Bearfence Mountain Hut to Rock Spring Hut

Good day. The excellent weather continues. Hiked for a few hours and saw several deer. If you look up the trail on this photo, you'll see the deer looking back at me.

Then I went a little further and saw this little bear in the woods. Not sure if it was a baby or just a small bear, so I snapped my pic and moved on.

THEN... I hiked about another 15 minutes and came to a clearing and lo and behold, came across two hikers *slack packing south and it was Mike! And his friend, Steve. So fun to run in to him and catch up. And THEN, while we were talking...out of the woods came 19. 

We all chatted for awhile and then went our separate directions. 

Hiked along chatting with 19 and we missed the turn off for the Big Meadows Wayside. There are not many things that we will backtrack for. An amazing overlook...maybe, but probably not. A beautiful waterfall... perhaps. A restaurant with real food... you betcha. We went off trail and hiked up through the woods until we came to the road and then hiked down a mile to the wayside. It was worth it. Good lunch, caught up with 19 and his adventures for the last month and topped it off with one of their famous blackberry milkshakes. 

Back on the trail to the shelter fairly early. 

*Definition of slack packing- occasionally hikers will make arrangements to hike a section without carrying their pack. They may be shuttled ahead and hike back to where their pack is or someone will drop them at the trail and shuttle their pack forward for them. I have not done it yet and am not sure if I will. Never say never but at this point, I don't plan too. I feel fairly strongly that I will never slack pack south, only because I just want to be only heading north. But then again, never say never. The big saying out here is, "Hike your own hike." So no one judges anyone else for how they choose to hike the trail.