Date: 2010-05-16
From: Daleville, Va

To: Waynesboro, Va
Miles today: 150.0
Weather: broken clouds

The next morning, Tornado, Tintin, and I left Daleville late in the afternoon. We ran into Apollo on the trail returning to town after slackpacking that morning. The three of us only hiked to the first shelter and stopped for the day. We had packed out some patties and quickly got a fire going and cooked up some burgers. Getting ready for bed it started raining and continued all through the night. The next day was awful and still raining. We had a 20 some mile day planned but I wasn't feeling like hiking, so I stopped at the shelter 14 miles in. Hitchcock and Bulldog (the blind hiker) showed up to the shelter that night. Bulldog happened to be sleeping right under the mouse line to hang your food. So once I finished eating I got up to hang my food. As I was hanging it, the line slipped and my ten pound food bag fell, plummeting towards the blind man's face. Luckily it landed an inch from his head, avoiding being known as the hiker who killed the blind guy. I planned on catching back up with Tintin and Tornado sometime in the next couple days. I got rained on for the next couple days and covered about 40 miles running into castor and chewy, whom I hadn't seen in a while. The 20th, got a ride into Big Island to resupply at a local gas station. Got a ride back from a local lady named Dolly who hustled me out of my money for the ride. Later that day as I hiked I almost stepped on a bird that was sitting on the trail. It saw me but didn't budge. I even was able to pick it up and place it on my finger. It stood there for about five seconds then flew away. I read in a shelter register that Tintin would be at the shelter after the one I planned on staying at so I decided to press on and catch up with him. It started getting dark so I had to night hike with my headlamp. About two miles from the shelter I came up on a section hiker who told me he had spotted bears at the shelter I was heading to. On top of that he said he crossed paths with Tintin and told him not to stay at the shelter. So, not sure what to do, I thanked him and pressed on hoping to find Tintin in the dark. I won't lie, I was a little scared I was going to be eaten. The whole while I was shouting to try and scare off any bears in the area. After about thirty minutes I noticed a bright light. I walked up to it and what do you know Tintin had made a fire and was sitting alone at the shelter. I was so happy to see him I could have hugged him. The next day we hiked into the Dutch House and stayed the night there. The food was great there and we caught up to Itrod there. From there it was 30 miles into Waynesboro which took us two days. Once arriving in Waynesboro, we did the usual of showering, doing laundry, and of course binge eating at AYCE chinese. The next day we decided to take a day off in town and relax. Longshanx, Mr. Vix, Cubby, Dillydally, Tintin, and I took a shuttle to the outside of town to catch a movie. Turned out the shuttle didn't take us there and we tried hitching a ride. Eventually, the lady that worked at the gas station came out and told us we couldn't hitch on there property so we stopped and called a cab. Apparently, the lady at the gas station didn't like us there and as we were waiting for the cab, three cop cars pulled up. They actually were real friendly and saw us off when the cab came. We went and saw Robin Hood and after went for drinks.