Date: 2017-04-12
From: Stealth Site, VA

To: Partnership Shelter, VA
Miles today: 15.9

4/12/17 Partnership Shelter, VAMiles hiked: 532.4, Miles to go: 1657.4We went to bed with thunder and awoke during the night to rain on our tents. By morning, the rain had passed; but, the day was overcast and drippy. Oh well, we had beautiful weather in the highlands, so that's all that mattered. 1st Sgt said that someone had passed before daybreak wearing a headlamp. So, we figured it was probably Uncle Heather. We ate breakfast and headed out before 8:00 AM. Our 19+ mile day yesterday had made up for the short day the previous day; however, we had 15.9 miles to Partnership Shelter, so we wanted to get an early start. The shelter is located next to the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area visitor's center. You can have pizza delivered to the visitor's center. We wanted pizza for dinner. Yeah, I know we had just had pizza for dinner in Sunday. But that didn't matter. Partnership Shelter is known for pizza delivery. We had to have pizza. After hiking about five miles, we arrived at Trimpi Shelter and decided to take a break. We've found that short breaks where we take our packs off for 10 or 15 minutes make a huge difference. As we approached the shelter, we could hear Brie, Sitting Bull, and Uncle Heather talking. Hummingbird, who had night hiked the previous evening to reach Trimpi Shelter, had already headed out. We sat and visited way too long. We still had over 10 miles to hike and, at 2 mph we were looking at another five hours of hiking. We were trying to reach the visitor's center before they closed at 4:30 pm because we weren't sure if we'd have cell phone service to order the pizza. The visitor's center has an outside phone for local calls; however, some SOBO section hikers had told us the phone wasn't working. Not to mention, AWOL's guidebook said pizza could be delivered; but, it didn't list a phone number. 1st Sgt and I decided not to stop for lunch and try to push extra hard to make it in time. Of course, we faced a long climb up to the ridgeline and long climbs are not our specialty. Not to mention, the sun finally broke out and the day heated us right up. We hoofed it up the hill and did pretty well for two old guys and were pretty proud of ourselves. We were hot and tired; but, we had shown that mountain who was the boss! When we reached the ridge top and found we had phone signal, I called the visitor's center and got the phone number for the pizza place. As I was on the phone, Uncle Heather, who we had passed at the bottom of the climb eating his lunch, sauntered up the hill like it was no big deal. He wasn't out of breath. He wasn't sweaty. I hate Twenty Somethings! He suggested we go ahead and call the pizza place and set up a 6 pm delivery. Brilliant! I love Twenty Somethings with bright ideas!With the pizza taken care of, we were able to slow down and enjoy the ridgeline hike. We still made it to the shelter by 4:00 pm. Uncle Heather was hanging out at the shelter after sauntering off and leaving us in the dust miles back. He informed us that Hummingbird, Brie, and Sitting Bull had decided to catch a ride into town. 1st Sgt and I decided to go to the visitor's center and find a soda machine. There was a scale beside the soda machine, so I weighed myself and found that I have lost 25 lbs!There was a German couple named Laura and Lucas at the shelter who wanted to order pizza; however, it required a $30 minimum order. It turns out that the outside phone at the visitor's center had been fixed, so we called and added a pizza for them to our order. They were so excited. They tried to pay for their pizza; but, I told them that it was all part of the AT international relations program and would not accept payment. They were even more excited. Additional people showed up at the shelter throughout the evening. We now have 11 people here - American, German, and Danish and are having a good time eating pizza and conversing. Tomorrow, 1st Sgt and I need to hike 11.4 miles, mostly downhill, by 4 pm to pick up our rental car - easy peasy mac and cheesey!