Overnight accommodations were easy to procure. The Town recreation department has a special park designated for free camping for thru-hikers and other long distance travelers (no vehicle-supported camping permitted). The Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association has constructed a pavilion in this park that shelters a picnic table from the sun and rain, and rooftop so,at panels provide outlets for hikers to charge their devices.

The grocery store, laundromat and YMCA (which provides free showers for hikers) are all a short walk away. We even stopped by the Salvation Army and picked up a set of cotton town clothes for $2 a person, which we wore while we were doing laundry and then returned when we were finished.

A morning stop at the post office made clear that our packages still hadn’t arrived, so we filled out a mail forwarding form and hit the trail, where we walked into Shenandoah National Park and passed through Taylor Gap (in honor of Mama Bear’s Mama).