June 26

Beef, it's what's for dinner

After getting to sleep so late last night, we all slept in this morning.  Started the morning off with a climb, up to Weaverton Cliffs, where we were treated to plenty of sunshine and outstanding views of the river valley.  We took a snack break at the Ed Garvey shelter.  Amazing 2-story shelter.  It was sunny, cooler, and breezy as we entered Gathland State Park.  We walked around the grounds to check out the historical exhibits there.  I stopped at the soda machine there and pushed the button for a cherry Coke.  Instead a Sprite came out.  I was thirsty, and jonesin' for a Coke so bad.  No caffeine in a sprite either.  $1.75 wasted.  Man, this is a hiker tragedy.  There was an 800 number on the vending machine, so yep, I called it.  The wonderful lady on the line is going to mail me 2 coupons for free coke.  Awesome!  Love Coke.  Anyway, we hiked on the rest of the afternoon, and stopped at the Dahlgren backpacker campground.  It's basically just a grassy clearing in the woods, with tenting areas, grills, a bear pole, and a shower/bath house.  Simple, but nice to have.  It was pretty crowded with several large groups of section hikers.  We saw in our guidebook that there was a road crossing an a restaurant just 0.3 north, so we walked up for dinner.  The Old South Mountain Inn was established in the 1700's.  We were extremely undressed to be eating there.  The hostess seemed a little put off by us coming in.  I thought it was pretty odd that the guidebook listed this place for hikers.  I guess if you were just doing a short hike, and were doing the sort of B&B thing, and could get cleaned up, and could afford it, it'd be a nice treat.  We got seated and considered leaving when we read the menu.  Nothing under $20.  Entrees like scallops, quail, veal, lobster.  The wine list included bottles in the $100 range like Cakebread, Staggs Leap, and Vueve Cliquot.  All familiar to me from my food/bev background, and sadly way out of my hiker budget price range.  We stayed for dinner, considering it to be a treat.  After all, we had walked 1034 miles to get here.  We deserved it.  Some of the other diners there came up to us to ask us about our hikes.  The prime rib was on special tonight, under $20, so we all got that.  I splurged and also got a glass of the house pinot noir with my dinner. The meal was A-maze-ing.  A perfectly cooked, medium slab of beef.  Delicious roasted veggies.  Baked potato with butter and sour cream.  Fat and happy is how I went to sleep tonight.

View at Weaverton Cliffs