Hello loyal followers! Sorry for the long stay between blog posts! It has been a crazy couple of weeks since we left Damascus and the only reason we have time to update now is due to the fact that we are in Virginia Beach on vacation from our adventure! Kelley is being considered as a candidate for admission to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William & Mary (a very exciting and intimidating time in our lives!) so we decided to take a few days to visit the campus and escape to the ocean in order to rejuvenate our souls in preparation for the return to the trail life. Our good friends, Icicle & Quailman, also decided they needed a couple of days off and have joined us for this minor detour! Check out their awesome blog: Trail Mix & Dirty Underwear.
You might be wondering why we would need to escape from the trail for a few days. A series of events led up to this, starting with the weather turning on Day 60. I'm planning on detailing this culmination of incidents and happenings that led to our decision to leave the trail for a few days in the next blog post, which I will be posting tomorrow or the next day. For now, here is a summary of our days since our last post!
Day 41: Hogback Ridge Shelter to No Business Knob Shelter
This was our first 20 mile day! Holy cow! That morning we had decided that it would be ideal to make it to No Business Knob in order to get into Erwin early the next day before the forecasted thunderstorms rolled in.Thankfully most of the slush that was on the ground the previous day had melted away and the going was easy. We arrived at Spivey Gap (15.8 miles into the day), filtered water, ate raw Ramen noodles, fed Sheila, and pushed on into the growing darkness. Night hiking with emergency headlamps is no fun, but we were really excited to see that Boomer and Smudge were awake in the shelter as we arrived well after hiker midnight (around 9 o'clock in the evening). We made a quick dinner and hit the hay!
Day 42: No Business to Uncle Johnny's in Erwin, TN
The descent into Erwin is seemingly endless. You can see the town for at least the last 3 miles, growing ever closer with each switchback. We made it eventually to Uncle Johnny's and checked into the only cabin they had left, Cabin F at a rate of $40 per night. The "free" town shuttles were really just a dinner and breakfast shuttle to one spot in town. We ended up having a good night and meeting Sunshine and Youngbeard, a newly engaged couple that we hiked with through Hampton, TN.
Day 43: Uncle Johnny's to Indian Grave Gap
The weather looked atrocious on this morning, but soon cleared to blue skies and sunshine. We witnessed some of Uncle Johnny's more suspicious business practices as they quoted a couple $55/night for the same cabin we stayed in. We learned later from Icicle and Quailman that they stayed in the same cabin, but only because the guy who had reserved it alone all of a sudden found himself shacking up with Socs and Blaze, two pretty college age girls. The guy panicked and left because his girlfriend would have been very uncomfortable with the situation, so Socs and Blaze offered to share the cabin with Icicle and Quailman. Apparently this sort of thing happens pretty often when bunkroom spaces fill up. Buyer beware.
We ended up staying at Indian Grave Gap at Freshground's Leapfrog Cafe, a traveling trail magic food fiesta set up by attempted thru-hiker, Freshground. He made us hot dogs, chili, and homemade fries that night and banana pancakes, eggs, and bacon in the morning! Unfortunately there were no privies for the next 20 miles.
Day 44: Indian Grave to Cherry Gap Shelter
This was a short day because I felt like crap after all the food. We met Radioman,Cowgirl & Cooper the Miniature Pinscher, along with Poohbear and M this night, and reunited with Penguinman. Sheila ate people poop because previous visitors to the shelter had decided that it was OK to poop behind trees 0 feet off of the trail. Disgusting!
Day 45: Cherry Gap to Roan High Knob Shelter
Another long, hard day at 17-ish miles! Cheez-it felt great during the last big climb, while The Ramen Shaman's energy drained. For the last few miles of the climb, the trail was literally a sheet of ice, which made it dangerous and slow going in the setting sun. We managed to make it to the shelter, which was up another steep, icy trail, where we stayed with Sunshine,Youngbeard, and M. It was the coolest shelter I've seen so far with a fully enclosed space with windows and a door! Perfect for keeping out the wind.
Day 46: Roan High Knob to Doll Flats (NC border! - 2 States down, 12 to go!)
It was slow going again as we came down Roan High Knob due to the continued sheet of ice. The next section of trail was full of beautiful balds, referred to as the Roan Highlands. The climb up Little Hump and Hump Mountains made us very tired and the final mile to Doll Flats seemed infinite over rocky terrain. It was a beautiful campsite though, and we had great company.
