Date: 2016-06-02
From: USFS 222- VA 625

To: VA 610 - Old Rich Valley Road
Miles today: 12.2

Yesterday while heading to the new campground, she saw a little store with s restaurant called "Dutch Pantry". It sounded like somewhere nice to stop and eat so we decided to head there in the morning to have breakfast there. It turns out, they only serve lunch. We bought some delicious homemade apple bread to tide us over with the intention of coming back for lunch. This however will cause us to change Sherpa's route for the day. She dropped him off at I-81 and will pick him up at the settlers museum in an hour. At I-81, the trail passes through an Excon station. He posed for a photo with the Tiger. After an uneventful 2.8 miles, she picked him up and they headed to the Dutch Pantry for the second time today. We ordered two sandwiches and split them. We also bought a bottle of Birch Beer to share since she had never tried it before. She enjoyed it. The sandwiches were very good, and we even bought a loaf of sourdough bread from the bakery as it was so tasty! We also found some other treats that you would find at an Amish-style country store. It was run by Mennonite women who were all very helpful and kind. After lunch, we decided to find VA 625/USFS 222 and drop Sherpa off there so as to make sure it was accessible by car. This would have been the end of his day if he had instead continued to walk north after lunch. Instead, he walked south from here back towards where she had picked him up earlier. It turned out it was more than an hour drive and 7.9 miles was on a narrow gravel road that was on a mountainside. Thankfully we only ran into one car on the way down. At the trailhead, there were lots of pretty butterflies! One even crawled onto Porters hand, but flew away before Sherpa could snap a photo. She was a little nervous to drive out alone, but prayed the entire way up. She didn't encounter any other vehicles and made it out safely! While on the trail, Sherpa ran into Burly. We hadn't seen him since the day we climbed out of the Nantihala River gap back in North Carolina. He is the guy who commented, "I think I found my waist..." Turns out he has lost over 45 pounds and his doctor has slowly been reducing a number of prescriptions he is on. He is looking forward to some Doctor visits in a month to confirm his improved health. He mentioned how he had a lot of fun at trail days for about three days partying really hard and then spent a day volunteering with one way missions because they were so helpful to all the hikers. He was put to work in a local thrift store. There are so many missions that help hikers, be encouraged, the bible says the fields are white with a harvest and this is just one example of someone who was touched. Her next stop was to give Sherpa a snack and water break at VA 42, a 6.9 mile walk for Sherpa. She took some time to enjoy her book while waiting for Sherpa. Our original mileage plan included Sherpa walking from VA 625 back to I 81, however due to our unplanned lunch break in addition to the breakfast and the long drive to VA 625, we decided to shorten Sherpa's mileage as we knew he would have to walk in the dark otherwise. So, we decided to drop him off at Old Rich Valley road so he could walk back to VA 42 again. When he started to hike he realized he didn't have his trekking poles...uh oh. Thankfully it was a short hike...she went back to VA 42 to find the poles and wait for him. When she got there, there was a man stopped there. He found Sherpa's trekking poles and had propped them up on a tree for us! We are so thankful they weren't lost forever! The man's name was Lumbermack. He was a thru hiker in 2006. He now operates a hostel in Ceres, VA. He runs his hostel with Christian Values. He just opened 5 weeks ago and we hope his business does well! If we weren't camping or slackpacking we would have loved to stay at his hostel. He has chickens, donkeys, and goats at his hostel! How fun! She chatted with him until Sherpa arrived and Sherpa got to meet him too!