Date: 2019-05-25
From: Trimpi Shelter

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 9.8
Weather: clear sky

Today was going to be a short day and I knew it ahead of time. We were 10 miles from Partnership Shelter, which is a big shelter near a road and you can have pizza delivered there!! But the road is also where you can get a hitch or a shuttle into Marion, VA. I had sent my boxes to Atkins, VA because I had enough food to get there, but I wanted some snacks to have at Partnership for the night, and had heard good things about Marion. People at the shelter also mentioned a hiker feed that was a mile away from the shelter, so with the stop for that, a short day sounded good. Tsalagi waited for me to pack up because he wanted to hike out with me and show me some natural fire starters, since I had been asking him about it last night. Cali was also getting going. Unfortunately, she broke her own collapsible water bottle by squeezing too hard on it, so I let her use mine, but she broke mine too. I was cool about it in the moment, but it really bothered me. Especially since she had just made that mistake with her own bottle. If I were her I¢d be extra careful with someone else¢s. I was also just annoyed because it¢s a Platypus and it¢s really only sold in Outdoor stores or online, so I wasn¢t going to be able to replace it right away. She did offer to pay me, but we got separated for the day so I wasn¢t sure if she would. Tsalagi and I headed out and he let me lead for a bit, stopping to show me a pine tree and the fire starter you can use inside it. If a pine tree is missing branches, there is a bit of goo in the holes where the branches were, and that goo is great for fires. You can pull it out and put it in a plastic bag for camp. And it won¢t hurt the tree, which is great! I was very intrigued. Tsalagi and I kept hiking and got to the road with the hiker feed. It was a bit of a walk, but there was a man with a car there to take us to it. The hiker feed was in a church and it was extensive. Full BBQ, a million desserts, sodas, fresh fruit, medical supplies, toiletries, snacks, resupply, and more. These churches really go all out and it¢s incredible. And they shuttled everyone to and from the trailhead. I saw 25-mile and Ain¢t Dead Yet and Wild Violet, which was so nice!! I also met Yoshi and Eeyore. 25-Mile, Wild Violet, and Ain¢t Dead Yet were going to get a ride to Partnership Shelter because they had hiked to it yesterday and then found out about the hiker feed, got a ride, and camped at the church. My slackpacker mastermind started thinking and I realized this was a great opportunity. If they could take our packs to this big shelter and store them somewhere, we could slackpack to the shelter for free. So I asked them if they could drop our packs off and they said yes and we had a plan!! I was so pumped. I knew it was a short day, but this would get me there even earlier and then I could go into Marion and get a temporary water bottle and check the town out. They took our packs, we ate some more, and then Tsalagi and I headed back on trail. I met a nice girl before we left who had the same pack as me!! But she was getting off trail for a week so I don¢t know when I¢ll see her again. Tsalagi and I got to the trail head around 12:30, which was the worst time of day to head out. And we were full of food and soda so I was in a food coma. We saw Tugs, Tank Top, and the dog Raisin at the hiker feed and they decided to slackpack with us!! I didn¢t bring my water filter, which was stupid because I drank the one liter of water I brought pretty quickly. We hiked pretty quickly, but I was getting wiped with the heat. We saw a black snake and Tsalagi jumped up when he saw it. They¢re not dangerous, but they¢re big. I haven¢t see snakes that big in my life, so it scared me, but I was glad to know they¢re harmless. We met a guy named Blazer. We told him we were slackpacking and he had been at the trail magic, so we said he could¢ve done it too, but he said he was a purist. I had never heard that a purist didn¢t slackpack, but I guess I¢m not a purist then!! We ran into Ain¢t Dead Yet, who had left before the whole slackpack deal occurred, so he had his pack. He was headed to Partnership too, so I wish we had organized it all sooner!! But oh well. The last little bit of the day was a slow incline, which I don¢t like, but we made it in good time. Partnership is a cool shelter. There was a whole closed off upper area, and they left our packs there. There was a visitors center nearby and we had asked them to see if they could put our packs there, but the visitors center said no. It was honestly kind of frustrating because I walked in there and they had a huge