6/4: Sat am. 9am breakfast with Scout and her man Rob, blueberry mediocre pancakes at convenience sotre counterL Then I went to MoJos coffeeshop for some tea, reading and internet while Scot took Lenny to the library for Internet and lounging. Stopped by SunDog Outfitters and got on-sale shorts, fleecy pillow stuff sack, natural Lemon Eucalyptus bug spray. Stopped by thrift store for a shirt. Trooped off to do laundry and have a milkshake with Scot. Found vitamin supplements at the Laundromat. Subway for dinner. Moved to double room for more comfy. Bonfire after dinner with LOL and Swayze at nice locals house: Dante and Samantha. Met Guino, a PCT hiker who knows Nadine and Pacha!
6/5: Birch, Snags, Fire Tower, Neard, Bubbles, Indy all hiked out today. Holy Cow (formerly Chad), Caver Melanie, Guino said they were leaving but then stuck around. Moved to “The Place”, a church run, donation-funded hostel were everyone else was staying.
Caver and LOL went to the Baptist Church and heard about a church picnic, they invited us to go along too! Bummed around town, packed a resupply for Atkins (only a truck stop really) to send off on Monday. Painted fingers and toes bright pink-called Tease! And then we soaked our feet in tea again cuz it feels nice and toughens them up. Church picnic got spread around to too many people so we all decided to bail and let Caver and LOL go as they are they ones who actually went to church. Tailfeather, Guino, Waldo, Alki, Chad, Melanie, SkyHigh and us sat around on the lawn and played “wobbly broomstick”. You put a broom or mop on your nose, straight up. While looking at the end, you spin around 20 times and then throw the broom down and jump over it (or try to…). I only did 3 turns and fell over. Others did much better. Took lots of video of people falling over. Then we all wandered over to Quincey’s pizza to see the Mavs/Heat game…but mostly it wasn’t on until the bar was closing. We saw about a quarter and a half of the game.
When we got back to “The Place”, we found Pickwick! He went off to Subway for dinner and then Caver and LOL returned from the picnic with hot dogs, hamburgers and cake! A feast! Tried to chase Pickwick down, but he came back in time for hot doggies anyway. Then bed.
6/6: Breakfast with Pickwick and Sky High, saw Caver walk out of town on way to breakfast but then found ‘em at the coffeeshop where we had breakfast. Chad and Guino walked in right after. Nice breakfast. Send 3 boxes (1 home, 1 to Atkins for resupply, and 1 to Pearisburg as a bounce box), then packed up to hitch out.
Sunny days make for smiling faces!
Got a ride in a tiny pickup with a woman and baby Elijah in jump seat. She’d hiked the AT before and started with 20 lbs of potatoes to eat!
On trail by 11:24a. Slow climb up to balds (name??). Very pretty. Met a boy scout troop headed for our shelter so we decided to press on. Saw a herd of (wild?) ponoes so we went over to take pics. They let us walk right up to them and pet ‘em! So not really wild huh. 3 babies that look just like Misty and Stormy, 4 mommas/last years babies and a tiny roan stallion.
Un-wild ponies in the Grayson Highlands
Entered Grayson Highlands and saw more ponies! A pony was at Tomas Knob shelter licking the salt (?) off the floor. Rocky trail to Wise shelter and found Snags, Indy, Neard, Bubbles, Lazarus and some section hikers. Tenting, cous cous and up early for 20ish miles tomorrow! Listerine spilled in my bag and now my hat is minty…
6/7: Up at 6, let SoF sleep in while I went to get water and make breakfast. Really easy to pack up my pack with my new sleeping pad (my old inflatable one sprung a leak, so I replaced it with a foamy one that CAN’T leak). Hiked out at 7:23. Saw some new ponies, baby ponies and long-horn mama cows. Lame rocks the whole morning, tough on my feet. At every shelter we met Snags, Bubbles, Neard and Indy for long breaks. Stopped at horse camp to hit the porta potties and wash our feet in the stream. Hiked on to 4 miles before Trimpi shelter at Dickey Gap and met a section hiker named Tim who offered us a beer and a seat. I took ‘em up on it! In the shelter exactly at Indy’s guess of when we’d get in: 6:05p. Mind was 6:07 and Scot’s was 6:11p. Indy, Snags, Neard and Bubbles all at shelter. Met Dr. Gadget again too (also met him in Damascus). After dinner, Guino rolled in around 7:45p. He’d done 27.5 miles today! Holy Cow and Caver are behind him but may not make it all the way here to the shelter tonight. Neard saw a bear but it ran off. Really love being able to put on my comfy socks and comfy not-Crocs (they’re called Holey Soles) for comfy feet. 20 miles to Trimpi shelter today.
