Shelter. This is our longest mileage day yet, 16.4 miles. It was about three miles too far. The last two miles were painful for both of us and of course those two miles were up hill. When we got to camp, all we wanted to do was eat dinner and go to bed. We were so tired I did not even do this update until the next day. The shelter was almost full when we arrived, but evryone shifted !
around and made room for us.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

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