Day 47: Doll Flats to Upper Laurel Falls
Tennessee was such a beautiful state! We were greeted with many rolling, green hills and many beautiful streams and waterfalls. We found a sweet headlamp at Jones Falls, which we have named The Sun due to it's brightness. We camped right near the river and enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep.
Day 48: Upper Laurel Falls to Black Bear Resort in Hampton, TN
Black Bear Resort was really incredible, partially because it really was just awesome and partially because we stayed with such great people and had such a good time that night.We split a cabin with Sunshine & Youngbeard, and partied with Windscreen, Batman, Tree, Dorothy, Coconut, Spicerack, Cowgirl, Youngbeard, and Mr. Blue Sky until actual midnight. The hostel was very dog friendly and had a great layout, and they didn't have a problem shuttling you into town to resupply at Dollar General versus resupplying with them.
Day 49: Black Bear Resort to Watauga Lake Shelter
We missed Laurel Falls! We accidently blue-blazed on the high-water trail, and got lost! But thankfully we saw Spicerack and Coconut and found the trail again.The hike up Pond Flats was stupid. You literally climbed 3000 feet just to come back down 3000 feet. Watauga Lake was beautiful, and we spent a fun night in camp with Batman, Owl and Dr. Scrambles.
Day 50: Watauga Lake to TN 91 (Yellowblazed into the Hiker's Inn in Damascus, VA - 3 States down, 11 to go!)
On this day, we realized we had to push long mileage days in order to get into Damascus on time, which would set us up for meeting The Ramen Shaman's dad in Atkins on the correct day. I also got really down and felt very tired after realizing we wouldn't have the opportunity to take a zero day for another two weeks. With some harsh weather blowing in, we decided to pull an 18 mile day instead of a 21 mile day and to go into Damascus early. That way we could take a rest and recoup before heading for Atkins. This meant missing 22 miles of trail, but it also meant reuniting with Icicle & Quailman, whom we had been missing! We already spoke about doing that section of trail again, so the 22 miles didn't seem very significant to us. We also realized that people on the trail don't actually care what you do during your hike; only online armchair hikers care.
That night we met Batman at the infamous Blue Blaze Cafe and learned he had hiked the 41 miles from the Watauga Lake Shelter that morning, a feat quite worthy of a beer or two! You can find his awesome blog here!
Day 51: Zero at Hiker's Inn
The Hiker's Inn was amazing. The room we stayed in was clean and comfy, and they let us borrow some bikes to do our resupply.
Day 52: Hiker's Inn to campsite by pond
We hiked out with Icicle & Quailman, happy that the "band" was back together. They are amazing friends and hiking and camping with them again was awesome! The miles seemed to just fly by. Soon enough, little Cooper the Min-Pin (Cowgirl's dog) came running up behind us. We hemmed and hawwed about going back to the shelter to see if they were there, but decided to push on to the campsite by the pond, which is where we thought Cowgirl and Radioman were staying. We made the right choice, and Radioman expressed his gratitude by sharing his booze.
Day 53: Pond campsite to Elk Garden campsite
We climbed Whitetop Mountain and Mt. Rogers on this day. Well, really only Whitetop because we didn't do the blue-blazed summit trail to Mt. Rogers, but we were essentially at the top. The views were beautiful, but the wind was cold, so we hustled down the mountain to eat lunch and push on. We camped at the Elk Garden VA 600 campsite, which had a surprise privy!
Day 54: Elk Garden to Bearpen Trail campsite
The Grayson Highlands are full of rocks. We were so tired at the end of 11 miles, we camped at the first spot we could find outside of the park. It was very beautiful though, and seemed unlike anything else in America. The ponies were cool too. Cheez-it was very worried about Sheila scaring off all of the ponies and ruining the experience for everyone, and she thought this was the case until we arrived at Wise Shelter. The Ramen Shaman ran down to filter water and called back to the shelter "Ponies!!" We were all ecstatic! Walrus, a section hiker, equated us all to 5 year-old girls which was an accurate assessment of our behavior. To be clear, Sheila didn't give a damn about the ponies until we seemed very excited about them, at which point she decided to bark like mad. The ponies didn't care. We pushed on to a beautiful campsite at the Bearpen Trail intersection and spent a great night by the fire, listening to Quailman read The Hobbit.
