AT Day 48

2014/5/18 Mile 841

Got an early start and headed up the ridge to "The Priest". Apparently the mountain got the name due to a strange stone configuration near the top. Not sure if I missed it or was just underwhelmed.

3000ft down the mountain and had lunch at the river. It had a really cool wooden suspension bridge similar to others on the trail. I suppose the park service has a set of standard bridge designs.

3000ft up the next mountain and the views look back on the mountain I just came down. Almost like they are rubbing it in my face. Ran into a trail maintenance volunteer who said this was the last big climb until somewhere in Massachusetts. Crazy! Especially since the last three days have all had 2-3k ft climbs. Now all of a sudden nothing...

Checked out the summit and headed down to Maupin Shelter for another lunch. Met Bruce, Joyce, and their dog Izzy out for a day hike. Had fun talking with them and then they headed on.

My plan was to put down another 5 or 10 miles so that my hike into town the next day would be short. Bruce had other ideas. They were packing up their car when I reached the parking lot (the trail crosses lots of those up here near the Blue Ridge Parkway) and invited me to dinner at the Blue Mountain Brewery. Obviously I couldn't say no.

40 minute drive to the brewery took me along the next days hike. We ate and had delicious beer. Everyone was dressed up either for church or graduation so my smelly hiker garb felt out of place, but that didn't keep me from enjoying myself.

Bruce is a triathlete and big time hiker so he told me all about his adventures and races. He retired from working at Anheuser Busch so we also got to talk about beer.

They offered to drive me back up to where they stole me from the trail but instead I just had them drop me in Waynesboro. Figured I could slackpack the difference tomorrow. So we poked around until we found the Quality Inn and then I said goodbye. Great trail magic.

After getting a room I was walking out and ran into Denise. She was really chatty told me all about how she was a regular at the Inn because of work. We talked about hiking and traveling and then she offered to drive me to Kroger because I mentioned I wanted to grab some snacks. More magic!

Finally in the room later I got to spread out some gear and the flop down on the bed for some much needed rest. It had been a great day but a long one.