The next morning the deep shade of the forest allowed us to sleep well past sun-up. My first desire was to check on the food. Still there. Was it really a bear clambering about in the tree after our grub? Hard to tell. Darkness distorts reality.  Plus, I’m pretty damn good at hanging a bag of food. I filtered some water from Doyles River and made oatmeal for breakfast. Andra took down the tent and after a very slow start to the day, we were off up the trail on a bright and sunny morning. A detour led us over to the Doyles River ATC Cabin, unoccupied but with a beautiful view of the valley to the east. The trail then led past a spring that fed into Doyles River, consisting of a pipe coming out of an old rock wall with clear water flowing out of it. A sign above proclaimed, “Do not drink untreated water.” What do you suppose Jackson’s brigade did? Up the trail towards Skyline Drive we walked, under a constant kaleidoscope of fall color. 

We crossed Skyline Drive and hiked for some time on the Big Run Loop trail, where I found a particularly form-fitting tree trunk to lean into and admire the Shenandoah Valley to the west. The key was the full-moss cushion seat. Our path intersected the AT, and we followed that back to our vehicle parked at the Jones Run lot. The Appalachian Trail surprised me by being so narrow. Trails that led to falls and mountains within the park were usually wide enough for two people to walk abreast, but the AT was never more than a foot wide. My impression was that thousands of people trekked the AT each year from Georgia to Maine, but perhaps not. Or perhaps they walk single file after exhausting all conversation with their hiking partner within 4 days. Perhaps they begin to hate their hiking partner’s constant jabber, kill ‘em off, hide ‘em in a ditch and keep going on solo. I imagined the constant reward of taking the trail south, and not turning around after a few days but just keep going, all the way to the end. Perhaps someday. The rest of the day was frittered away with short side trips through untrailed-woods, admiring the scenic vistas and fall color. We determined that since no trail led to any destination downhill from the ridge-top and Skyline Drive that was any more desirable than those areas close to the road, we might as well camp fairly close to the road, avoid lugging gear up steep draws, and avoid taking food with us to camp. Flat spots in the woods were hard to find. The backcountry sign at the park entrance said that unofficial, unmarked but obvious, backcountry sites existed throughout the park. I take issue with their definition of “throughout”. We never saw a single one, and always had to improvise on a spot that had clearly never been camped on before. That night, we cooked ramen noodles in a parking lot and packed into the forest only the bare essentials for the night. Down a fire road five minutes lay a perfect flat spot near the confluence of two creeks in a basin with straight and tall tulip trees. The evening sun was gorgeous through the pole-like trunks. We walked down the road until dark, then slept great all night, nearly 13 hours.