I won't be eating at them either. $15 for one meal not for me. My food budget is $75 a week..
From my memory, you can get a good meal at Loft Mountain wayside (off the trail, but not a bad walk), Big Meadows (great breakfast), Skyland (we stayed overnight in an historic cabin, so we got two meals and loved sitting on the stone patio in the morning), and Elkwallow (good burgers). I might be missing something. Also you can get takeout food at the camp stores, and there are water fountains and spigots in a lot of places like picnic areas and campgrounds that you will walk past.
I'd probably bring a few days of food and wing it. Be careful about water in the southern section.
I made the mistake of eating a big (for me) breakfast at a wayside prior to hiking. Temps were 90’s and humid and I was so sluggish and miserable, I barely made 8 miles...the day before was 16 (or 18?). I’ll never do that again.
So that's how you got named Traffic Jam.
Say that after the hiker hunger kicks in.Originally Posted by gracebowen
Of all the things I'd rather spend some more on during a long distance hike it's an occasional great meal than even comparitively more on a mediocre solo hotel stay.
This. I want to enjoy my hike. A half mile detour for an overpriced burger and blueberry milkshake or three is nothing considering I’ve walked that far to a water source. Plus it’s a nice reward to have something other than oatmeal etc for breakfast or lunch. Especially if you have trouble keeping on weight. I stopped at three waysides and the bar at the lodge which also serves blueberry milkshakes. Of course doing more miles than planned expands th food budget which increases the miles.
It takes some serious will power to walk by someplace which serves food. Heck, I spent nearly $20 for a banana split and soda at the Creamery in NY. It was worth every penny
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It's not the distance to the way sides that's an issue. It's getting there, cooling down, getting cleaned up a little, getting in line to place order, waiting for your order, eating, refilling water bottles etc throwing away trash, browsing store for a few minutes, and getting back to the trail.
It's going to cost you at least an hour in most cases, maybe 1.5 hours if they're busy.
I'm all for it but it does make your day longer. At the end of the day you might decide to hold up at one hut versus going for the next one because of it.
I see no need to hit up camp stores to resupply also that's just getting out of hand. Starting with about 4 days food isn't outrageous . That's an average of 2 daay, what 3.5-4 lbs?
If my pack is under about 20 lb, which it usually is, it's irrelevant to me. I'm not too concerned about food or water weight if the pack is comfortable. Convenience of not having to stop and resupply becomes desireable.
Do some hikers really hit every possible resupply on trail?
I don't even consider resupply less than 60 to 75 miles. (3-4 days), that's just annoying and tme consuming
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 02-23-2018 at 02:54.
That was about the minimum time certain periods at the Skyland dining room post Memorial day when we would get slammed. Even during the middle of the week if we had multiple tour groups in. The coffee stand/snack bar would even have wait times of up to a half an hour at times. It's a matter of sheer luck as to how the crowds will be when one goes through Shenandoah. Best bet would be the bar but even that could get swamped during sporting events.
BR360
"no one is a thru-hiker, until they have done the whole AT."
Just have a look at the YouTube vids about this, including the most recent (trail talk #19) from Big Bird (Steve Walker). He talks about an almost $25 lunch including a $2 tip. That kind of money can provide for 3 days, or more, of resupply at discount stores like Walmart etc. I like the Luray suggestion above.
Obviously we all have our different financial situations, but for me, and I'm cheap, retired, living on a very modest fixed income, I'll still spend the extra $$$ for quick, hot and filling meals walking through SNP, also saving 3 days of food, close to 6 pounds, starting out from Waynesboro. Not sure where the "hour to hour and a half" comment comes from, I don't think I waited more than 5 minutes at any wayside for my food. The Skyland restaurant is another story, of course that will take over an hour, so what?
I'll stand by my previous statement, it really is a cushy 100-ish miles of the trail from Waynesboro to Front Royal.
One disclaimer: both times I hiked through were a bit "off-season" (April and late September) and I hit the food places on weekdays, by pure luck. My wife and I did stay one night recently at Skyland on a weekend also in April, and it was quite crowded. If there is any way to time your hike easily, jjozgrunt, to avoid Skyland on a weekend, it might help a bit.
Yet one other note: On my entire AT hike I saw 13 bears, 2 in New Jersey, and in a three day period, 11 in SNP (3 times I saw a mom and 2 cups, plus two other single bears). They are like big furry dogs really, but keep good food discipline with your food at night! I seem to remember bear poles vs. boxes at the shelters and campsites.
