Date: 2012-05-31
From: campsite

To: Quality Inn (Waynesboro, VA)
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: scattered clouds

What a crazy day! I got packed up and left camp around 7, before Overdrive. Stopped a couple miles up the trail at a gorgeous overlook. I've seen a lot of beautiful views, but for some reason this one really struck me. Had some really sweet time with God just singing hymns and enjoying the beauty of His creation. "He's Always Been Faithful" by Sara Groves has become one of my favorite songs to sing on the trail - the lyrics so perfectly describe how I feel.Just as I walked back up the path to the AT, Overdrive got there. He set his pack down, as I had done, and walked off towards the overlook after I told him it was worth it. Feeling a little mischievous, I took the opportunity to swipe the water gun he had strapped to his pack (which I had bought at Trail Days for the parade). I decided to save it for an opportune moment. The day went by pretty uneventfully until around lunchtime, when I got genuinely lost and confused for the first time on the AT. I had to go to the bathroom, and I dropped my pack and walked through a campsite way back into the woods. I don't always go so far off the trail (I've gotten lazy), but I knew the Honeymoon Hikers were right behind me so I decided to play it safe. When I was done, I walked back through what I thought was the same campsite, in the direction of the trail. I couldn't find my pack! I had heard someone walk by at one point, and almost had myself convinced that it had been stolen. Finally I realized there were 2 campsites about 0.1 mi apart on the trail, and I had walked back through the 2nd one after leaving my pack at the first one.By now, I was so confused that I truly didn't know which direction was (trail) north. I honestly couldn't remember which direction I had come from, and I had to look at the guidebook to realize I should be going downhill. It was a very bewildering 15 minutes.I got to Paul C. Wolfe shelter around 2, and as I got to the creek that runs in front, I knew the opportune moment I had been waiting for all day had arrived. Overdrive was laying on his sleeping pad under a tree with his eyes closed. I filled up the water gun at the creek and tiptoed towards him. As it turns out, he wasn't really asleep and he opened his eyes when I was a few feet away. I was holding the gun behind my back, and I said, "Hey Overdrive, are you missing something?" then I got him right in the face! It was a great moment. We walked the 5 mi into Rockfish Gap, which actually went really fast, as we were talking the whole time. When we got to the road crossing, not only was there a box of snacks, but a list of trail angels you could call to give you a ride into town. Overdrive called a guy named Tom who was there in his truck within 10 min and was super nice. He drove us to the church hostel, pointing out points of interest as he drove.We checked into the hostel and left our packs in the church basement and went to dinner. We had been talking about margaritas for days, so of course we went straight to the Mexican restaurant in town, Mi Rancho. I had a delicious peach margarita as we had dinner with Farnsworth, OG, Colleen and Treehugger, who we met up with at the restaurant. Afterwards they invited us back to their hotel room to hang out for a bit. At some point in the evening I said to Overdrive, "Do you think there's a certain time we have to be back at the church?" He said, "No, they wouldn't lock us out; it's a church!" He would come to regret those words later. We went over to the Quality Inn and had a great time playing games and hanging out with everyone. I started getting really tired around 11:30, and we walked across town back the hostel. Overdrive reached for the door handle and...it was locked. We then noticed the sign on the door saying the hostel is locked at 10 PM. Overdrive tried knocking on the door and windows but no luck. So we walked all the way back to the hotel, and our new friends were gracious enough to let us sleep on their sleeping pads on the floor. What a crazy night.