Date: 2017-05-13
From: Marion

To: Davis Hollow
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: light rain

We took breakfast in bed this morning, finishing off the snacks and fruit we had bought yesterday that was too heavy or bulky to pack out. Classy turned on HGTV and Fixer Upper was on all morning as we slowly showered and packed up. We had to call for a taxi back to the trail since the public transit we had taken down only runs on weekdays (and Marion isn't large enough to have Uber) and met it at McDonald's after grabbing coffee (for Classy) and second breakfast (for me).The cab pulled up and the driver helped us load our gear into the trunk (which had to be held open to prevent it from slamming shut). On the way up he pointed out the holes in the floor from the cage which had been installed when this car was a cop car, and laughed about how water would spurt up through them when he drove through deep puddles. After we passed his boss's house he sped up and we rocketed up the mountain... maybe next time we'll hitch...When we got back to the Mt Rogers visitors center we found Tarzan and Pig, having just arrived and heading into town. We headed out, back on the trail, and the sky transformed from the gray blanket of clouds into a bright sunny day throughout our first hour of hiking. We got a view along the ridge (not very common... mostly they're covered in trees) and observed trucks running along I-81 in the valley below and the landscape organizing itself into ridges, which is characteristic of hiking in VA.On our way down into the valley the trail hoped back and forth across a stream a bunch of times. Several of the crossings had no dry way across with the water as high as it was, so those new drainage holes I had made in my shoes were helpful. At the bottom we came upon an old one-room school house with TRAIL MAGIC! The local Methodist Church stocked the school house with all sorts of toiletries, snacks, fruits, and drinks. I picked up some toothpaste, a new toothbrush, a pen, and some snacks. We sat on the porch for a bit and enjoyed the treats and the beautiful day with a bunch of other hikers.As we left the school we passed a SOBO who informed us that we were the 100th NOBOs he had seen today. He was moving south, which means he'll run into more hikers than would pass a stationary point (like the entrance to the Smokies), but still shows that there are a lot of people out here.We traversed a grassy field littered with wildflowers, mostly yellow buttercups and small white flowers, before heading back into the woods. The hike down into Atkins was very pleasant, gentle downhill, over the train tracks, past the llama farm, the buzz of the highway getting louder with each step. I practiced a bit of my new favorite sport, mud skiing (Lookout later noted that I'm much better than I used to be) before the terrain flattened out and we trudged through a muddy, boggy area before reaching the road. Classy picked up her bounce bounce box and resupplied before we continued on about another 100ft before hitting TRAIL MAGIC.Tim, Lucky's father, had was doing some magic for his son and fellow hikers as they passed through the area. He had beer, boxes upon boxes of Jimmy John's sandwiches, snacks, and fruit, probably in quantity enough to feed all 100 hikers that had passed through here today. As we enjoyed our treats from the parking lot of the gas station across the street from the trail, we saw another hiker, Catnis, and waved her over. She was listening to music and apparently in the zone because she didn't notice the waving, the whistling, the yelling until someone ran over and tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at the magic.The three of us had planned to stop at a restaurant called The Barn to get a burger (we had just resupplied and didn't need the food, but burger...) but thanks to the magic we didn't even have room for a burger anymore. We crossed under I-81 and crossed a couple more fields and wooded patches before ducking back into the woods and reaching our campsite... well, the campsite we made the snap decision to stay at tonight. We were originally planning to go another 2mi but decided that this campsite with water and no privy was better than the campsite with privy and no water and that we'd just make up the 2mi tomorrow.The campsite was crowded, everyone at the trail magic hung out there for long enough that this was basically their only camping option and we ended up with ~30 tents in the area. There were tents pitched on both sides of the AT and each decided to make a campfire. BaberahamLincoln caught Scout stealing some of our hard earned firewood and declared war on other campfire, breaking his trekking pole in his enthusiastic address to rally the northern camp.I end up going out to the field that started about a 100ft from our campsite and watched the stars come out until about 11pm, catching a few more satellites and shooting stars while I was out there. When I headed to bed the fires were still going strong, manned by a few night owls, and our camp's fire projected a dull red light into my tent as I drifted off.