Date: 2007-05-23
From: Troutdale, VA

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: broken clouds

May 23, Rewards and SurprisesSo, I need to know - who sent the Red Lobster gift card to Troutdale? Amazing. Brought back all of my crab leg cravings. Thank you wherever you and whomever are. I hope I can get to one soon. So, my post office stop this morning was beyond my dreams. I picked up my lighter down jacket and sent home my big, heavy one. I also managed to talk myself out of the pound and a half of hand and toe warmers that have become a constant in my pack. I sent most home. I still have one pack of hand warmers and one pack of toe warmers. Maybe I'll send those home in July. Maybe not.So, I reorganized my pack and then Melk and I headed back to Jerry's for our ride back to the trail.I think we got on the trail around 9:30 a.m. and started cruising. We made it to Trimpi Shelter pretty quickly and stopped for lunch. I had peanut butter and honey on a tortilla, got some water and then got moving again, nice shelter though. Once we started walking, the thunder started roaring. We decided it would be a miracle if we didn't get rained on. But we heard the rain start and felt small sprinkles and didn't get super wet. I still consider it a miracle because we did make it to our final destination without getting really wet.We were hiking fast, trying to avoid the storm and trying to claim space in the shelter which we knew everyone within a 20 mile radius would be heading to. After all, we were headed to Partnership Shelter - the shelter where we could order pizza and beer, take a hot shower, and have running water. We were making about three miles an hour and were surprised to arrive at a gravel road that marked four miles to the shelter.We got to the shelter around 4 p.m. with just a few people here so far. I set up camp on the top level - wanted to stay out of the rain if possible. Then I took a hot shower. Then I gave JB my order for pizza and beer and he, Sprocket, and Park Bench picked up the pizza. It took about two hours for the pizza to arrive so we all talked about food while we waited. It was the moment I've been waiting for for over a year - pizza, beer and a warm shower 520 miles into hiking the AT. The shelter filled up as the night went on and I'm pretty sure there are more than 20 people here tonight. I don't know all names but I do know that Sanford, Park Bench, JB, Cuyahoga, Cobweb, Mayo, Melk, Sprocket, Waterfall, Thumper, Young Eagle, Bigby, Ronin and others are here.The pizza arrived after 7 p.m. and we all feasted. Good times, good company. It feels like a bonfire party out here, lots of card games too. A few of us attempted to play euchre but it caused a fight so that ended quickly. Not a pretty sight.There is a cat here, Scraps. He lives here and helps defend hikers against the perils of the Mice.Bigby has coined a new motto, "hiking is hard". He said he doesn't plan to show photos of this evening to his friends. Instead, he will convince them this is a six month lon bearfight. If you saw the scene tonight, you'd know it's far from that. It's been a good night.It's well past hiker's midnight and I'm one of the first people turning in - think it's gonna be a late morning tomorrow.- Sound of about four different conversations going on outside of the shelter, crickets.Post Trail Thoughts:Young Eagle had been leaving entries in the registers at many of the shelters with some great puns in them. Sometimes I got them, other times not. This day, he left an entry in the Trimpi Shelter referring to how the shelter was so nice that Donald Trimpi must have built it. Oh Youngle. But we weren't really pals yet. This was a day that we kept bumping into Bigby and Ronin. Bigby cracked me up every time I saw him. And he made hiking look as easy as slicing butter.The euchre fight was intense. I should clarify by saying it was not a physical fight but Young Eagle and Sprocket were goinf back and forth. Young Eagle was getting pissed because Sprocket sort of accused him of something. Melk and I had to jump in and end the game. From that point on, we didn't play euchre.