Date: 2009-05-29
From: Dickey Gap

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: light rain

We were up early and out the door by 8 am and managed to catch a big hitch into Marion in the back of a pickup truck. The clouds were of a dark-grey colour and we were sure that it was going to rain down on us. Luckily, it did not and we made it the entire to Marion without a single drop falling down. Scavenger's backside did become quite wet as the cargo bin, in which we were sitting, was filled with water. I sat myself on top of a really smelly garbage bag and did not have the same problems. Because we were in early and could not yet go to the library, I headed to the post office to send some things back home. Scavenger hitched up to Atkins in order to pick up his mail drop, as he was heading back to Nashville, TN today. I was quite impressed ¢ only 35 minutes had passed when Scavenger walked in through the door, smiling. He received two very quick hitches and was back in Marion in no time. It was pretty incredible. Then, I spent the entire morning typing up the rest of the blog ¢ all the way until 12:45 pm. By this time, Scavenger's girlfriend, Lillian, had arrived and had offered to take me to the trailhead. On the way, we stopped at a little market deli so that I could pick up a sandwich. At the far end of the enclosed market was a man that I had immediately recognized. In that rare instant, we looked at each other ¢ you know, where your head tilts to the side as many dogs do and your eyes squint and you think to yourself: 'Wait a second! I know this guy!" It was Mike (!), the owner of Handsome Molly's, who had just provided us with some trail magic and a wonderful meal just the day before. He was with his two daughters, Grace and Ava. As it was Grace's birthday, she picked the deli as the place to eat lunch and it looked as if she was quite enjoying her 'birthday cake' ice cream. Mike, Scavenger, and I couldn't believe that we all met up again ¢ it was divine intervention or something. He also told us that he had talked with the woman who gave us the two apples at Massie Gap and had offered any help when we reconnected inside the Marion library. Somehow, someway, all of us have been brought together on more than one occasion and we are all intricately linked. I provided Mike with my blog's address on a piece of scrap paper in case he and his wife would like to follow along. It is evident that Mike is a great guy and his wife, kids, and town of Marion, VA are all lucky to have him.   We said our goodbyes and Lillian drove me to the trailhead at Mt. Rogers NRA, where we all got out and checked out the Partnership Shelter, only .1 miles from the road and the only shelter on the AT from where you can order a Pizza Hut pizza. It's relatively close to town and it is good business as thru-hikers can be very, very hungry. We chatted for a bit and then I said my goodbyes to Scavenger and Lillian, who had a long drive in front of them. As they left, I chatted with Joe and John, two thru-hikers from Wisconsin. I offered each of them a banana and to John, an extra pickle. They were grateful for the fresh fruit. We talked for a bit about trail life, where they were from, why they had not yet received trail names, and somehow we managed to start talking about Costa Rica ¢ ohh, because of work. Joe had studied abroad there and began to share with me all of his different experiences of Tico life. We promised each other that if we are close in proximity on the trail on June 3, then we would watch the Costa Rica vs. United States World Cup Qualifier.   It was about 2:30 pm or 3:00 pm when I left the shelter, and I had to go 14.5 miles before darkness descended, so really picked up my pace. I had started listening to the very interesting book, "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. Not that I would ever go off the deep end or anything, but I could certainly relate to some of the feelings of Christopher McCandless, who was the nomadic protagonist of the novel, giving away all of his possessions to live freely and to explore the world and himself. Without going too much into it, the story ends dramatically, where he is found dead of starvation in the Alaskan interior. Krakauer does a great job at attempting to track down McCandless' route and the people he met along his journey out west and 'into the wild'. On the hike, I saw two buds, Savage and Fiddle, both of whom I had met in Damascus at The Place hostel. They are great people, but have a strange fetish of using mouse traps at the shelters to rid them of those pesky mice. Last I had heard, they were up to 60 mice killed. They also place them outside of the shelter in the morning in a row.   Later on in the day, I came across an open field with cows and bulls roaming all over. It was enclose, private farmland, but the buildings were entirely dilapidated. I tried to take a picture of one cow and did manage to take a few snaps, but when it approached to within 5 feet of me, I gathered my pack and took off running. Further up the field and around the bend, I came across more cows, much larger in size. I tried to take a picture of one bull, but it charged me twice. It stood directly on the trail staring at me, making sure that I knew whose territory I was on.   Then, I looked up and saw an oddly placed school bus under some trees and surrounded by growing weeds. Being a curiositist (one who engages in curiosity), I decided to explore it and traipsed my way through the tall, wet grass, trying to avoid the path of cows and freshly placed dung in the pasture. When I arrived at the school bus, I couldn't help but think of Christopher McCandless again, as he found an abandoned Fairbanks school bus in the Alaskan interior. This one was completely destroyed with the windows smashed by rocks, lichens growing on all parts, and rust visible on both the outside and inside frames. But, it still had some of that old yellow bus shine. Stepping up and inside the entry point, I noticed that someone HAD been living in it, but apparently many years ago. There was an entire stove that most likely used a propane source for fuel. There was even a furnace! All the seeds had been ripped out ¢ in the back of the bus, there was a really shoddy-looking mattress that had been ripped apart. On the floor was the skin of a rattlesnake, most likely brought in by a passerby thru-hiker within the past few years. The ground was completely dirty and was intermixed with rust particles, rubble, broken glass, and beer cans and bottles all over. The rain had started to come down really hard again, so I decided not to hike, but to get outside and inspect the exterior of the bus in the refuge of the enclosed area and hanging trees above. When the rain died down again, I traipsed my way back to the trail and into the forest ahead. 4.5 hours later, I arrived at Dickey Gap. I was moving at a pretty damn good pace. Within 5 minutes, I caught a hitch with a woman driving a Prius. After some initial chatting about the AT ¢ she is an avid hiker as well ¢ she told me that her daughter worked at Duke University Hospital. I replied: "No way! I work(ed) at Duke!" It was a short ride, so we didn't have a chance to go into further detail, but it just shows you that the world can be quite small at times.   Back at the hostel, I was the only one spending the night. I had considered trying to catch a hitch back to the Partnership Shelter that evening for an early morning start, but decided against it due to the rain and the likelihood that I would be unable to get a ride. I cooked some food, wrote in my journal, hung my clothes out to dry (inside the hostel), closed my eyes and fell asleep.