May 10

Orion's big day

So, leaving the shelter this morning, I led our group, simply because nobody else wanted to lead.  With me in front, Slims, Apache, Tinkerbell, and Rainbow Eyes set out with a big day planned.  19.7 miles to Partnership shelter, where we hear you can have pizza delivered to the visitor's center 0.1 miles from the shelter!  Game on.  Passed some nice streams early in the morning, and went through some rhododendron tunnels.  The pink flowers were starting to bloom on them.  Really pretty.  We crossed a gravel road, and found sodas hidden along the trail (later we would find out that BamBam is the one that left these there for us).  We entered the Racoon Branch Wilderness.  Didn't see any racoons.  We stopped for lunch at Trimpi shelter, which was a really cool spot.  The white flowers of mountain laurel are starting to bloom.  We walked out of the woods after lunch, into an open pasture.  In the book it said this is where the old abandoned school bus is supposed to be, but we couldn't find it.  Later we heard that it was removed from the site.  Bummer.  Late in the afternoon, we hiked through what must have been a mile, of rhododendron tunnels.  I thought it'd be a great idea to try to make a kilt out of the leaves at some point.  Tink has costume design skills, so she's on board for the idea too.  Haha!  We finally made it to Partnership shelter.  Big day.  Nice shelter.  We took over the second floor, of course.  We made it in just after the last shuttle into town had left.  Some other hikers were telling us stories involving ice cream and AYCE Chinese buffet.  Everyone else stayed to cook hiker dinners, Tink and I decided we had to go to town.  After 30 minuntes, my hitchin' buddy and I, finally got picked up and got into Marion, Va.  We hit up the liquor store for some after dinner treats, pigged out at the Chinese buffet, and I stopped by the gas station to pick up a lemonade to mix with my airplane size Firefly, and a coke to mix with my airplane size Jack.  Getting back to the top of the mountain was a different story.  It was getting late, and we didn't have our jackets, or head lamps, so we caught a taxi for 9 bucks each.  There were a couple dozen hikers at the shelter tonight.  Several new hikers I just met, and some others I hadn't seen in a few days.  We had a great fire going and stayed up late.  Late-late night, Yukon, Squatch, Boomer, Tink, and I went down a couple hundred yards off trail to a nice spot to watch the stars.  We were on a earthen dam that separated two ponds, nothing but clear sky above us, totally still and quiet.  I couldn't find Orion though.

Beautiful day for a hike, near Marion, Va.