Day 53 - Saturday, April 17, 2021

The weather forecast surprisingly has been 100% accurate 3 days in a row! Woke up to a chilly 36° and partly sunny skies.  Three months ago we were praying for 36° temperatures now we dread it 🥶😬. 

Today we are hiking from VA 615, Lindawood School (542.9 NoBo) to VA 670 (526.4 NoBo) for a total of 16.5 miles. 

We arrive at our parking location to find a Trail Angel there providing any and all supply’s imaginable to AT hikers - was like a mini outfitter.   The trail magic, which is free,  was sponsored by the Sugar Grove Baptist Church. They provided  the trail magic every weekend from April through September since 1917.  The person managing the trail magic did not have a trail name so we called him “Preacher”. Turtle and I enjoyed a nice fresh cup of coffee.

It’s amazing how many communities along the trail cater to the hikers. I am realizing that hikers are a big part of some of these communities local economy so they are grateful for their support. The last year with the pandemic and the trail not open officially definitely affected these communities. 





We were about 10 minutes into our hike when we met “Argentine”. He started his thru-hike February 27th south of Damascus. 




View of Rye Valley.



 

We are still trying to figure out the purpose of this gate on the trail 🤔.






Somehow TP has always found a bathroom on the trail.... TP - how appropriate 🤔 😂.




The Pat Jennings Visitors Center and Shelter. 



This is “Wonderwoman” who is from Jacksonville, Florida. She started her thru-hike from Springer February 27th. Her husband joined her on the trail this morning and will hike with her to this Thursday. That's right, he’s a “noob”.



And this is “Victory Girl” who is heading towards Florida via the AT. We’re pretty sure we met her on the trail hiking with a guy a couple days ago but she said otherwise....🤔? Did you see the movie “Fatal Attraction”? 😒





View of Walker Mountain.


Rebuilt stair section done by trail maintenance volunteers.





The Chatfield Shelter. 




The trail was a bit rocky today making hiking a little more challenging. Did you know that there is  is a certain type of rock indigenous on the AT that can trip you then jump out in front of you so your next step you’re then stepping on it tripping again 😖? 

We finished hiking at 5:15 pm and the temperature was 54°. It did begin to sprinkle a little earlier but thankfully it only lasted a few minutes. Chance of rain was only 7% 🤨?

We have one more day of hiking, which will put us over 600 trail miles, before we leave the trail for a break. I’m looking forward to that, returning to Florida and the sun for some R&R, then driving with Jean back to NY. Turtle Power is taking this opportunity to see him Mom; he hasn’t seen her in over  a year due to Covid. 

Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾

😋



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