Rain met us again this morning but was short lived. We hit the trail around 8:15a. The goal was to hike about 10 miles to the next shelter by 2p, which was near a visitor center and a road. We would then go into the town of Marion to resupply and get back to the woods for the evening.
We made really great time and arrived at the visitor center sometime between 12:30p and 1p. Originally we were going to take the town shuttle in, but that would mean we would have to wait another hour or more. To speed things up, we decided to try to hitch in. We are a group of seven, so we figured we’d have to split up. After a minute or so, the first car stopped. Lotus, Atlas, and Kirby could fit. That left Wonder Woman, Snow Monkey, Warthog, and myself. It took us about fifteen minutes to get someone to stop. It was a truck. There were four of us and no room in the cab, so we climbed in the bed of the truck. He was only heading to the edge of town. He said he could drop us off there. We took it and found ourselves at a gas station still a ways from where we needed to be. A woman was filling up and I asked her how far the Ingles and WalMart were from here. Upon seeing the defeat on my face when she told me it was five miles, she offered to give us a ride. I was glad she did. She worked for the State Department and told us that the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet had previously been closed for health code reasons. It was the place we were excited to stuff our hungry faces at, but not at the risk of getting sick.
Almost immediately after we were dropped off, the skies opened up again and this time the rain was thick and heavy. Locals informed us of the tornado warning a town over. They were concerned we would be going back out. After grabbing philly subs from Charley’s and resupplying, the rain still poured. No one could work up the courage to go back out in the nasty weather. So Atlas called the Travel Inn to get rates. It was acceptable and we walked the fifteen minutes down the road to a dry room.
We had two rooms to the seven of us. One was updated and nice, the other was bigger but far more disappointing. Warthog and I were in the disappointing room. I think the word disappointing is a bit generous. At first, I thought it would probably be a room that a drug addict would rent out; the paint was peeling, the ceiling was cracking, there were footprints on the ceiling (that impressed me), and all kinds of other interesting things. As dated as it was, it at least felt clean. My theory is that we were in a room that was on a list to be updated. It was around the back of the motel and downstairs, a location you would only rent out to people like hikers.
While there, we dried out our tents and did laundry. We also made sure to call our moms since we weren’t confident we will have reception on Sunday. We ended our night eating pizza all together. When Warthog and I went back to our room, we stuffed our food bag while watching a movie. We hadn’t intended on staying the night in town, but I was grateful for the four walls and bed – especially when we can get back out on the trail easily and still get in our needed miles.
– ansel