Date: 2014-05-27
From: Trimpi Shelter

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: light rain

After a long day of hiking, one would hope for a decent night sleep but that wasn't the case for us last night. It was pretty hot and humid out so it wasn't the most comfortable of situations to sleep in, everything felt sticky and I was baking laying on top of my quilt, I'm seriously contemplating sending it home for the summer and pick up a light blanket. Once the fire was out and everyone was in their tents and hammocks, the woods came alive with sounds of branches breaking on the forest floor all around us. I didn't think to much of it figuring it was raccoons or possums scavenging around but something scared most of the group in the middle of the night by breaking a big branch. I woke up around 2 with headlights flashing around and Delaware and Atlas talking to each other over my tent, I just went back to bed.   We all woke up the next morning groggy and not motivated to hike but the motivation of having beer and brats at the next shelter was all that we needed. It was only a 10 mile hike but when you have something you're looking forward at the end of the hike, it feels like an eternity. Gadget woke up and packed out first again, the motivation of food does wonders for that man, Atlas was next and then Delaware and I. It was slow moving and the clouds were rolling in so that didn't lift up anyone's spirits but what did was a trail magic station set up by a church youth group that had a little bit of everything. After having half a soda and a honeybun, I was ready to get to that shelter and celebrate our a Memorial Day.    The rain started for the last hour of our hike and disappeared when we got there. Partnership Shelter is a beautiful two story shelter with showers and a nice outhouse nearby. It's also very close to the Mount Rogers Visitor Center which has a phone that you can ca and have pizza delivered to there and then bring it back to the shelter. Our plan was to take a shuttle into Marion,get food and beer and head back to the shelter but first we needed to stop at a Sonic fast food restaurant. For years Sonic would tease New York with their commercials even though there weren't any around,they eventually made it to NY but I never went so I had some here and it was delicious. We got the food and beer and headed back to the shelter. The shuttles weren't running anymore so we decided to give hitching a try which I wasn't looking forward to as it feels like a weird thing to do. So we split up into two groups- Atlas and Danish were one group and Gadget,Delaware and I were they other, they got picked up pretty quickly and it took us a bit longer but we got a ride and hopped into the back of pickup truck and cruised up the mountain to the shelter. By the time we got back the shelter was getting full,it claims to hold 16 but by the end of the night there was about 25-30 people crammed in there mostly on the second floor which we didn't stay on.    The rest of the day was beautiful and relaxing and couldn't ask for a better day late Memorial Day BBQ. People were playing frisbee,others hanging out by the fire and talking and we sat there and played some cards, it was a quintessential thru hiker chill out. As the night went on we hung out on the grass while Gadget played the guitar and just relaxed, it was a short day distance wise but man was it worth it.