Day 55: Bearpen Trail campsite to Trimpi Shelter
Another long day! 18 miles! But it was totally worth the sore and tired feet, because the next day we arrived at the famous Partnership Shelter for pizza delivery! Boomer, Smudge, Tree, Batman, and Dorothy were all in the shelter while The Lolligaggers camped.
Day 56: Trimpi to Partnership Shelter
Food is an excellent motivator. We made these 12 miles before 3pm! And it was a just and excellent reward! Pizza, beer, and good times loitering in front of the visitor's center with the whole gang from Trimpi Shelter.
Day 57: Partnership to the Relax Inn in Atkins, VA
This time we were motivated by an AYCE buffet at The Barn Restaurant that closed at 2pm in Atkins, VA. We woke up at 6am to the sound of The Ramen Shaman cracking a beer and hiked the 10 miles into town. The Priest caught up with us and walked into town with us. Mason (The Ramen Shaman's dad) arrived that evening bearing gifts of delicious oatmeal cookies from The Ramen Shaman's mom, Debbie. All of the hikers who hung around that night, including Batman, The Priest, Noodle, Cowgirl, Poohbear, Radioman, Icicle & Quailman enjoyed them immensely and they were gone in no time. It was a fun and productive night and we can't thank Mason & Debbie enough for their generosity! The buffet was disappointing though as they imposed a 3 plate limit and no refills on fountain drinks. We also switched into our summer gear, dropping our pack weights from the 40-50lb range to 25-35lb range. Cheez-it also heard back from a professor at Virginia Institute of Marine Science saying that she is being considered as a candidate for admissions!
Day 58: Relax Inn to Knot Maul Shelter
This was our first day hiking with Mason (aka Grandpa Kibble)! We were all excited to leave town and start the adventure, but on the first uphill it was clear that Grandpa Kibble's pack-weight was a little much and our hardened hiking legs were too fast under the lightened load of summer gear. The Ramen Shaman ended up carrying Grandpa Kibble's pack to make things a little easier on him and we all trudged on to the shelter. At the shelter we met The Cougars, a group of 3 older ladies who are section hiking together. They were a lot of fun!
Day 59: Knot Maul to Chestnut Knob Shelter
This was a day from hell, and is now Cheez-it's worst day on record. The day started out normally enough, overcast and a little rain, but as we climbed the 5000ft up Chestnut Knob, the weather turned. The rain turned into sleet, and the sleet turned into snow. Sheila coat was covered in a layer of ice and sleet. The temperatures plummeted on the Knob and the wind picked up, blowing at a sustained 20mph with gusts to 60mph. Thankfully the shelter on top was a fully enclosed concrete shelter with a door. About 13 others decided to stay in the shelter built for 8, but Cowgirl and Radioman made sure that the three of us had bunk space. The sudden turn in the weather combined with our lack of cold weather gear really caused Cheez-it to spiral into a depression and snap at The Ramen Shaman. The next few days would not do much to lift her spirits. The Ramen Shaman came up with a plan for us to make up the missed miles by slackpacking for the next few days. Radioman, Cowgirl, Poohbear, Noodle, Icicle & Quailman were all down for slackpacking, which was cool because we ended up traveling with this little group for the next few days.
Day 60: Chestnut Knob to Fort Bastian at Laurel Creek (near Bastian, VA) - Slackpack Day 1
The plan called for us to hike to the next road crossing and drop off our packs with a guy named TruBrit who runs Fort Bastian, a place with tenting and pizza delivery. Grandpa Kibble hiked the remaining 10 miles with The Ramen Shaman, and decided that he would be a trail angel for the following days to our little group due to having injured his knee. This put a damper in our spirits because we were really looking forward to hiking with him. TruBrit's place was really interesting, and so was the man himself. We were all convinced he was a pathological liar after he told us that he had been a millionaire 3 or 4 times over and subsequently gave away his wealth each time and said he had hiked over 150,000 miles in his life. We did the math on this last part, and figured out he would have had to hike 3000 miles every year since he was born if we assume he is 50 years old. The stories he told were entertaining to say the least.
We will be updating the mail drop page later this evening and adding photos to our Facebook page tomorrow morning before heading back out on the trail! Thanks for your continued encouragement and support!