6/8: To Chatfield shelter total of 18 for the day. Started with 8 miles to Partnership shelter with SHOWER! Met Lunchbox there and Four Eyes. We all showered and washed our clothes in the sink. Then we sat around trying to decide if we should order pizza (they can deliver it to the shelter) or take the 50 cent shuttle into town. We decided town! Longtrail walked in just as we were about to leave so she showered and washed clothes quick and joined us. Padma wasn’t allowed on the shuttle so she stayed with Tim and Charlie (Tim gave me a beer. He’s section hiking and his dad Charlie meets him at the road with his supplies…so we saw Tim and Charlie several times in the last few days). Bernice was the shuttle driver and knew all about the places to eat and took us to a Chinese AYCE buffet. I tried to stick to non-fried and veggies things but was only partially successful as they had sugar donuts and 6 flavors of ice cream including b-day cake! Stopped by the grocery store afterwards for some Sparkle Fun (my most fave flavor!) toothpaste and some yogurt. Back to Partnership on the Bernice shuttle.
Post-chinese buffet coma
Hung around digesting and finally hiked on 7 miles to Chatfield shelter. Thundered, but no actual rain! Snags and Longtrail came in just after dark.
6/9: Up at 6 but didn’t set alarm. 18.4 miles planned to Knot Maul Branch shelter. Had to walk into Atkins, so got up early to get to PO right when it opened. Couldn’t get a hitch until finally Tim and Charlie took us to town (they were staying at the motel in Atkins). SoF got a new down bag to try out from Feathered Friends-bright blue! Then back to “The Barn” right at the AT for b-fast with Longtrail and Snags. Lazed around a LONG time when more people showed up-Caver, Indy, Bubbles, Neard, Lunchbox (he was in town), Holy Cow (formerly Chad), Melanie. Finally walked out of town around noon for about 14 miles to next shelter. On to Woods Hole Hostel as our next stop! Big crummy pouring rainstorm just before shelter. Hid under Kiwanis Pavillion with Bubbles and Indy for a few minutes (but you can’t camp there), then up last hill-really miserable. Got in, couldn’t find the spring-So Far found it though. Quick hot meal-Thanks Micah for the Mtn House meals!!) then bed.
6/10: Clothes mostly dry but pretty tired. Not raining in the am though. Long slog to a shelter…
(I stopped writing mid-sentence and never finished. Suffice to say it was a long day with trees and stuff).
6/11: Now on 23.8 miles to a shelter where the spring (and all springs along the way) had dried up. Met Magic Mix and his cat Sir (tiny black kitten!). MM got him in Damascus at Trail Days (maybe?) and Sir is tiny and black and adorable. Also met Ponyboy and Meatloaf and No Sides and Walking Home again when we got to the shelter. There was a tiny trickle of water funneled by a rhododendron leaf that we got enough water for dinner with. Scraped up my back getting down to the water sourceL First night in our tent in a while…it was buggy and not raining so tent looked attractive. Snags, Indy, Melanie, Holy Cow rolled in after us with no water and by that time the tiny spring had all but stopped producing.
We're 1/4 of the way done with the Appalachian Trail!
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Maine or Bust 
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