Date: 2014-04-30
From: Punchbowl Shelter

To: Lexington, VA (Howard Johnson)
Miles today: 11.3

Today was relatively short in terms of trail mileage, but I made up for it through a series of misadventures throughout the day, culminating in an excellent bout of trail magic.We woke up once again to rain, but at least the thunder and lightning had finally ceased. Even with the rain, we were all excited and ready to go quickly; there were no significant climbs today, and we were all happy to have a dry place to sleep tonight. All of us were heading into Buena Vista to resupply and recoup from the rain (except for Birdman and me, but more on that later).The trail was absolutely gorgeous today, following a series of creeks almost the entire way to the trailhead. The trees have sprouted tiny green leaves, adding some much needed color to the forest. And the trilliums have finally bloomed lining the trail in purple and pink flowers. The springs and creeks are overflowing from the days of rain, creating waterfalls everywhere. That also means, however; that the water levels have raised by a foot at some of the stream crossings, submerging ¢ or washing away- our walking stones and logs. I had to cross one creek that normally would have been no problem; today it was over my knees. So much for having dry boots.We had all completed our miles by 1:00 PM, and a local ferried us from the trailhead to Buena Vista (very, very quickly, I might add ¢ I¢m not sure he knew how to use the brakes). It turns out this man worked for the Blue Dog Art Caf© and Hostel, and he had some bad news for my friends: the hostel was full from other hikers escaping the rain. Instead, he offered to let anyone who was interested crash at his place for free. The generosity of people on the trail never ceases to amaze me.Yet Birdman and I had other plans, and after inhaling some very delicious cake and coffee at the caf©, we grabbed a local bus over to Lexington. There we were to meet my mother-in-law and her mother, who were stopping by on the way to upstate New York. They had graciously offered to provide me with a room, and Birdman pounced on the opportunity to have a private room of his own. Unfortunately, I misremembered the name of the hotel, and we ended up getting off of the bus at the wrong end of the town. After realizing our mistake, we decided to go ahead and resupply at a nearby Kroger while waiting for the next bus to arrive. No problem, right?Wrong. It turns out that the bus only goes within 3 miles of our intended hotel, so we exited the bus and started a long, long walk to our destination. On a whim we stuck out our hitchhiker thumbs, and within five minutes a car pulled over in front of us. ¢You must be thru-hikers,¢ the driver said knowingly. ¢Hop in and I¢ll give you a lift.¢Where our walk would have taken an hour, our wonderful trail angel had us there in five minutes. We thanked him profusely and headed to our rooms to wash off the stink of sweat and soured rain. By the time we had rinsed off, my in-laws had arrived and unloaded two huge boxes of cookies for my hiking posse. After that, we all piled in their car and were treated to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.Now I am snacking on cookies and watching South Park, all thanks to my long string of trail angels today. Special thanks go out to you all, especially Debbie and Mrs. Daub. Today wouldn¢t have been half as spectacular without you!