Hi

My Daughter, now named Moonunit 8, and I had a great time in the Shenandoha NP. I can not understand why some people say the park is a good place to just blow throw. We did 96 miles on the AT and Dewey Run side trail. The weather was mostly fog , rain and 40 to 50 degrees F. We hiked all night on May 15 (Full Moon) no lights. Scared the heck out of a N bound thru hiker (Recon) at midnight. We hiked fast and ate hot food often. We where able to dress light because we used umbrellas. They keep you dry, block the wind, pull you along when the wind is at your back, and provide excitement when you have to climb down to retreve after a pit stop. The TP also got away once.

We also ran into lots of thru hikers heading north in the cold rain they where not have ing as much fun as we where. Pegleg, Diesel, Speck, slickrock, Michell from Quebec, and of course Recon.

Best thing we found was the empty pad locked cabins with a picnic table and a fire place on the porch. Very easy to hang a hammock on a porch. I also slept very well on a picnic table on our last night at Dewey River Cabin.

Much more to tell, because it was so much fun, but it was not easy. our longest hike was 23 miles, last 3miles climb to the hut.
I was so proud of my little Moonunit.

Your Friend

Feenicks

Feenicks,

I enjoyed reading your hiking report and even more happier to know you had a great time. Also glad to know that Moonunit 8 did so well on the hike. I am sure it was an experience for her and hopefully it is only the beginning. Enjoyed reading your report about the hike and the SNP.... I did enjoy hiking through it, but it was not close to being one of my favorite, and by the time the thru hikers get there they just want to get out of VA, just as I did... At any rate, glad to know you had a great and I hope you have many more great trips..

My son and I are leaving in the morning to hike from Damascus, to Atkins, and probably on to Bland next week. We plan to hike to Bland but it depends on how much time we spend around Grayson Highlands and Mount Rogers. I think this area is one of the prettiest on the AT, at least the southern section. Just my 2 cents.... but I think many would agree....

Glad to know you had a great time and hope it is just the beginning for you and your daughter....

Sincerely,
Ed (Never Alone)AT99

With respect to camping on the porch of the PATC cabins - a couple of the PATC folks wanted me to remind everyone that this practice is against park regulations in Shenandoah as is indicated on the signs at the cabin sites. For the full content of the discussion with the PATC managers see the thread over on the PATC forum: PATC thread (http://www.hypernews.org/HyperNews/get/trails/PATC/4066.html) Note: I don't like to reference people to threads over there because they are deleted after 6 weeks or so which makes using that site close to worthless as a reference but anyways - there it is.

Based on the experience of Belcher and Puck a few years ago this translates into "if a LE ranger is checking the area and finds you camping illegally it can put a definate hurting on your pocketbook" - Belcher and Puck got hit for $100 each for illegal camping in SNP as I recall. Camping on the porch of one of these cabins is not what I would call stealth camping - its more like camping with a big bulls-eye painted on your chest saying "hit me".