Date: 2014-05-21
From: Rock Springs Hut

To: Cardinal Inn, Luray, VA
Miles today: 14.1

Day 7: We made it off. the mountain and to Luray, VA...Whew!!. Spider's perserverance paid off. He got the phone number of the camping/hiking "outfitter" in Luray and called to ask if they had a list of trail angels for Luray, and they did, 8 of them. A call to the first one gave us a ride off the mountain. No hitchhiking, much to our joy!!The day started out overcast and 55 degrees. Throughout the day the temps rose to the high 70's with fairly high humidity, so sweating became the activity of the day.We made it out of camp at 7:05am. We got an early start for 2 reasons: 1) We needed to get to Thornton Gap as soon as possible, since hitching a ride takes a while (this was before Spider made his Trail Angel connection) and 2) To continue our theme of eating our way through the SNP, we had to make it to Skyland Resort dining room before 10am if we wanted to eat breakfast there, and it was 4.6 miles away.We said good-bye to Bearded Dragon and What Time is It. They are continuing on for another 3 days so they can complete their hike of the entire SNP. That's the way it works on the trail; you meet people you would never have met otherwise and share a lot with them in just a few days. Then you part, maybe never to see them again.It's amazing what the draw of food will do, we made it to the Skyland Dining Room by 9:15am. The eggs, Virginia ham, juice and milk sure tasted good. and ET got her daily dose of caffeine.Back on the trail, we climbed to the highest point that we will be at on this 500+ mile hike, 3837 feet. The attached picture was near that point. Great views and a small pool of rainwater captured on the ledge. ET was considering a quick dip but decided she could wait another 1/2 day for the motel shower.A unique thing we have noticed about the trail in this central section of the SNP is that it has been highly "engineered". When the CCC built Skyline Drive in the 1930's, they had to move much of the AT. That's because the AT was on the ridges and that's where they wanted to put Skyline Drive. So they moved the AT to the hillsides below the ridge. But since much of it is rocky the CCC ended up building rock walls to support the trail as it contoured the hills. Some of these walls are over 8 feet high as the trail crosses small ravines. It reminded us of the engineering we saw on the Inca Trail several years ago.When we finally figured out who the Trail Angels were in Luray and contacted "Dr Dick" (trailname) we were on our last break, 1.5 miles away from Thornton Gap, our exit point from SNP. Dr Dick said he would meet us at the parking lot at the gap and he was there when we arrived at 4:10pm. It was.a quick 8 mile drive to Luray.It turned out that Dr Dick is the coordinator for AT support in Luray so was particularly interested in Spider's trials and tribulations in finding a ride from Thornton Gap.On the way down the mountain, Dr Dick told us about the town of Luray, good places to eat, where the Post Office was, etc. He was surprised by the fact that we were staying at the Cardinal Inn because it was 0.5-1 mile from downtown (where the Post Office etc. were). But we told him we had already committed (i.e. had given them our charge card number) and walking a mile with no pack was nothing for us now. We finally arrived at our hotel at 4:25pm.The motel gave us a huge room with a king-size bed, couch, kitchen area with table and a closet. The way we spread out in a room to sort out stuff to be laundered, bathroom kits, backpacks, etc. a big room is good!! But best of all was getting a shower!! We both scrubbed twice to try to get down to clean skin.At 6:30pm we walked to downtown for dinner...it took us about 20 minutes to get there. We headed to a place that Dr Dick recommended. Our meal at the Artisan Grill was just what we needed: nicely prepared Ribeye steak, pan-fried trout, salads, decadent desserts and, of course wine and beer. This guilt-free eating is fun!!Back to the motel to relax and fall asleep at "Hiker's Midnight" (9pm)...in a real bed..Ahhh