Day 21, Friday, May 27

It’s Friday and the day I see Lisa again after two weeks.    She is to meet Running Mink and I at VA 56 Tye River at mile 831.8 (11.5 miles) today at noon, with Lunch!    We started the day at early getting up at 5:00 a.m. and departing at first light.  To be honest, I was tried and my body was telling me that by making the climbs feel harder that they really were.   This morning was a series of 200 to 400 feet climbs and falls until we reached the 700 feet climb up the Priest Mountain.   We did stop at the Priest Shelter to read the many confessionals in the trail log that people had written.    After the summit we had a long difficult 3,000 foot downhill to the river.    The downhills are tough on the knees.    We reached the river and the meet point early around 11:00 a.m..  I had spoken with Lisa while on the mountain and knew she would on time at noon.   At 11:58, Lisa pulled into the parking lot and you cannot believe how good it was to see her smiling face.  She had stopped and picked up my favorite….Subway Sandwiches and   Running Mink and I enjoyed a special lunch.   After lunch, Lisa agreed to take Running Mink’s ID, a written wavier including a photo with Running Mink and Lisa and the note to the local post office to pick-up his new trail runners (shoes).    Lisa also agree to take the weight from our packs and let us slack pack to the evening meet point at Reeds Gap (another 11.5 Miles).    The lighter packs made the afternoon much more enjoyable as we climbed back 3000’ up Three Ridges Mountain.   The weather was nice and the view spectator.   Running Mink and I talked knew the two plus weeks of hiking together was coming to an end.   We talked about staying touch throughout the rest of the hike and afterwards.    At around 5:50, we arrived at Reeds Gap where we were met by Lisa and our friends from Richmond Danny and Tracey.    Lisa had picked up Running Minks shoes and he was going to camp a few miles down the trail that night.   After a few last photos, we say our good-byes and he headed down the trail as I headed in town with Lisa.   We had a wonderful dinner and a good night’s sleep.   I planned a  little later wake-up time for Saturday as Danny and I were going to do 15 miles of slack packing.   Total Miles 22.1 Miles.