Tunnel Vision left early. We were up by 8a and he had long since been gone. We weren’t too worried about getting out early because we had such a small day today, almost nine miles to cover. It was a quick hike and we were coming out of the woods by noon. Lotus had hiked with us for the last five or so miles. We passed through forests that were filled with a floral fragrance. We’ve been smelling this for a week or so now. It’s better than most perfumes and I’m frustrated that I can’t figure out what plant it is.
As we were nearing the end of the hike, we crossed paths with four guys. Each looked like the other and had the same exact haircut, kind of a long bowl cut. Afterwards, Warthog said, “Did you see those guys? They were all wearing polo shirts.” I paused and replied, “That’s what you took from that?! It wasn’t the hair?!” I guessed that they were Amish and brothers (that would later be confirmed by a friend who spoke with them).
You could hear the road long before you saw it, as is usually the case. We came out near the highway and had a text from Atlas to cross it and go down… to a hot dog stand! We half ran there. Atlas was sitting with hikers “Roar” and “Sushi Roll”. As we all were eating, a truck pulls up and asks if we need a ride into town. Yes! While he was turning around, another car pulled up and asked the same. Holy cow… Waynesboro is practically fighting over us. It was a good feeling to be so well taken care of.
We all piled into the first truck. Turns out he’s a former thru-hiker, named “Pittsburg”, that now runs a self sustaining farm (complete with bees) and a hostel. The hostel isn’t up right now, but should be again next year. His plan is to do a work for stay hostel where a person would spend a couple of days doing a trade on the farm, whatever they are interested in, and learning about that trade. I think it’s a neat idea and hope to come back sometime to see it in action. When Pittsburg dropped us off at the grocery store, he gave us all kinds of advice about the area and the next two towns as well.
We resupplied and then were ready for showers. Surprisingly this town has Uber. For a small fee, we got a ride out to our hotel at the edge of town. Showers, laundry, and then dinner took up most of the evening. After dinner we relaxed and I caught up on posts. I’m way too far behind.
-ansel