Partnership Shelter - 524.8 miles

Just to busy having fun to make notes! We had rain and thunderstorms. A few tornado's in small towns around us. Lucky that we did not get the hail they got - we saw a lot of downed trees, so we knew the storms were bad.


May 10th (Mothers day) - we did about 10.6 miles. Crazy Lady hiked with older man - nice company while hiking - he is from Maine and climbed Kilimanjaro a few years ago - he will be 60 (9/11/09) and hopes to summit the big K Mt that day.


We we got to the shelter we all showered and hitched a ride (lucky again 3 hikers going south gave us a ride) into Marion, VA (about 6 miles). We as Chinese buffet at the "Green Wall" (it was good) - stocked up for about 4 - 5 days. Another thru hiker left his # at Partnership Shelter and said her would pick us up and take us back if we would call. (We did)

When we got back to shelter - it was full (16 in shelter and 10 tents) most hikers going south to Damacus - about 8 of us going north. It rained most of the night. Stick man was suppose to find nice camp spot - we ended up 12 miles down trail at Atkins. It was already booked when we got there - but we had a nice shower and ate good - so we spent unplanned night in luxury. We went to pick up tent but arrived after 4 PM - because post office closed at 4 PM - we had another night in luxury. Patches (May 13th) did not start good - he tried to hitch a ride into town (3 miles) and no one picked him up - he had to hike 6 miles to mail drop and back. Passed a train with 7 engines and 105 cars - well we are back in nature away form all the busy town life with TV and lots of food.


Life is good on the trail - frogs & birds singing - flowers blooming. Rhododendron in full bloom (very pretty) - saw 5 new flowers. Southwest VA is very pretty - rolling mts - go thru green meadows and shady green mts.