Today's miles 20.9. AT miles 857.9
It was a lovely sunny day again today but much cooler and windy. We had another big day today so were away from camp at 8am again, we were still the last to leave, everybody else where real early birds. The trail was very rocky for the first ten miles until Humpback Mountain, there were a few changes in elevation but we remained between 2500ft and 3500ft on the rocky mountain tops. There were some good view points from rock overlooks, one view was of what looked like a small ski resort. We had a bit of a cliff walk and we crossed over the Blue Ridge Parkway a couple of times and managed to unload our rubbish in a trash can.
After Humpback Mountain we descended about 1300ft, the trail paths finally became more hiker friendly and the rocks disappeared. We stopped at Paul C Wolfe shelter for a quick break sitting on a lovely stone commemorative bench in front of the stream. We'd made good time and miles and only had another five miles to go from the shelter to get to Rockfish Gap. Some days the time and miles just seem to fly by, other days they seem to take forever. We passed a small cemetery and a chimney that remained amongst some cabin ruins. We arrived at Rockfish Gap at 4:30pm.
We needed to get to Colony House Motel about half a mile away from the gap as we had a couple of parcels waiting for us there - my new boots and Nigel's maps. We were about to start walking when the mother of 'Lil Beast', a young thru hiker we'd met a few times, walked over to us. She was waiting for her husband and son to finish their day hike. They were about 20-30 minutes behind us, so she kindly gave us a lift to the motel while she was waiting.
The motel is in the middle of nowhere, about 3 miles outside of Waynesboro, but it's a pretty decent motel so we checked in for the night as they had held our parcels for us. We got our laundry done and got pizza/lasagna delivered. We'll get a shuttle into town, Waynesboro, tomorrow. On a fence post at Rockfish Gap there was a laminated sheet with the names and telephone numbers of lots of people who will kindly shuttle hikers between Rockfish Gap and Waynesboro for free.
I got my new boots. I'm a little wary about changing boots as my old pair are so comfortable, they're like slippers, I've not had one blister or any foot problems. I'm a big Zamberlan boot fan and have been wearing their specific women's fit boots for hiking for the last fifteen years. My current boots are the forth pair of the same style boots, Zamberlan 996 Vioz GTX, I love them. There's nothing wrong with the pair I've been wearing on the trail, apart from a few scuff marks, they would probably last the whole of the trail but being leather they are heavy and hot in the warmer weather. Great for day hikes or shorter durations. The new boots are Zamberlan SH (Speed Hiker) Crosser Plus GTX boots and much lighter, made of canvas so half the weight. I'm just hoping they live up to my Zamberlan expectations and comfort and they hopefully will be better for my knees too being lighter. I'll be carrying my old boots still for a few days just in case, then bounce them on.
We heard some very sad news today via a Facebook feed/news article. A 59 year old hiker was found dead/unresponsive in Matts Creek shelter on Monday morning. We met this hiker briefly on Saturday at Matt's Creek shelter, he said he was just feeling a bit under the weather. He and his brother had been hiking the trail southbound, Maine to Georgia. He had been feeling unwell and passed out on the trail, so stayed at the shelter to recover. His brother stayed with him a couple of days at the shelter but then they decided there was no point both of them staying so his brother continued hiking and they arranged to meet up again in the next town in a few days time. We met and had a good chat with his brother on the trail the afternoon before, on the Friday. So so sad. We can't even imagine how the surviving brother must feel. Our thoughts are with the brother and his family.
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