July 4: Hightop Hut
 
Miles Today : 21.4
Total Miles : 71.3

Happy birthday, America, it's the Fourth of July! And, oh happy day, what a great day of hiking on the old AT today was. I started off from the last hut a bit late, but the day was cool and the terrain was easy. The first thing that I went over was Black Rock, which is basically a pile of loose rocks. Fortunately, the good folks of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) moved a bunch of them out of the way and created a very nice treadway for us hikers. The views were excellent, and several rivers of rock could be seen from the summit.

From there, I crossed Skyline Drive five times in four miles, which was quite aggravating. That was until I swung by Loft Mountain Campground. Now, I don't much care for these big, organized car campgrounds, but I do love those well-stocked camp stores. I went in and bought a big Gatoraide, Vienna Sausage, sardines covered in mustard and a king sized Snickers bar. As you might be guessing, this is not the best combination, but it all was awfully tasty at the time. I also bought two Yuengling beers, which I carried for the rest of the day.

From the campground to here was a pretty uneventful day, some ups and downs but it was nice and gradual the whole way. It got a bit warm this afternoon, but it was never "summer in Virginia" hot. I arrived here a bit after three in the afternoon and I knew that I was done for the day. My right foot was pretty sore for the last few miles, so I asked myself, why push it? My foot feels much better since yesterday so I figured that I would give it some more time to heal. Imagine that, me making a conservative decision.

As soon as I took my pack off, I ran down to the spring with my beers to get them cold by dinnertime. Then I came back to the shelter and chatted with Gruber and Treebeard for a while. They are moving on since they have a mail drop that they are trying to get to before Saturday afternoon. It is in Linden, which is a ways away still, but because of the weekend, it is either speed up or slow down for those guys.

Well, dinner tonight was just delicious. Nothing goes so well with a fine Lipton Dinner than an even finer Yuengling Lager, brewed in Pennsylvania at the oldest, continuously run brewery in the country. I was the envy of the other thru-hikers here tonight, LessyBug, Bone Pile and White Pack. Of course, they could have picked up a few beers as well, but they just didn't think about it. Ah well, I am going to go enjoy the sparklers brought here by a couple of southbound section hikers.

-Chomp

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