office that they could¢ve stored our packs in. I guess I¢m used to everyone on the trail being so accommodating, but we all have our limits.Our packs were safe in sound in the upper portion, so we took them down to hitch into Marion. We weren¢t planning on staying there, but figured our packs might get us a hitch easier. We saw Snowflake at the shelter and chatted with her for a bit. We walked across the road and held out our thumbs. Yoshi and Eeyore were there trying to get a ride too. A man pulled over into the visitors center and we all got in. He was an older man and spoke very softly. He didn¢t say much. He dropped us off at Walmart and Yoshi and Eeyore went to the Econo Lodge. I bought some chips and soda to snack on at Partnership, and some little debbies. I guess I have to have them at all times with my trail name haha. I also bought a cheap collapsible water bottle as a temporary replacement. I texted my mom and she bought me a new Platypus and is mailing it to the next spot. Tsalagi and I went to China House for dinner. It was a cheap buffet, but the food wasn¢t bad. It was nice to have town food! We were talking about hitching and Tsalagi was making a sign on cardboard that said ¢Hiker to Trail¢ and an old man nearby asked where we were going and said he¢d take us there. It was awesome!! Again he was quiet though. Both hitches were not very talkative! But he was so nice and dropped us back off at the visitors center. We set up our tents because it was a nice night and I¢ll avoid the snoring/body heat of a shelter on a nice night. I sat with Snowflake and Blazer at the fire for a while. I met a man named Mister Mom and was introducing myself, but realized I had an entire bag of little debbies on my lap. It was pretty funny and I guess I really do live up to my name. A man named Long Feather joined us. He¢s from Italy!! I teased him about America¢s version of pizza, referring to the Little Caesar¢s in Marion. Ugh I wanna go back to Italy. I could eat so much food there right now omg. He¢s super fast and hiked 30 miles today, but he was so friendly and enjoying the trail. I was hanging for a bit in my tent and we had an unexpected visit. Tsalagi had made a joke with his close friends on trail that he was going to burn their tents. As I said, he¢s a rough guy. But he really was just harsh joking. But unfortunately, he didn¢t realize that the guy who came on trail and murdered Stronghold also threatened to burn the tents before he attacked people. Someone overheard Tsalagi and reported it to the cops. I understand with the recent situation that things need to be taken seriously like that, but from my time with Tsalagi I knew he was a good guy, just rough around the edges. I think people are more sensitive in general these days and the older people who are rough around the edges are having to adjust what they say. Obviously a comment like Tsalagi¢s was following a horrible incident and all of us hikers were on edge, but he really didn¢t realize. I looked outside my tent to see the cops there with him. Thankfully nothing happened. I sprayed some more of the Deet on myself tonight because the bugs were oppressive again. My legs were out of my tent, but a little bit got in my tent. It came off eventually, but I was worried about damaging it. I went back to the fire and the cops were leaving. We asked them where the murder had occurred, as we were going to pass the site in a few days, and they showed us the campsite on AWOL. Cali showed up and gave me money for my water bottle, which I was very thankful for. She had also gotten me the cheap one I got myself, so now I had two of those 1L collapsible water bottles until I got my new one. I was thankful that she went to that effort to replace mine and am not upset about it anymore. I had a lot of fun tonight despite the cops situation and I was happy I got to go into Marion and stay with friends. Tomorrow is another short day to my hostel in Atkins, but I¢m looking forward to it! Tsalagi said good night in the best way tonight. He said ¢good night John Boy!¢ And I said ¢good night Mary Ellen!¢ For those of you who know of The Walton¢s, an older TV show, it was great. I appreciate being able to relate to people on things like that. I tend to like older music and older movies. Adults on trail don¢t expect me to get their references with music or time periods, but I usually do. I am thankful to my nerdy parents for raising me with classic rock and The Waltons; some of the music and movies that are out these days is just so bad. But I do like some of it, so it¢s a nice combo to have some of the past and some of the present. Hopefully I can still show this stuff to my kids someday. Good night all! Little Debbie