Making Marion
It’s Monday May 6, and I’m currently at the Merry Inn Hiker Hostel in Marion, Virginia. Get it? Merry Inn? Marion? It’s situated right above the outfitter on Main Street. Marion is a cute little town. For those of you familiar with the Charlottesville area, it's very reminiscent of Stanton. It’s got a cute, old-school downtown area with a few restaurants and shops. I suppose it could be a little bit more lively, but you know, it's a nice little old town. So I'll take it.
This morning, I woke up at the Trimpi Shelter, and it poured really hard last night. Fortunately, my tent patches held up. So, two thumbs up there. Since I'm still trying to ease my wake-up times a little bit earlier each day, I got out of bed pretty soon after 6 a.m. It had stopped raining long enough before then that my tent had had a chance to dry out a bit, which was nice.
For breakfast, I tried cold soaking some oatmeal while I was putting my stuff away. I tasted it after about 10 minutes, and it was great. Frankly, it was somewhat preferable to hot oatmeal, given that it was already warm and extremely humid this morning, so I wouldn't have wanted boiling water in my oatmeal at that point.
At about 7:10, off I went. I had a fairly easy hike ahead of me today. I was going to do 10 miles to the road crossing where I would be picked up to go into Marion. I’d booked myself a space at the hostel for the night, and one of the nice things about the Merry Inn is that included in the price, you get a ride from the trail to the hostel and then a ride back to the trail the next morning. So that's great and super helpful, since arranging shuttles or rides can sometimes get complicated.
By the time I’d hiked about seven miles, I really was sweating quite a bit. I stopped to rest on a rock, and while I was sitting there, Beans showed up. I made a comment about the humidity, and he said, “What? You mean the soup? I feel like I've been hiking through warm soup all day.” I thought that was a fairly accurate description. I had already drenched everything I was wearing and then some, so it was nice to get validation that I wasn’t alone in my misery.
After I’d talked with Beans for a bit, I set off again, and before long, the trail crossed where some power lines were strung. And usually when that happens, there's a nice opening in the woods. So I took the opportunity to put my pack down and air out my tent a little. I really wanted it to be as dry as possible by the time I got to the hostel. Showing up somewhere with a wet tent is never a great idea, because there's usually no way to dry it out. Well, no way to do it without creating a complete mess, I guess. I was running a little bit ahead of schedule for once, so I used the time to hang my stuff up and have a snack.
View over Rye Valley
I also texted the hostel and arranged for a pickup time of 1:20. From there, it was just 2.5 miles down to the road and the Pat Jennings Visitor Center. I made it a little bit after 1 o'clock and ran into Mowgli and Cheeks there. We had a soda together while I waited for my ride into Marion.
The Merry Inn Hostel is just a wonderful place, and it's maintained by a very nice older lady named Bunny, who has hiked the trail twice, so she knows exactly what the thru-hikers are all going through. I took a shower, washed my clothes, organized my gear a little bit, and had a chance to talk to my dad for a few minutes. And then I headed straight to a place called Moon Dog.
Moon Dog has a bunch of beers on tap, so of course, I was drawn there like a moth to a flame. And if I understood my server correctly — they were super nice but didn’t seem terribly knowledgeable — Moon Dog is either affiliated with or owns a brewery in Wytheville called 7 Dogs. So I limited my beer consumption to the 7 Dogs offerings and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the beer. The past couple times I’ve been to local breweries, the beer has been a bit disappointing.
I had a burger and a salad, and I made a point of eating the entire salad, so I’m hoping my body doesn't go into shock sometime tonight after ingesting all that roughage, but it tasted great.
After dinner, I did a quick resupply at the outfitter, but I didn't need much. There's a fairly long stretch of trail between here and Bland, Virginia — just over 60 miles — and there are no resupply options. So you need to leave here with probably about five days of food, just to be on the safe side.
So, I topped up everything I still had from what S. had brought me in Damascus and tried to make sure I’d have enough stuff to get me to Bland. I think I'm all set now. My clothes are clean. My belly's full. I've had a few beers. Now, I just hope to get a good night's sleep before hitting the trail tomorrow.
Oh, as a side note, I got a text earlier this evening from my friend Scott, warning me about a very strong weather front that was approaching Marion. It was nice to be able to report back to him that I was at a hostel, rather than out in my tent. Shortly afterward, a huge front came through, like he’d said, and it was just pouring. So I feel bad for any of my friends who are out on the trail right now, and I’m very glad to be inside.
The forecast looks like it’s starting to improve a bit now. We're still supposed to get some rain every day for the next several days, but overall, things don't look nearly as grim as they did a few days ago. I'm hoping that is a good trend and that I can make it to Bland without having to manage a ton of rain along the way. There's enough distance to cover and challenging terrain to make things difficult enough as is.
