Agile Trekker: VA Appalachian Trail - Section 6 - Chester Gap to Mount Marshall Trailhead

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
10/16/2018	11.8 miles	5 hours 48 minutes	1,450'	29:32

Map: Appalachian Trail Guide Shenandoah National Park
Parking: $30 for a one week pass to enter Shenandoah National Park. Skyline Drive (parking area between North Marshall Mountain summit and South Marshall Mountain summit), and Route 522 (Chester Gap).
Directions: Northbound, Skyline Drive to Route 522

We had an issue with Apple Map's directions from Route 522 to Skyline Drive. We had GPS coordinates for the parking lot on Skyline drive, yet Apple Maps took us to a dead end road with a trail at the end. This has happened before. We switched to Google maps which figured out that we have to enter Shenandoah National park via the north entrance.

Today we saw 6 bears! That's probably as many as I've seen in my life. Well, the first one was a dead bear cub on the side of the highway, outside the park. Then while we were driving in the park, we saw a mother bear and two cubs cross the road in front of us. Close enough that we stopped the car to watch. When we finished our hike and were driving out of the park, a cub jumped out onto the road so close to us that Glen had to slam on the brakes to prevent from hitting it. After that, he drove much slower. The speed limit in the park is 35 mph most places, and I think he was driving 40 mph. So there is a reason for that slow speed limit! After almost hitting the bear we drove much slower, much to the annoyance of most of the cars behind us. And then we saw a 6th bear crossing the road further in front of us. We saw a jogger running along the road heading towards us - probably totally unaware that a bear was crossing the road 20 feet behind him.

Trek wore a boot again today. A cheap fleece boot which stayed on all frickin day! We couldn't believe it. We put Musher's Secret on his pads again today. We had a nice view today early on. The trail was mostly easy with good terrain. We kept Trek on leash - the park requires it, plus bears are really, really common here. My legs were still tired, but we were able to do a reasonable pace, 2 mph. When we approached Compton Gap, we started seeing many day hikers. We saw a sign at Compton Gap showing that we had just passed a side trail to some basalt columns. I love basalt columns! But I didn't want to hike the extra miles back to see them.

Today's dinner was take out from a Taste of India. I wanted to get to sleep early to rest up for tomorrow's hike.