Date: 2020-07-03
From: Trimpi Shelter

To: Atkins
Miles today: 21.4

Today was going to include a midday resupply run into Marion. It's six miles off trail but a community bus sometimes runs up to the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area visitors center, where the trail crosses Rt 16. However the bus only runs if you call in advance, and we've had no service for days. Plus it required a ten mile hike before the 11am run, even if we could schedule it, and we didn't make a serious move to leave our cozy sleeping bags until after 7. So, new plan! Flexibility is key to thruhiking! We hike 22 miles to I-81 in Atkins and stay on an alpaca farm. Wait, hear me out! We can resupply at the gas station. No, wait, it gets better! There's a Mexican restaurant in the gas station. Okay, sold!Most on trail planning goes pretty much like this.A dayhiker stopped by to use the privy as we packed up. We followed him out, and caught up at a gravel road a couple miles north. He had just hiked six miles from Dickey Gap, part of his effort to section hike the trail over many years. He's over 1000 miles into it. It sounded like he squeezed this in while his family slept in at the motel. They're planning to tour the Grayson Highlands later today. I've met many section hikers who've patiently and opportunistically pieced together much of the trail over many years, even decades. Thruhiking is not possible or even desirable for most, but completing the AT is still a goal they can't let go of.A long ridge led us to Partnership Shelter, near the forest service's visitor center. We'd been told a homeless guy named Wizard had been living here as recently as two days ago, in one of the nicest shelters complete with shower and pizza delivery, but there was no trace of him now. The visitors center reportedly had a vending machine though so we hurried over.Of course like most forest service facilities this one was closed, and the captive vending machine was locked inside. The humanity! A phone outside offered hikers a link to call for pizza or shuttles. We suppressed the urge, eating deeper into our lean food bags for lunch, and took off for Atkins.I found the afternoon tiresome. The ridge was not high or steep but it felt like a roller coaster. Switching rapidly between climbing and descending over and over is more tiresome than a single activity. Add in the loose rocks on the trail and it became mentally taxing as well to watch each step. I stopped several times to sit, relax, cool down, eat, drink, and regain my energy.Finally I crested the last mountain, Glade, and descended toward Atkins. I stopped at a restored 1894 one-room schoolhouse called the Lindamood school. It's open to hikers to stay the night, which seems incredibly generous and a bit foolhardy from an historic preservationist perspective. Please respect this property if you visit. The Settler's Museum nearby was closed and still had its "Closed for Winter" sign out. A few more miles through forest, meadow, tall grass, over the Middle Holston River, a railroad, and a big boardwalk I reached the road near the I-81 exit and found Sunshine vacuuming up goodies outside the convenience store. After I quenched my thirst we patronized a Mexican joint attached to another gas station next door. There I ordered the Grande Special, which filled a 16" plate. It was, however, no match for my voracious appetite. Long Neck Lair, a nearby alpaca farm, hosts hikers and we walked down the road and up a hill to the red aluminum-clad home with amazing views of hills on both sides of the valley. The trail passes behind the property as it winds toward the road and I recall seeing the house from there and remarking on its commanding placement. The alpacas had been shorn a month prior and bags of hair filled one room. Their ungainly long necks were stretched out munching grass and ignoring the new passers-by.The day ended with the sun setting over the ridge and a large moon rising. Tomorrow we hike out of the Great Valley which the interstate follows and enter the ridge and valley portion of the Appalachians.