On a day when we want to do above average miles, difficulty in sending out yesterday’s report when you seem to have all the high, clear view you’d need for good cell reception can be very aggravating. This was one of those mornings, and we had several starts and stops to check the iPhones for 3G, three bars service. Finally, on the fourth try, our emails were on their way to our BCM.

We also received a follow-up voice mail from customer service at Granite Gear. Now N absolutely loves his pack. No question about it. There have been a few testy moments with Awe, usually involving heavy loads on climbs out of trail towns, but for almost 900 miles, Awe has been there through thick and thin. However, several hundred miles back, the stitching that attaches the bungee cord around the right water bottle holder came loose. N mentioned this while at Rockfish Gap Outfitters, and when they couldn’t fix the problem, they called Granite Gear, who offered the rather draconian solution of trading out the whole pack! They were calling back to see if we had figured out an address to send the replacement. We returned the call and got everything set up for a shipment to Harpers Ferry in a week.

We didn’t realize it, but Awe took this news very badly. We hadn’t started hiking again for more than five minutes when N was startled by a loud “snap, pop, pop!” from his pack. A close examination of Awe’s frame showed, from out of the blue, a major crosswise crack caused the shoulder support buckles to spring free. Now we were back on the phone to Granite Gear with a major problem. Not the way we expected to spend the morning. The upshot is we reworked the frame and buckles in a makeshift arrangement to keep going at least for a while, and Granite Gear has promised to overnight us a new frame as well as a new pack body. We’ll keep our fingers crossed until it arrives, although the crossed fingers do make it harder to hold our trekking poles…

After that, the day got much better. In fact, the delay set us up for some great trail magic at Black Rock Gap. Duck Soup, who we think we saw all the way back in Damascus, had his family show up to give him a break from the trail, and, having a car available, he’d picked this spot to set up some trail magic of his own: thick ham and cheese sandwiches, sodas, and all kinds of chips and cookies. While we were there, nine very appreciative hikers had gathered to get fortified for the afternoon. Thank you, Duck Soup, you are The Man!!!

After the break, we zoomed up to Black Rock, which the AT skirts. We took off our packs and scrambled over the large boulders for a great 360° view from the top. We then pushed on to Loft Mountain Campground. We picked a quiet “tents only” site, registered, and headed over to the camp store. There, with the best money we’ve spent in the past nine weeks, we got a five minute hot shower for a buck a piece! We also washed two days of sweat and grime from our hiking clothes, and bought dinner from the store (including two cold adult beverages for X, who expects to sleep soundly as a result). Other than two days without seeing a bear, what is there not to like about hiking in Shenandoah National Park?