I disagree with the notion that waysides cost you 3-5 miles. Here’s some actual FACTS:
- Note: the “Waysides” are essentially small grill cafes that also sell beer and snacks similar to what you’d find at a gas station convenience store. The “camp stores” don’t have hot food to order, but they’ve got more gear/food aimed at car campers, which also encompasses resupply options for backpackers.
- Loft Mountain camp store is 100 yards off the trail and has a store, showers, laundry, some basic hiker food (tuna, potatoes, some freeze dried meals, snacks, etc. The Loft Mountain Wayside is 0.5 miles from the trail.
- Big Meadows Wayside os 0.4 miles from the AT
- Skyland Resort is 0.1 miles from the AT. Not much of a resupply store, but a good spot for a hot meal.
- Elkwallow Wayside is 0.1 miles from the AT
Bottom line: If the waysides and/or camp stores are open, you could easily eat 3 meals “off trail” and purchase enough food so that you don’t have to carry everything. I personally enjoyed Shenandoah and found that my 5 days worth of food was about 1.5-2 days too much after I hit the camp stores and waysides. I averaged about 16 miles per day to give you an idea of my pacing through the park.
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16pd.....
Is.....
Not that much unless winter
What would you do if didn't stop at wayside?
You weren't hiking enough miles for it to matter. 8 hrs..... That's why you had 2+ hrs to waste.
Refer to ops original post relative to intended time to hke shenandoah
Someone wanting to hike 105 miles in 5 days, or 6 days even, doesn't have that to spare necessarily. Unless they hike in dark. Shenandoah problem is not many legal camp areas. You can't count on just hiking in dark till find a flat spot like can most places.
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 02-23-2018 at 12:44.
The OP did not specify when they were wanting to do the hike at least in the initial post. But just whimsically selecting May 1st there would be 13 hours 48 minutes of daylight which would easily allow for 20s and time to hit stores/waysides. Even today there are more than 11 hours of daylight. So still plenty of time to get decent mileage and hit the waysides... Back to the OP. Just know that you can carry whatever amount of food you desire but be aware that it is quite easy to get through there with a minimum amount of food carry. As I mentioned in earlier post, if doing this section again I would take at most 2 days and just resupply/eat as I go. Do what feels comfortable to you.
Lonehiker (MRT '22)
I didn’t find the waysides added any time to my day when factoring in the ease of the trail through the park. It was still possible to do 24 mile days and be in camp by 5.
You hike your hike and I’ll hike mine. 16 miles per day was just fine by me and were amazing miles considering the condition of my ankle. Maybe I can email you my MRI and get your expert opinion. Oh wait... you don’t know me, you don’t know my goals, and you clearly don’t know the actual mileage between the AT and SNP waysides.
Hike your own hike and kindly refrain from condescension.
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You missed point
OP expressed desire to hike it in 5 days.
And Shenandoah has issues with camping between huts which can require very long days to still go hut to hut.
I'm quite familiar with distance to AT from waysides. I've been to most twice. Howeve it's not the distance from trail it's the total time spend there.
Can average hikers not in thruhiker shape lose a couple hrs per day and still knock out 20-25 a couple days? Some can, many cant. Depends on time if yr, and mostly do they like hiking in dark.
Many thruhikers have no problem getting to huts 9 pm -11 pm after a 25+ mile day that includes detours to resupply, etc,even off trail to town. Few others do that . 2 yrs ago I rehiked Shenandoah in fall, sobo kid come in 11 pm after 29 mile day. For him, no problem. I'm sure he made it through the park in 4 days.
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 02-23-2018 at 23:52.
With a week under my belt having started at Harpers Ferry, it took me another 7 days to get from Front Royal to Waynesboro, with one big 27 mile day from Bearfence shelter to Loft Mt campground. Since I left May 1st, this was on the 11th day. Even with a mile detour to the wayside, I still made it before dark but it was a rough day.
To add insult to injury, that was also the day my canister ran dry and the Loft Mt camp store was closed for renovations. I was able to just make it to the wayside 0.5 miles away before they closed to get some supper. No fuel canisters though. Meet someone the next day who had a full spare canister someone had given him the night before that he really didn't want to carry, so he passed it on to me. Now that's trail magic.
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