Date: 2019-05-26
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Eight hundred miles ago, back in the Smokies, we met a gregarious young couple named Jacob and Liv, aka Scrub-a-Dub and Go-Gurt. It was just our tramily and them at Russell Field shelter the first night out of Fontana, the only ones willing to hike three extra miles past Mollie's Ridge where twenty-odd hikers had crowded in. We had a great evening around the fireplace and became fast friends. They moved a little slower than our group but we saw them several times up through Hot Springs. There they zeroed a couple days and we left them behind. I left town without even saying goodbye, thinking they were already ahead of me. When I later tried to catch them by car in the Grayson Highlands I found the road was impassable. This trip I was determined to find them. When Scrub-a-Dub texted they were headed for Devil's Backbone Brewery today it was too good an opportunity. I would not only catch them myself, but I would surprise them by bringing UNICEF. He in particular had clicked with the two of them, and I sensed he wished he had slowed down to stay in their orbit. I was pretty confident UNICEF would grab a chance to see them no matter what, and fortunately the timing was perfect.Since they didn't expect to get to Devil's Backbone until late afternoon I also planned to find Belch and Gina, the couple I hiked with into Damascus. They'd been off trail awhile and were just now leaving Pearisburg. UNICEF was game for the three hour road trip, but unfortunately that stretch of trail north of Pearisburg has no road crossings. Mission aborted! I will have to catch them up in Pennsylvania. They are another couple I am very fond of and wish nothing but the best. It's been a tough hike for them, for reasons I may eventually be able to relate, and I wanted to give them a morale boost. A phone call had to suffice.What to do with our time then? Well, breakfast obviously! Waffle House is UNICEF's choice. We leave satisfied. Our plan is to intercept Clammy, Food Truck, and Fast Lane with a little trail magic. So we hit the supermarket for beer, soda, oranges, and a styrofoam cooler. We'll spend much of the day babysitting this cooler in the car as it bounces around.Our targets rise early and hike fast, so our only hope of intercepting them is at Sky Meadows State Park. The official entrance is almost two miles from the AT by a side trail, so we aim for a backroad that provides quick access to the AT. It's very close to where I parked last night. But unfortunately it's an intimidating dirt track meant for 4x4's, not low-riding Audi sedans. Back to the drawing board. Clammy texted this morning that Fast Lane had actually stayed in Front Royal last night. So we might at least catch him farther south. We do some figuring. If I were Fast Lane, what would I do? Wait to take the trolley out of town, probably. Our conclusion is we can comfortably catch him at route 55 by the I-66 underpass, about eight miles from his starting point. So we meander over there by a scenic backroad, imagining we will be doling out trail magic for awhile before he arrives.About thirty seconds after we park, as I am manhandling the cooler from the car, UNICEF calls out "There he is!" Holy crikey! Another minute and we would have missed him and been none the wiser. We could have sat here for hours before figuring it out. What a serendipity! In fact Fast Lane hitched out of town early. He's not moving too quickly though. It's doubtful he'll catch Food Truck and Clammy. In fact he's meeting a friend in Maryland later this week so he too will fall behind the tramily, perhaps for good. Meanwhile he has time to kill. We offer to take him with us to Devil's Backbone. He's thinks it over for a few seconds, possibly for dramatic effect, before giving the only logical response. Now we are three! This is gonna be a big surprise for Scrub-a-Dub and Go-Gurt, and it just came together by pure luck.Meanwhile other thruhikers are coming through. Mooney, the girl I met with PonyKeg back near Rockfish Gap. An older couple Eagle Eye and Milky Way (she hates Snickers) with their dog Baxter. And new faces Pomme, Bolt, Brooklyn, and Siesta. The latter group Fast Lane has been hiking with through Shenandoah. The oranges go, along with half the drinks. Some of them refuse to take a drink for the road. Fair, I guess. It's not hot or humid enough yet. They'll change their tune in a few weeks! I remember days I would have given my left arm for a cold drink. Anyway, off we go on our road trip. We spend a couple hours driving down I-81 through Shenandoah Valley (my fifth time this week covering this stretch) catching up and reliving good times. Fast Lane also seems to be enjoying hiking his own hike, though he remains a man of few words. At Devil's Backbone we unload everything so I can drive up to Reeds Gap to pick up Scrub-a-Dub, Go-Gurt and their friends. I find them hanging out near the parking area with two friends from Penn State who joined them for a dayhike - trail names PSU (also his real initials) and GoPro. They've just hiked ten miles out of the Tye River valley over Three Ridges, one of the biggest climbs on the AT south of New Hampshire. And they are ready for some food and drinks. We manage to squeeze in everyone, their packs, and their dog for the ten minute ride back to Devil's Backbone. Scrub-a-Dub asks who I brought along. Oh, just a couple guys I met down in Georgia. We park, and as we walk towards a tree where UNICEF and Fast Lane are enjoying a pre-game beer in the shade I see recognition hit Scrub-a-Dub. He bounds the last seventy yards over to them with a happy holler as Go-Gurt gives me a mischevious look and ribs me over my "sly" scheming. It was all worth it for this moment. It's a reunion that needed to happen. The afternoon and evening fly by thanks to good company and ample refreshments. PSU and GoPro are fun guys, and soon we're joined by other thruhikers. Space Jam, Orange, Honeybee, Lazarus, Not Dead Yet, LASH, and Captain S'mores. Honeybee looks familiar but I don't know why. Lazarus got his name from surviving a (non-life-threatening) trail illness. LASH and Not Dead Yet are section hiking. S'mores thrued last year and is planning for the PCT next year. He just came out to dayhike Three Ridges to "feel the burn".A bachelorette party sets up at the next table. Relatively tame, but the women are from all over the northeast. The bride wears a sash spelling "Bride" but missing the "D" due to some inside joke. Scrub-a-Dub, several beers in, chats them up while Go-Gurt leans over to me and confesses her amusement at his drunken flirting. She too is a few beers in, and half his weight. Eventually PSU and GoPro have to head back to life in the big city, the bachelorettes decamp, and all of us hiker trash walk (in some cases stumble) through the brewery's brand new campground to the open field where they let hikers tent for free. I carry the cooler over, someone builds a campfire, and more tales are unwound around it as darkness falls. Just as I am about to head off to bed I hear through the darkness a conversation from nearby tents. One of the voices calls over to "Tribute". Tribute! The guy I celebrated my completion of the trail with at a hostel in Damascus weeks ago. I call him and he comes out with a surprised grin. He's here with his tramily - that's why Honeybee sounded familiar! I have to tell him how I bumped into his old tramily member Snowbird just hours (and 130 trail miles) after leaving him in Damascus. He's quite amused. Once again the coincidences of the trail astound me. I have one of my most comfortable nights on trail tenting under the pines behind the brewery that night. Tomorrow I'll ferry them all back to the points I took them off trail and they will continue making their way north. They've all proven by now that they have the will and the resourcefulness to reach Maine. I hope luck and good health stay on their side, and perhaps I'll see them again before they finish.