Day 56-Leapfrog With the Group

May 13-17 miles-Helveys Mill Shelter to Trent’s Grocery-AT mile 610.2

Yes, we passed another 100 mile marker. 

I’m so bad at these selfies, but Flat Will and LB look good. 

We had another big mile day, so we hit the trail early. It was fast trail for a good while. I clocked myself for the first two hours and I was doing 2.4 miles per hour. Of course, I also had just lunch and snacks for food, so my pack was pretty light (relatively speaking). 

We caught up to all the hikers who had gone on from Helveys Mill last night. El Presidente, Rebel, and Atlas (I think) were 5 miles in. They were still packing up. Didn’t see Rebel again (she is injured, so moving slower). 

El Presidente. Tomorrow is his 38th birthday. The group was going to Weary Feet Hostel and taking a zero. 

Donatello and Music Man left the shelter the same time as we did. They stopped for a break, and we passed them, then we stopped for lunch and they passed us. 

Music Man and Donatello. 

Ghost and Polar Bear were getting packed up when we passed them. They later passed us. 

Ghost. One of the few women. 

Polar Bear coming across the swing bridge over the Kimberling River. 

Crunchy went by while we were eating lunch. 

Crunchy. He would have passed us sooner, but he went the wrong way on a short road walk. 

I tried to get a shuttle to save us the 1/2 mile walk to Trent’s Grocery, where we are spending the night (he has a room with two beds in the back...he doesn’t advertise it too loudly because he likes to reserve it for us older hikers), but Mr. Trent couldn’t come get us as he was working the store. So, we started walking. Then Mary drove by in her van. She stopped and asked if we were going to Trent’s. Turns out she was the woman I had talked to about the shuttle. She had just gotten off work. She turned around and picked us up. That was mighty nice of her!

At Trent’s, Mr. Trent showed us the back room. It’s really quite nice. 



We even had a washer and dryer, which we were provided detergent to wash our stinky clothes. 

We had burgers (2nd lunch) in the Grocery, and got a small resupply for the next day and a half to Pearisburg. Later we went back for dinner. Tomorrow, we will do the half mile road walk back to the trail as we will leave early. Unfortunately, I do not have service, nor is there WiFi, so this post will have to wait to upload. 





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