Date: 2014-05-11
From: Seeley Gap Shelter

To: Waynesboro
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Confessions to the PriestUgh. I was dreading this section of the trail almost from the beginning. And it ended up being its own self fulfilling prophesy, because it was as unpleasant as anticipated. Dino and I were up by 5:30 again and out by 6. We stopped by the Priest Mountain Shelter to get water for our hike down the mountain and to check the shelter log to see who was ahead of us. The register was full of confessions... Because we were on the Priest. Ha. There were some good ones... And a few I wish I didn't know. I admitted to nothing. The police haven't offered a tempting enough plea bargain yet. Dino, an adamant protester for animal rights and confirmed vegan, admitted to hating mosquitos and wishing them all dead. She drew a little cartoon of herself as a dinosaur with a fly swatter. She usually doodles dinosaur cartoons in the journals. They're usually pretty funny. And the illustrations allow readers to decipher her hand writing- which is quite bad. After our break we headed down the mountain with creaking knees. As soon as we hit the Tye River at the bottom the incline picked up in the opposite direction and the protestations of our knees was replaced by protestations by our lungs. Very short of breath. We opted to blue blaze around Three Ridges and take the Maur Har Trail around the backside of the mountain instead. That trail cuts off three miles and we thought it would be quicker and less unpleasant. Three Ridges is notoriously long and steep. It was hot, humid and buggy and all we wanted was to get out of the unpleasantness as quickly as possible. Bad bad bad choice! It may be shorter but the Maur Har is dreadful! There are some sections that you walk up that are so steep you can stretch out your hand a few inches and touch the ground ahead of you. It has tons of straight up rock scrambles. Some of the path is hardly path... And I'm pretty sure they lied about the length, because it FELT like way longer than 4 miles. Maybe I'm just being a baby about it, but... I will never blue blaze again. It was terrible. Even the rushing waterfall that we got to hike beside didn't make up for it. We finally got back onto the AT and sat down at Maupin Fields shelter feeling completely spent. But we still needed to do a few more miles if we wanted to make it into Waynesboro the next day by midday. There was one section hiker sitting at the shelter already when we pulled up, but another fellow walked up soon after we pulled out our dinner supplies to start cooking. I was in the process of making myself a double helping of Ramen noodles when he pulled out a Panera Bread bag and proceeded to unwrap the best looking turkey sandwich I have ever laid eyes on. The pickle looked crunchy as it lay beneath the wrappings and all of the fresh veggies piled high below the lush wheat bread looked crisp and cool and inviting. He took a bite and I nearly whimpered. I watched him like a dog waiting for food to drop. I'm pretty sure I wasn't too subtle about it because after he ate the first half he declared himself full and pushed the other half towards me. I looked at him incredulously and asked if he was sure, all the while clutching at the edges of the wrapper he's just handed me, fearful that this was a cruel joke- that he might reach over, snatch the sandwich out I my hands and declare, "Haha! Just kidding!"He shrugged and grinned and gestured towards my still boiling Ramen. "Naw, looks like you could use it. That noodle stuff is crap."I didn't need asking twice. I pulled off some of the fresh veggies to share with Dino and gave her the pickle and then began to scarf. That bad boy didn't last me a full minute. I think I had the whole thing down in six bites and it was amazingly, wonderfully, stupendously good. Dino liked her rabbit food very well too. After our meal we felt refreshed enough to tackle a few more miles. We walked until dusk and found a minuscule flat place to pitch a single tent right before true dark. Dino's MSR is just large enough to fit us both, so that's what we did. We climbed in, read another chapter from Harper Lee and switched out the light. Dino snores. MSR's have no air circulation and I felt like I was suffocating most of the night between hiker stink and Dino breath... We like each other fine, but a two person tent is only really ok for two newlyweds. Everyone else is smart enough to give one another some space. Up again early and out of camp by 6. It was already hot and we were dripping sweat by 7. But we moved fast, making it the 11 miles over Humpback Mountain and to Paul C Wolf Shelter by 10:45- right about the time it decided to rain. We ate what was left of our food, which wasn't much, we had planned well, and walked the remaining 5 miles to Rockfish Gap where some of my college buddies were supposed to meet us.It was cake. And I hit the road in high spirits. As we waited for my friends to arrive Dino and I shared a plate of fresh fries and chugged a couple of sodas, acquired from a food truck conveniently located just off the trail. I ate a chili cheese dog too and Dino had some caramel popcorn. My friends called to say that they were still 30 minutes out, so we decided to try our hand at hitching into town because it was starting to rain again. After 10 minutes a mother/daughter duo pulled over and told us to hop in. Once they figured out what we were doing they offered to take us anywhere in town and to house us if we wanted. I was a little hesitant at first because I knew I needed town access for resupply, etc, so we asked that they take us to the Lutheran Hostel listed in my AWOL guidebook. They took us there, but all the doors were locked and the place looked deserted. About that time my buddies from college, Carolyn, Richard and Doug (three so the most terrific friends I could ever ask for), showed up. Dino and I gave up on the hostel and thankfully accepted the offer of our trail angels, Helen and Caitlin. We asked Helen if she wouldn't mind if we went out to eat and then get dropped at her place by my friends. She said "Yeah, bring them too!" We ate at the local all you can eat Chinese food place and then the five of us went to her house in Crozet where Dino and I took showers, washed clothes and then the group of us played card and board games with Caitlin, Helen's 20 year old daughter. Carolyn, Rich and Doug headed back to Richmond by 8, and Helen and Caitlin graciously showed us to our bedrooms. BedroomS! We each for one!I hadn't been in a room by myself since Gatlinburg.I slept like a rock.