Date: 2018-05-17
From: Harrison Ground Spring

To: US 501 (Glasgow, VA)
Miles today: 11.4

DAY 72Tough getting going this morning as it rained hard last night and splashed mud and dirt all up under and on the sides of the tent. Everything in the vestibule is wet and muddy. Naturally none of our clothing or shoes dried last night, and most of the stuff in the tent is damp. I got dressed in my cold, wet shorts, socks, shirt and shoes and started getting the bear bags down when the rain started again. I had on my soggy rain coat, so I just stood in the rain and told Mary to wait inside the tent. I didn't dare go back in the tent as I would have made things even wetter getting back in.After about 15 minutes the rain pretty much stopped and we stuffed our dry stuff in bags and our wet stuff in other bags and packed up and headed out. A few hikers from the shelter we left last night passed by and said they wondered how we had made out. They said there was some concern about us in the shelter. We told them we were damp, but fine. (Rabbit, Rayburn)It was foggy most of the day, but the sun was trying to break through. Once we were on the ridge we stopped to air out our soggy feet and give them a break. As soon as we got service we called the hostel to arrange a pickup at 2:30. We didn't have too much extra time today because we had a pickup time, but we did stop at Matt's Creek Shelter. Ironically, Mary soaked her feet in the stream while I sat at the picnic table and tried to dry my socks and shoes.After lunch we made the short trip to the James River foot bridge. A long train was passing just before we arrived at the bridge, 118 cars I think. Janet (Laugh's mom) said she counted the cars. We thought we had plenty of time and we chatted with "Live" and "Love" (Laugh's parents, Janet & Alan), but soon we realized our shuttle was here and we had to leave. There was some trail magic on the other side of the bridge, so before we hopped in the shuttle we were given some homemade chocolate chip cookies and a rootbeer for the ride.When we arrived at the hostel we quickly began laying out our wet things on the lawn and hung items on the clothes line to dry. Papa Dale, and Kingsman stayed last night and are slackpacking back to the hostel. Our bed was upstairs in the hostel in a "semi-private room" which we shared with "Spirit Man" and "Hydro". Another hiker had just taken a shower and told us the water was cold, so we were waiting for it to warm up. "Sailor Pete" told us there was plenty of hot water the day before, so we thought we would be all set. After trying the water in the sink various times we called the woman who takes care of the hostel. She said it was probably because everyone was showering and doing laundry, but "Sailor Pete" said the day before there was no issue with more laundry and showers taking place. We all eventually took varying degrees of cold/warm showers and got our laundry done.Papa Dale & Kingsman arrived back at the hostel, and we planned to meet them at Scotto's for dinner. Swimmer, Papa Dale, and Kingsman joined us at the restaurant for dinner. Also there were Rayburn, Sailor Pete, and Rabbit. We also found out we wouldn't be able to slackpack back to the hostel tomorrow as a family has rented the whole hostel for the next couple of days. The weather doesn't look good for tomorrow, but I guess we will be heading out and making the best of it.Off to bed in our "semi-private" (not private at all) room.