Date: 2018-04-08
From: Marion, VA

To: Atkins, VA
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: overcast clouds

I met two very cool hikers today at a very cool place. I came upon a sign welcoming me to enjoy some trail magic up ahead at the old one room schoolhouse. Sure enough there it was with a backpack on the porch. I shed my own pack and walked in. There I was greeted by a 77 year old man with a long white beard. Loner Bohner, as he is known on trail, was proudly wearing three ¢2000 Miler¢ patches from the AT Conservancy. He is working on his fourth thru hike. He showed me the trail magic boxes, provided by the local Methodist church, from which I helped myself to a Pepsi, a package of cookies and one of crackers. The Lindamood schoolhouse was built in 1894 and was in use until 1937. Then along came Odie. He turns out to be someone I had heard interviewed last year on Mighty Blue¢s podcast and the person responsible for publishing the annual Hiker Yearbook. The yearbook contains photos, trail names, real names, and contact info of AT hikers. This is such a valuable service because hikers pretty much only know each other by trail names and maybe what state they¢re from with no means of contacting them later on. Hikers send Odie a photo of themselves along with the other info via a Facebook page, and he assembles and publishes the yearbook. I¢m staying at the Relax Inn tonight. I know. I slept at a hotel last night. My choice was a meager 7 miles to the first shelter or a whopping 26 miles to the second. Many hikers stay here as a result. And trust me, only hikers would choose to stay at this $50 dive. Poor ol¢ Loner Bohner. I just ran into him on my way back from dinner at the nearby Mexican restaurant, which by the way has the exact same menu as last night¢s restaurant in Marion. Anyway Loner is bummed out because he had heard he could resupply at the Sonoco station next door. Turns out they have only junk food. Now he has to wait till morning, take a taxi back to Marion and do his shopping there. That will get him off to a late start for sure. He became doubly disappointed when I informed him that The Barn, a restaurant here that serves a 16 oz. ¢hiker burger ¢, closed today at 2:00. He doesn¢t like Mex food, and that¢s all there is today. This part of the country takes their Sundays seriously. My hike today? One of the best yet. Besides the fun encounters at the schoolhouse, the weather was perfect, blue skies, some magnificent views, and that pretty morning light showing off the fresh fallen snow from the night before. It was in the lower twenties until around 11:00 so I had to stop and swap out my gloves for my down mitts. I discovered that when my hands get really cold I can let my arms swing naturally at my sides while dragging my poles behind me. That way blood gets a chance to make it down to my hands. Oh, and today I walked past my 300 mile milestone. It¢s starting to sound like a long way to walk.Do thru hikers carry TP? Apparently inquiring minds want to know. (Hi Nate). The answer is yes, the vast majority do. Though I understand there are some Leave No Trace purists out here who insist on leaving only natural products behind, buried in 6 inch deep cat holes. I heard an interview with a guy who, to save weight, doesn¢t carry TP but instead rips the back page out of shelter journals and uses it. Seems to me not much better than using wax paper. A means of fecal distribution rather than removal. Ew.