The shelter was empty last night but for the two of us. I don't remember the last time we stayed in a shelter that wasn't full, so it was a wild departure from the norm.
It was a nice easy 10 miles to the road. It was also uneventful, save for a run in with a fawn. I came across mother and baby on the trail. The mother took off, while the baby slowly laid down in the trail and let me get right next to it. What a great way to start the day!
At the road Mr. Fantastic saw a sign declaring the restaurant and grocery store in Troutdale as closed. Apparently it was the same shop, and couldn't survive the off season. We still hitched, but into Sugar Grove instead. There we found the center of town and commerce to be a gas station with a food store. We immediately got some fast food and sat out front to gorge.
We had time to kill here because we had a plan to bring a little trail magic up to our co-hikers.
Yesterday Mr. Fantastic had bumped into Meta, who told him that Dick Flap, Stonechair, and he would be doing a 20 miler today and ending up at the same shelter as us. They were skipping this town, so we decided to bring up some hot dogs, chips, and beer to celebrate 500 miles and hiking together again.
We relaxed there for about 3 hours before hitching back with a guy on his way to work. Our packs weighed a good deal more from the beer and food weight, so our last 4 miles were a little more tiring than normal. Thankfully it was more easy terrain.
When we made it to the shelter we found that Stonechair and Meta were already there, so we set about getting everything ready for the fire. Dick Flap rolled in a bit later, and others followed including Miles and Wendigo among others.
It was a good night, and it's looking like some good high mile days ahead. So long as this trend continues we will really burn some miles in Virginia, and that will certainly help our time table. Everyone seems eager to start moving faster, so it's good to be on the same page.
