Today's miles 3.2. AT miles 937.9
We had a big change of plan today thanks to the awful weather. When we woke up this morning everything was damp from the rain and mist, strong winds had blow the wet mist and rain spray into the shelter. No one in the shelter was in a hurry to get up, it was 8am before anyone stirred, very late for hikers, everyone was just keeping warm in their sleeping bags, It was like winter again. There was no way we fancied carrying on hiking to get to Front Royal in the cold rain as planned. After heavy rain all last night and more rain and thunderstorms forecast for the next two days we decided it was sensible to take an unplanned nero and zero day. It would also mean a chance for our blisters to heal at least slightly.
We got wrapped up for the cold wet weather, full waterproofs, jacket, trousers, gaiters and waterproof gloves, it was too windy for my umbrella. We've been spoilt weatherwise so far we're not used to this, we've been so lucky up to now. At least we had all the appropriate weather gear with us still. All the April shower's have come together in the last three days of the month!
We had just a 3.2 mile hike to the next road junction where we hitched a ride into Luray town. We used our 'Hiker to Town' sign that Fresh Ground kindly gave us when he prepared trail magic. We only had to wait in the rain and mist on the roadside for about 10 minutes until a lovely lady on the way to the vets with her dog picked us up. She dropped us off right outside the Best Western in town where we checked in for two nights.
After showering and some blister treatment we wrapped up again and had a walk into the town for a late lunch. We went to Gathering Grounds Cafe and Patisserie and had tasty turkey club sandwich each followed by a huge chocolate brownie (Nigel) and a chocolate chess pie (me) both delicious, very rich and chocolatey, that kept us going, we only needed a small snack in the evening for rest of the day. We got our laundry and trail food shop done and also got a few bits from the outfitters we needed. They also helped us arrange a shuttle to Front Royal for the following day. We have bounce boxes waiting for us at Front Royal Post Office. We decided, to save having to take more time out off the trail again in a few days time when we walk past Front Royal, its easier to get a shuttle now to pick them up while the weathers bad. We can post them on again from Luray Post Office whilst we're here, then bypass Front Royal altogether.
We had a visitor in the evening, Iron Man turned up, it was good to see him. He'd also gotten off the trail because of the weather, he was so cold and wet he couldn't feel his hands any more or hold a cup of coffee. A couple at Big Meadows Wayside, where he came off the trail, rescued him and kindly drove him to Luray. We, nor Iron Man, have heard from our German friends so we hope they're OK and have got off the trail too somewhere. The weather is nasty, it would be very easy to get hypothermia out there in this persistent cold wet weather if not careful.
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