may 8 - 20 miles to marion

May 8th was a real long day. I woke up in the overstuffed hhurricane mtn shelter after most of the other hikers had alread left. Monk and coach left just a few minutes before me, but i was hikinng fast so i caught up quickly. We had made plans to stop for lunch at trimmpi shelter, about 10 miles awa from where we started. It wasnt raiing et but rain was forecasted so i wore my raingear, which means that i was sooaking wet regardless. I got to trimpi shelter at about 1130am. So 10 miles were already done by that time, and the total for the da was planned to be 20 miles. Shortly after our lunch break at trimpi we walked through a field with some shrubs and flowers, it smelled like spring,, the sweet smell of flowers filled the air. At the end of the field was a big wooodenn box that was filled with all different types of food. A loccal church had put a trail magic box on the trail for hikers. We stopped and ate again just because of the convenience of the box. I filled up on sardines and crackers and some snack mix then conntinued hiking. While hiking i found a morel mushroom. I have been looking for one since first learning about em at the fontana lodge. They are famous in southern appalachia for being rare and tasty. I picked it and put in in my hipbelt pocket for later. We hiked really fast that day, even though it rained most of the day, and finished the 20 miles by 4pm. It was the fastest day so far, and second to longest. At the partnership shhelter theres a shower, and a visitors center, so we went to the visitors center to find out about getting a ride to marion. I also asked the woman workking there if she can identify the morel but she had no idea. The shuttles werent running for the rest of the day, the last one was at 230, so we went to the road and tried to hitchhike. after an unsuccesful half hour of trying to hitchike we were about ready to call a cab, but a bus drove by and pulled over for us. It was the marion shuttle that had just drove some people to nearby roanoke, and picked us up anyways while on its way back to marion. It dropped us off by the marion econolodge. There were 3 different hotells alll right there, so we checked the prices of all of them then decided on the americas best value inn. After we got settled in our room we went for dinner, then ingles to resupplly, then back to the motel. It was a long exhausting day.