May 11

Late start

Rainbow Eyes got up early, and headed into Sugar Grove to pick up a package.  The rest of us headed into Marion on the transit shuttle.  50 cents one way!  Awesome.  I didn't really need to go into town, but I wanted Chinese buffet for lunch, haha!  Everyone else did their resupply at the grocery store.  We all sat out front in Adirondack chairs, charging our cell phones and cameras.  I bet we looked like a bunch of bums.  The 1pm shuttle was full, so we had to wait around until 2.  Rainbow Eyes had started down the trail hours ago, headed for Atkins, Va.  We got in touch with him, and we all agreed that we wanted a hotel room for the night so we could shower, so he was going to scope things out for us in town.  Deep, Slims, Apache, Tink, and I didn't start hiking until almost 4pm, with 11.6 miles to go.  We were flying down the trail, racing against nightfall.  We did take a short break at an old school house from the 1800s.  It was open to the public, and there were signs encouraging hikers to stop by and sign the register book there.  We hiked to the road crossing near Atkins and unsuccessfully tried hitching into town to stay at the Comfort Inn.  Tink got a hold of BamBam, who was in the area, and we got a ride.  Subway for dinner, shower, and a hotel room.  Awesome.  Another hiker, Snafu, showed up later and called up to our room.  We were already over capacity for room with 6.  Tink, Deep, and I scattered, and the hotel manager brought Snafu up to the room, with a roll away bed.  After the coast was clear, we ended up sleeping 7 in the room that night.  Hikers are certainly resourceful.

Rolling mountain farmland near Atkins, Va.