I can’t recall too much about the day because it was too cold a couple of days earlier so I got behind on writing, but I do remember two things.
First, as usual I kept pointing my phone at plants and, using the Seek app, trying to identify them. For two different saplings it identified them as American Chestnut, which is pretty surprising since the tree was completely wiped out from Chestnut blight accidentally brought over from Asia. How couldvtwo saplings of it exist when there are no trees to produce chestnuts? I posted the pictures to iNaturalist
The second thing I remember was looking forward to getting to Partnership Shelter. It’s supposed to be one of the nicest on trail, built in the 1990s to commemorate someone, and in the warmer months it has a working shower. It’s also close enough to the town of Marion that you can order pizza to be delivered, using the phone outside the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area HQ a short walk up trail.
So imagine my disappointment when I arrived at 5pm and saw no tents and the shelter empty…
I started setting up my tent, then noticed that there was oil all over the food in my dinner bag. Turns out that the previous day I hadn’t screwed the lid on properly on one of my two Nalgene containers of olive oil, and ALL of it leaked out into the sealed bag. So I spent half an hour cleaning all that up, as far from the shelter and tents as posdible. And somehow I managed to leave my container of dishsoap somewhere in the grass. I looked all over for it to no avail.
At some point a hiker whose trailname I’ve forgotten showed up. He is from Ohio and lives in Lima where he did mechanical setup work, including for the local Honda plants. I mentioned having lived in Bellefontaine Ohio from 1988 to 1991. He said “That’s from me not being born to being one year old!”
A little later another hiker, Javelin, arrived from the north. Turns out he had started a SOBO hike from Maine last May and had to give up due to injury, so he was trying to finish (more than 500 miles to go) before the one year anniversary.
It turns out there is a free shuttle from the Mt Rogers HQ to Marion, so we discussed that and agreed we’d all catch it in the morning. Javelin also told us that based on his experience last year, once it gets really hot, we’ll want to wale up at 4am, hike until 11, nap until 4, then hike through the evening. Hoping we don’t get to that point too soon
I spent some time before bed looking for the soap bottle in the dim light of my headlamp, but no luck.
Mile 516.7 to mile 534.4 = 17.7 miles
