Date: 2014-05-28
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Atkins,VA
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Surprisingly we all woke up in high spirits after staying up late last night, it must be that fresh mountain air. The plan today was to hike to a campsite about 15 miles away and stay the night, today is Danish's last day before heading up to Northern Virginia so we were going to get some beer and give him a proper send off. He only hiked with us for a few days but he made his mark and it's going to be sad to see him leave.    We started late which us around 9:15 for us as Atlas wanted to go to the visitors center when it opened and buy a patch for her bag,they had an extensive collection of Smokey the Bear patches so she had to take advantage. We all finally got on our way to hiking and here was one steep uphill for the day which no one was looking forward to but it was early on which was better than having to hike it late in the day when all you want to do is lay down and eat some Ramen.   It was pretty hot out and bit much sign of a breeze so we kept our pace to a steady 2 miles an hour with lots of breaks, we had plenty of time so we enjoyed ourselves. There were a lot of things along the way to get distracted by like the Settlers museum, an old schoolhouse and just some good old views. While we were hiking we saw an arrow that sad 1890's farm on it so we headed on down the side trail and before we knew it, we were in the middle of a an old farm with no one around so we took a self guided tour around the farm, it wasn't in the best of shape but it was still interesting to walk around and see all the different buildings. Next up we went to the Lindamood School which was a one room schoolhouse built in the late 1800's and closed in the 1930's. Delaware, Gadget and I walk I a be what do you know-trail magic! Another awesome church set up coolers of soda and a box of snacks,fruit and others supplies such as shampoos,soap and other miscellaneous items. There was a chalkboard in the school where thru hikers wrote their names in different colored chalk, it was good to see peoples names up there that I haven't heard from in a while. Lastly we went to the a Settlers Museum which was a two room house ran by a lovely older couple who volunteer their time to run the place. She was nice enough to give us a tour,it was as very educational day of hiking we had.    The final part of out day was to go into Atkins,VA which the AT goes through and have some dinner at The Barn Restaurant and then hike out 3 miles to the campsite. Atlas and Danish got there before us and were already eating when he told us that he got a ride north and was leaving that night which sucked but with the bad comes the good and that happens a lot on the trail. Whole we were eating, Honeybun,a fellow thru hiker, introduced us to a lady named Murray who lives in the area and takes in thru hikers so they can shower, do laundry and cook us dinner. Her husband who passed away four years back they hiked the AT in the 90's and she hiked parts of it herself is she likes helping out thru hikers. We were flabbergasted and couldn't say no to such an offer so we ate quickly and headed out to the parking lot which had one car in it-a blue Jaguar, we were riding in style.   Murray lives about 20 minutes out of town in a beautiful 5 bedroom house with a porch swing and 3 dogs, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. We showered and stared some laundry while she made us scrambled eggs for a second dinner, she even had ketchup with hot sauce mixed into it,she knows the key to my heart,I love anything with hot sauce.    After dinner we relaxed and I put on Chicago-LA hockey game on, that's the one thing I really miss out here, going to have to try to find away to watch the World Cup when it starts next month. Of course the game goes into double overtime and that's when I called it quits,it was about midnight and I was exhausted. Time for bed,is this all really happening?