Day 7 — 14.3 miles
Rock Spring Hut to US211 at Thornton Gap to Pass Mountain Hut
June 8, 2002

We set out today before anyone else even started to rise, and hit the trail with a strong determination. It was going to be our longest day on the trail yet. We were really moving.

After getting a Clif Bar, snickers and Vitamin I (Ibuprofen) in our system we were ready. The day was flying by. As we were going up a steady, but gentle, incline, I jumped back. Jeremy, somehow, had just missed his first rattler. It was half on, half off the trail, and I showed him what he had almost stepped on! We hung out for a few minutes watching the snake, it never felt threatened enough to rattle its tail, or even move from the trail.

When we had enough of the snake we pressed on. Within a couple minutes we heard a rustling in the woods and caught a glimpse of a small bear running up the hill towards the ridge. Wow, this was amazing! In the previous week we hadn't even caught a glimpse of one. We were always a step behind. Now in a matter of 5 minutes the two animals we were most looking forward to seeing finally shown themselves.

A few days earlier we had joked with my mom about how we had hoped to see them. Now that we had, and so close together, we speculated that she had called the park and the rangers had placed these animals here on the trail so we wouldn't whine about it anymore. We got to Mary's Rock and began our descent down to Highway 211. My parents were to meet us there at 2:00 p.m., and it wasn't even 11:00 yet.

We figured when we got down we'd call them and have them come pick us up early. When I came out from calling, Jeremy was talking with a guy in hiking gear. I found out as soon as they noticed me that it was Jeff. He said he was going to go southbound until he met up with us.

Before he took off he was going to ask around to see if anyone knew how far back we were. When he came up to Jeremy Jeff asked if he had heard of a Spiguyver and a Sherpaman — which happened to be our trailnames — and Jeremy told him that we were the ones he was looking for. So we ended up chatting for a little while about hiking and our hike today. I was telling him how it had been one of our best days on the trail. With so many great cliffs — Stony Man Mountain, Little Stony Man, it was hard to think of a better day we'd had on the trail.

We chatted until my dad got there to pick us up. When he arrived, I introduced them to Jeff and asked my dad if he and my mom would like to go to Big Meadows to see a slide show of Jeff's journey and his book. They said "yes," so we all piled in the truck and went to see Jeff's show. It was great!

Jeff is an amazing speaker; he had us all enthralled. Jeremy and my parents were laughing through the whole thing. Jeremy and I had discussed it, and decided that we would spend the night with my parents at the campground. We had a great lunch and dinner with them. T-Bone steak dinner, yum yum! Jeremy said he had never eaten a whole steak and wouldn't be able to finish his steak. But before anyone else had even touched their dinners, Jeremy and I had finished our steaks!

It was awesome to sleep on a real bed that night.