The night was cool but I slept well in the tent, it was kind of strange how quiet it was last night – there was no rain, no wind, and no one tossing turning or snoring nearby. I made the usual 8:30 departure time, the start of another pretty short and relaxed day. The day’s destination was either Partnership Shelter or Marion, VA. The shelter is right by the Jefferson National Forest visitor center, is complete with showers and there’s even a phone at the vistor center where you can order pizza delivery. The guide book though listed a 50c bus ride into town, and with the only resupply option close to the trail in the next town being a Shell gas station, we were leaning toward going into town. The only problem was the guide book also warned that lodging in Marion may be problematic on this particular weekend due to a Nascar event. Without cell service in the forest we planned on figuring it all out at the visitor center.
The miles flew by today. After 42 days, I’m really feeling near 100% for the first time. The big toe on my right foot is slightly numb when I wake up each morning but it goes away when I start walking, and other than that my legs and feet feel great. Ever since I got the new shoes in Erwin I feel like I’ve been slowly retraining myself to go faster, stronger etc. After walking hurt for so many days I was accustomed to taking every step extra slow and with extra caution. Now I’m back to the point where I can go a little quicker and not worry so much about every step.
IT was about 2.5 miles from the campsite to Trimpi Shelter, but I didn’t even stop there because it was so early in the day. I had had a honey bun and a nutrigrain bar for breakfast, the last of my food, save a Snicker’s I had tucked away for a last snack; but I found an unexpected surprise not far past the shelter. Just before a little forest road I came across a healthy dose of trail magic provided by a children’s group from a nearby Baptist Church. There were several lawn chairs set up in a small clearing along with a cooler full of sodas and cold milk, a huge wooden chest filled with snacks of all kinds – crackers, drink mixes, cereal, cliff bars, etc. There were some bible quotes painted on the chest, aand on the outside it said, “Enjoy, Pray it forward.” Inside the chest there was a logbook and it encouraged hikers to sign and say where they were from. I signed it and read some of the other entries. It was pretty shocking how many people left anti-religious messages – anything from “thanks for the food, but this doesn’t make be believe in god” to a picture of a bacteria evolving into a human and a big, all caps “EVOLUTION.” I’ll always be the first person to argue for science and reason and against religion, but I couldn’t believe how many people felt like the place to make their case was along the AT where people had gone to a lot of trouble to provide free food and cold drinks. I took a few minutes there relaxing, enjoying the cold soda, before moving on – had to be at the visitor center by 2 in order to call for the last bus of the day at 2:30.
I made it the visitor center (a total of 12.7 miles) much earlier than expected, about 1:00. It turns out that the bus to town doesn’t operate on weekends though. More bad luck with towns. The shelter right by the visitor center did look quite nice, but the problem with shelters near roads is that they tend to be inhabited by crazy people. This one was no exception. In the 30 seconds in took to walk by it I saw a man and a woman missing her middle top five or six teeth, they warned me to watch out for the no-see-ums at night, I might get eaten alive; and that there was a “two night limit, the ranger was just here.” Pretty sure I’m not planning on spending two nights at any shelter along the AT ever, much less with those two. I hung out outside the visitor center waiting for Strider. He usually finishes the day before me, even when he starts later, but today he didn’t show up until 2. We decided to hitch a ride to Marion. They had all kinds of good restaurants, pretty cheap hotels, a WalMart and a real grocery store.
We had dinner at another fake Mexican restaurant. My chicken taco and quessadilla had more peppers in them than chicken. They still had decent chips and salsa, and my carnitas was okay so I got filled up. Hit up the WalMart for a big resupply. Tomorrow is one more short day and right into another “town,” Atkins, VA. There’s an inn and a gas station right on the trail but town is a few miles away so I resupplied today for the big five day stretch (1 day out of town, 5 full days, 1 day into town) between Atkins and Pearisburg. Leaving Pearisburg is going to be another 5 day resupply – the two longest resupply stretches until the final week of the trail in Maine!