Date: 2018-06-05
From: Tinker Cliffs

To: Daleville, VA
Miles today: 10.5

Last night the wind really picked up over tinker cliffs. It got cold and my sleeping bag didn't really protect me. I didn't have the rain fly on my tent. The wind would blow through and I would be freezing. I put on my rain fly in the dark right next to a cliff. I made sure to keep a firm grip on the tree next to me so I didn't fall off the edge. Even with the rain fly on it was still cold. I may need to increase the warmth of my sleeping bag somehow for even the cold nights in summer. I woke up early and packed up my tent making sure not to fall off. Kazi and Two Crows were awake looking over the valley. I ate poptarts and a Snickers bar for breakfast. I didn't want to leave such a beautiful spot but we needed to do town business in Daleville.We hiked down from the cliffs. In a half mile it came to a junction. I was falling Kazi and she turned left. Two Crows was following me as well. After about 5 minutes I noticed that the blazes were an off yellow. From a distance they looked white. Kazi was in front and I tried to get her attention about the blazes but she was blasting music so loud that she couldn't hear me. We went .7 down a steep slope and Two Crows and I stopped on the stairs. We heard Kazi in the distance yell fuck! We had gone the wrong way and had to go back. It was a steep climb back up to the junction. I built a log barrcade on the wrong trail. Scissors had gone down the wrong path yesterday as well as several other hikers before us. We added a mile and a half to our trek today. In about a half mile we came to the shelter to get water. Pumpkin Spice, Poncho, Bandito, and Chill showed up. They had watched the sunrise from McAfee Knob and had caught up because of our yellow blaze. It would be the last hike Poncho and Bandito will be doing on the trail this year. They originally planned on only going to Harper's ferry but fell short by 300 miles. They were going to road trip to DC with Pumpkin Spice, Chuckles, and Chill to hang out there for a few days. We headed out from there like a caravan to Daleville.When we arrived we got drinks at the gas station. Scissors had a reservation at motel 8 and we walked over. Two Crows was already there since he hiked ahead of us. Scissors showed up and it was great to see her after a week. Across the street the rest of the crew was hanging out at Howard Johnson. Chuckles was also in town. He had gotten off the trail from shin splints. He had a rental and was able to give us a ride to the post office. I got a new pair of chacos from REI. They were a different style from my current pair and the soles were harder. Hopefully that will help out my ankle if not I'll be switching back to boots. We headed back to the hotel and got ready to head out to dinner at 3 little pigs. I was starving by the time we got there. Two Crows, Kazi, and I shared a pitcher of beer and hung out while waiting for everyone else. I ordered the 1/4 rib and 1/4 chicken combo. The BBQ wasn't as great as the food I'd had in Texas but when you're starving everything tastes great. We hung out for a bit. Chuckles mentioned he was going on a road trip before he had to go back to real life. After dinner I stopped by the outfitters to get new sock liners. Mine fell apart after only 200 miles on the trail. Chacos tend to destroy socks. I went to Kroger to grab some beer for tonight. While I was in the cheese section I felt something on my waist line. I looked down to find a tick face deep in my waist. I don't know where I picked it up but it hadn't been in me for 24 hours. I pulled the tick out with my finger nails right there in the dairy section then crushed it under my foot. Ticks were never meant to attach to humans. I then headed back to the hotel to hang out.Kazi, Scissors, Two Crows, and I caught up on some drama on the trail. Apparently Asshole got kicked out of his tramily. We don't know what he did though. We all headed over to Howard Johnson to hang out with Poncho, Bandito, and Chuckles for one last time. We told stories about how we all originally met and good times that really stuck out on the trail. It's going to be sad not having them on the trail. We tried to convince Bandito to stay on but she was going to run out of money. We all said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel. It was already 11 pm and we still needed to do laundry. I didn't get to bed until 1:30 am.Tonight I'm in a soft bed and clean for the first time in 7 days.