Buena Vista

Yesterday we had planned to do about 25 miles. It was raining so that kind of put a damper on the day. When we stopped for lunch after about 12 miles, Michael asked me if I wanted to go into Buena Vista, VA to see a movie. His short shorts weren't keeping his hands warm and we were kind of low on food to make it to Waynesboro. Although I wanted to see a movie, I felt like I had been spending too much money in towns already and I knew Gaylyn wanted us to hike 5 extra miles every day. So I told Michael if he really wanted to then go ahead, but I was gonna go the 25 miles.

We both crossed the road that goes into Buena Vista and after going up some switchbacks and taking some water breaks, Michael was nowhere in sight, so I figured he had turned around to hitch into Buena Vista.

I continued hiking and the weather began to get worse. It became cold, foggy, and super windy. After about an hour and a half of climbing a mountain, I began to regret my decision to not go into Buena Vista (I mean, at the very least it would've been a good view). I soon passed a group of hikers going south. One of them told me there was a hot dog stand up ahead. I only thought, "haha very funny kid."

After about thirty more minutes of hiking through the cold, wind, and fog, I saw something in the distance. At first I thought it was a mirage, but then I started to think, " Oh wait...could it be? A hot dog stand?" It was more than a hot dog stand! It was a buena vista! It was Fresh Ground Leapfrog Café!

I went over to his setup, but he wasn't there. There was a sign that said he was resupplying and would be right back. So I waited thirty minutes freezing my butt off, but still he had not come. I contemplated pushing on the next 7.7 miles to the shelter, but there was no way I was gonna miss Fresh Ground. I decided I would wait 30 minutes more because I couldn't camp there since Michael had the tent and for all I knew, he was in the movie theater eatin' popcorn. I thought I had made the worse decision to not go into town. I was cold, low on food, and thought Fresh Ground would stay in town since the weather was bad.

My luck soon changed, Michael showed up about 45 minutes after I had gotten there. It turns out he had just been prairie doggin' it, so he was going a little slower. He too was regretting his decision though to not go into town. We decided to camp there though so that if Fresh Ground didn't come back, we would at least catch him the morning. Soon, another a hiker showed up, Prometheus, and then another. Then, 5 minutes later, we hear a car honk. Fresh Ground!!!

He saved the day! We helped him unload the groceries, set up some stuff, and then he gave us some hot dogs. We all sat in his car to get warm. Then all of us (minus the one hiker that left) all ate tacos by lantern light. It was awesome! We got to hangout with Fresh Ground, and then in the morning, he made us banana pancakes, potato slices, coffee and hot chocolate! It made a miserable day pretty incredible, and will definitely be one of my favorite memories on the trail.

In addition, since it took forever for me to type all this up while sitting on the Priest, the cloud I was in went away for a little, and I got to see the view!

God is good!