Date: 2016-04-08
From: S of Bluff Mt

To: Buena Vista, Va
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: light rain

I keep meaning to tell you, I got a couple of nice compliments from my husband Will. The other day he called me a beast. Now, back home in Arizona that probably wouldn't be a compliment, it would be more like 'them's fightin' words'. But out here on the trail, beast is a compliment. It means I'm hiking hard, strong and tough. I like it. Then, after I had my collision with the rock and left blood everywhere but still got back up and kept hiking, he called me the Ultimate Warrior. Apparently Matt, our son's, favorite WWW wrestler was a guy by the name of the Ultimate Warrior. So I guess that would make me the Ultimate Trail Warrior? Anyway, even though these may not be the kind of compliments that most women would like to get from their husbands, it suits me just fine.It has been super cold and windy out here, with rain and snow thrown in to boot. A tough combination. But we are hiking in the mountains in the winter so it's what we expect. Doesn't mean we are always comfortable. It does help us move along though! The faster you move the warmer you get. This morning we dropped over Bluff Mountain and headed for the Punch Bowl Shelter. We had to dry camp last night so we were out of water this AM. When we got there we decided to cook a meal since we couldn't do that last night either.   There were three other hikers there. Postal Poet, who was doing a flip flop north and had started in Bland. Bean, who was headed south, also flip flopping and had started in Front Royal. And Mule, who was section hiking south.We got to chat with each of them for a little bit. It turns out that Bean is part of what I am entitling the 'Legends of the Falls' group. Because she has, just as I have, taken a significant fall on the trail. Yep,the roots of evil got her too! She tripped over the hidden roots in the leaves and fell on both knees, but both her knees landed on rocks! Ouch. So her right knee was pretty torn up and swollen. But, trooper that she is she just kept hiking on.As we got closer to Buena Vista we passed through a pretty cool and historical area. It was yhe Brown Mountain Creek Community.   You could see old rock fences and some foundations and an old chimney or two. This was what was left of a community made up of the first freed slaves in the area. There were a few signs giving a bit of the history and of how these people subsisted after the war. The creek itself was beautiful and would have made a very pleasant setting to live in.Once we made it to the highway we stuck out our thumb to catch a ride to Buena Vista. Only about four cars passed us before a very nice couple from Indiana stopped to offer us a ride. They weren't even that familiar with the AT, they were just being nice. We enjoyed chatting with them on the nearly ten mile drive into town. They even drove us around town so we could see what our options were. That's when we spotted the JJ's Barbecue diner. We had heard some really great things about this place so our kind couple pulled in the parking lot and dropped us off there. Talk about going the extra mile! We sure did appreciate it.The sandwiches and 'fixins' were super good. I should tell you right here that the original plan was to eat, resupply and hitch back to the trail to hike a few miles. But while we were eating I came up with a modified plan. Eat, resupply and then get a room to get out of the cold. We could get up early and see if we could catch a shuttle to the trail. So we are spending the night in Buena Vista all toasty warm and in a king size bed. Sounds mighty good to me. I'll get my little Road Runner legs rested up and see what I can do tomorrow.   Catch you later! Road Runner