Date: 2017-06-19
From: Long Mountain Wayside, US 60

To: Salt Log Gap, USFS 36
Miles today: 8.5

Our hike today was short.  The 8.5 mile distance was chosen, I'm sure, to provide a rest after the four 20-mile days we've hiked in the last five days. Even though it was a short hike we still got up early and were on the trail by 6:15.  I didn't take my daypack but instead used a fanny pack that just had room for my snacks, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper.  For the first time in days I felt rested and energized in the morning, perhaps because I had real food last night.  (Lizzie had cooked some couscous with tuna and olives in it for dinner.  She offered it to me warning it was "watery and terrible."  I devoured it and found it good.). I tried out my Merrell shoes, which I haven't worn much before.  The first thing I noticed was that my toes felt like they had more room than in the Keens.  So I'm going to keep wearing them for a while.  The experiment with the small pack didn't work out so well.  When I got to the top of the highest mountain clouds blew in, and the wind picked up.  I would like to have stayed longer, but I had no extra layer of clothing to put on. So I had to keep moving to get down from the bald.  I finished at 11:30; Bill and Arlene arrived a bit later.  We had talked about going into town to get showers and a real meal.  Arlene had one bar of coverage on her cell phone and was able to reach a shuttle driver.  Piney arrived about 40 minutes later.  While we were waiting the sky clouded over and threatened rain.  We all pitched our tents so that we wouldn't be stuck doing it in the rain later.  (When we got back, the tents were still standing and not wet inside.) Our trip to town was more interesting than the hike today.  Piney has been shuttling hikers since the 1980s and has "seen, heard, and done just about everything."  He informed us that Wednesday was Hike Naked Day.  He says it was very popular in the 1990s but not so popular now.  He claims that Bill Bryson, author of A Walk in the Woods, was the stinkiest hiker he's ever shuttled.  He kept up a running narrative for the whole ride into town and the ride back.  He has a pronounced Virginia accent that sometimes made it very hard to know what he was saying.  He asked Arlene if she was "maad", which I took to mean mad.  But he was actually asking if she is married.  Piney took us to the city park in Buena Vista, and we showered for free.  It's been seven hot sweaty days since I've had a shower.  The feeling when I got out of the shower was unbelievably good.  (When I got back to where we're camped I hated to kneel down to get into my tent because I got my knees dirty again.)Next he dropped us at an Italian restaurant.  It turned out to be closed, so we walked to Lewis Grocery, which is reputed to have great burgers.  We ordered burgers and wandered around buying snacks while we waited for our food. Shortly before it was time to leave there was a downpour.  We still needed to go to Hardee's to get coffee for Rennie.  It was eight blocks away, and we had no rain gear.  We decided to wait 15 minutes for it to let up.  While we debated what to do Taren, the woman running the store, offered to drive us there as soon as her grandmother arrived to take over.  She told us she likes to help out hikers, and she certainly helped us.  Bill has lost so much weight that his shorts can pull completely down without being unzipped.  He asked whether the store had any twine he could have.  Taren went into the back and came out with enough twine for him to hold his pants up (see photo).  Wildlife sighting of the day: Bill saw a copperhead.Wildflower of the day: Canada lily.  I've only seen it once before today.  Tomorrow is what looks to be a relatively easy day - 17.0 miles and no rain predicted.