We woke up to the babbling of the brook in our wooded nook down the hill from the shelter. The area around the shelter was crowded with thru-hikers and others extending the holiday weekend, but the small topographical undulation that we dropped behind made it seem like we had the woods to ourselves. The sound of flowing water covered the noise of any of our neighbors.

The hike into Rockfish Gap went quickly with the kids playing word games with their musician friend Vagabond And explored old chimneys in the woods. Waynesboro is an Appalachian Trail Community and is extremely hiker friendly. We were greeted at Rockfish Gap by a list of volunteers who give free shuttles to hikers for the 5 miles into town. Vagabond placed a couple calls (we drowned our phone in a rainstorm and are still waiting on a replacement), and soon two shuttles arrived to ferry in the thru-hikers that were starting to pile up at the gap.

We stopped by the post office where we were expecting a number of packages (including our new phone and a temporary camera replacement while mine is off for repairs). Unfortunately, in making our mailing decisions we had overlooked the Monday holiday, and nothing had yet arrived this Tuesday. Rather than the quick resupply we had intended, We decided to enjoy a restaurant meal and see if our packages arrived in the afternoon. When they still hadn’t, we decided to spend the night.