Where is the *%&$^# shelter?!?

After our down time in bustling Buena Vista, we returned to the trail invigorated and about 20 pounds lighter, resulting in our longest hiking day yet--about 14.5 miles. On the whole, it was an odd, slightly eerie day, since we saw only a couple of other hikers on the trail. We ended up camping down in a hollow at Porter's Field, next to a spring, all by ourselves. Given the often crowded and always social nature of the AT, this was pretty unusual, though not unwelcome. We did have an early morning wake-up call, when two owls had a rather raucous throwdown, apparently directly over our tent.
The next morning we headed into the Priest wilderness, climbing the eponymous peak, then suffering through the over three-mile descent. Three miles of rocky, precarious (ie., too steep for switchbacks) descent, which don't mesh well with knees full of metal. A long, painful day for both of us. We finally rolled into Harper's Creek, a beautiful area, with unfortunately rocky and less-than-flat tentsites, asking the usual end-of-day question: where is the *&%^#$ shelter? It's amazing how long that last .3, .2, .1 mile can take when you're exhausted and frustrated and hungry.
As is so often the case on the AT, one tough day follows another. We started the next morning with the steepest, longest climb so far, up the Three Ridges. The worst part was the fact that it mainly involved scrambling over rocks and boulders, in addition to the steep terrain. After a couple of long, difficult days, neither of us were feeling it. We had hoped to make 21 miles--by far our longest hike--to the Wolfe shelter. This would put us a short 6 miles out of Waynesboro, our next scheduled stop. By noon, we knew that 21 miles? Not happening. As I trudged along, I recalled the sage advice of Swift, our drinking buddy in Buena Vista, who advocated making your miles however you could, even if it meant backtracking or slackpacking.
So we pulled out the map, found a spot where the trail crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway 14 miles from Waynesboro--a more manageable distance for us--and made a decision. We planned to hitch a ride into town, find a hotel, hit the AYCE Chinese buffet (interestingly populated only by thru-hikers and incredibly fat people), then hitch back to the same point the next morning and finish our miles into town. Leaving our packs in town, carrying only daypacks (slackpacking).
When I popped up onto the Parkway, I dropped my pack, looked around, and saw a couple of dayhikers heading my way. And so came our first instance of "trail magic." When I asked if they were perhaps headed to Waynesboro and might be able to fit in two more, they said yes--and they happened to be in charge of the hiker hostel in the local Lutheran church. It turned out to be the only game in town--graduations had all of the other hotels booked. But we had a clean, quiet place to sleep with 20 other thru-hikers in their fellowship hall, all for an optional donation. You learn quickly that there are a lot of amazingly nice and generous folks helping you make this journey.
We've also concluded that slackpacking ROCKS, and we have no shame about doing it whenever we get the chance. There are some pretty hardcore hikers out here--"purists"--pushing 25-35 miles a day, who would scoff at such a thing. But one of the major tenets of the AT is "hike your own hike." And fortunately, neither of us care too much about what anyone else out here thinks.
We decided to take another zero day here in Waynesboro--not scheduled, but ultimately a good idea. I had developed a nasty hacking chest cough and we're about to head into Shenandoah National Park, which will take us at least 9 days to get through. We thought it would be wise to take a rest day, since we need to up our miles, and I've been able to shake the worst of the cough. It's also amazing how much stuff there is to do when you hit town, beyond showering and eating. Our funny moment today was the post office lady telling us we couldn't have been on the trail too long, because we looked too clean. Apparently, most hikers come to the post office prior to showering , so she was quite appreciative of our clean outfits and not-so-noxious odor.

Especially for my preservation peeps: some shots of buildings
 in metropolitan Buena Vista....

Southern Virginia University (cupola in the background)

Buena Vista storefronts

Climbing the Priest, before the nasty descent sucked the smile right out of me.

Pancho, heading across the bald. This was a really different environment
 than what we had seen so far, with rolling, grassy pastures

The view across the bald.

Funky tree growing out of the rock.

Pancho on the trail.

Our home alone in Porter's Field.

Pancho in gnat evasion mode in Porter's Field.

Wild honeysuckle.

Taking a breather on the Three Ridges climb.

Tye River suspension bridge (VA).

Tye River (VA).

Water bottle along the trail--not sure if this was an intentional discard or not.
For those who have read Bill Bryson: Katz was here!

Approaching Waynesboro, VA.

Two thru-hikers + one hotel room = entropy.