Showing posts with label hostels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hostels. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
Our 40th Trailaversary: Days 26 - 40
We are in Damascus! We decided to yellow-blaze 22 miles to get out of a bad wind & rain storm and honestly, we couldn't be happier! Not only have we been reunited with Icicle and Quailman, we have also been able to hang out in what I would consider the coolest trail town so far! Our original plan allowed for no dilly-dallying in Damascus, which would have been pretty terrible...
I'm changing our format again to make it easier on me, especially since we hardly ever have cell service and I never want to write in camp at night. I'd rather be sleeping!
Day 26: Zero at Double Spring Shelter
Day 27: Double Spring Shelter to Icewater Spring Shelter
Day 28: Icewater to Tricorner Knob Shelter
Day 29: Tricorner Knob to Cosby Knob Shelter
Day 30: Cosby Knob to Standing Bear Hostel
Day 31: Standing Bear to Brown Gap
Day 32: Brown Gap to Old Rd.
Day 33: Old Rd. to Laughing Heart Lodge in Hot Springs, NC
Day 34: Zero at Laughing Heart
Day 35: Hot Springs to Campsite near Lover's Leap
Day 36: Campsite to Spring Mountain Shelter
Day 37: Spring Mountain to Hemlock Hollow Hostel in Greeneville, TN
Day 38: Zero at Hemlock Hollow
Day 39: Hemlock Hollow to Jerry Cabin Shelter
Day 40: Jerry Cabin to Hogback Ridge Shelter
The Smoky's
So, as you might have guessed, we survived our super cold night in the Smoky's. The temperature in our little bungalow never dipped below 25 degrees, which is just insane when you consider that it was less than 10 degrees outside the shelter. We spent our zero day playing in the snow (give us a break, we're Floridians!) and yogi-ing food off of the section hikers that passed through. Yogi-ing is the term for acting like a "Yogi Bear" trying to get food from someones pic-a-nic basket! It's easy to do: first, find a day hiker or a section hiker. Next, continually mention how hungry you are and that you are low on food. Section hikers almost always pack too much food, so if they catch on that you are discretely asking for food, they will off-load some of the extra weight right into your belly. It also helps to be a semi-attractive girl asking a bunch of college-age guys. In the Smoky's this was really amazing because we actually were low on food and had to ration for 2 extra days.
Chase actually got his official trail-name on our zero day in the Smoky's, because Pacman was gracious enough to point out that Angeleyes was "so gay." So Chase was redubbed "The Ramen Shaman" for his ability to suggest that mostly anything left at the bottom of your foodbag would probably be really good in Ramen. And he is so right on that.
The rest of our time in the Smoky's was pretty great. Hiking in the deep snow was an experience for sure. Icicle came down with a head cold at Icewater Spring Shelter and her last few days were really miserable. She wrote a really great blog post about it, which you can check out here. We all carry cold medicine now! Our second to last day to Cosby Knob was really great weatherwise, as it was blowing 40mph across the ridgeline with heavy rain! Superfun to hike in! NOT.
We were all very excited to leave the Smoky Mountains. "At least it's not the Smoky's" became a favorite phrase.
Hostels
We've stayed in a lot of diverse places so far on our journey. There is a lot of lore behind many of the hostels along the AT, and a lot of rumors about each one. I'm going to take a moment to talk about the three hostels we stayed in on this stretch of trail.
Standing Bear Hostel divides the AT community pretty decisively into two camps: people who love it, and people who hate it. I'm pretty sure this chasm is created over the people who own Standing Bear and the resupply options, because the accomodations are normal for the AT (basic bunkhouse, OK cabin). The community kitchen area was really awesome, and the shower was great (hot water FOREVER). The people who run it, Curtis and Rocket, are pretty typical "Dueling Banjos" mountain folk. We interacted with Rocket mainly, and he seemed like a pretty genuine and decent human being (though blazed out of his mind), but our brief conversations with Curtis left us feeling pretty uneasy. Drug use is pretty open and rampant there, so if you're uncomfortable with that sort of thing, definitely stay away. My main problem with the place was the resupply. Everything that a hiker would actually want to buy was marked waaaaay up. All of the meat was out of date. The coolers smelled like pee. I get the impression that they buy groceries at a discount grocery store and then just mark everything up 50%. While you can get buy here, I would suggest sending a resupply box (though I also wouldn't be surprised if they did away with accepting mail drops, as Curtis mentioned that it takes away from his business). Overall, I would stay there again, though we wouldn't resupply and we wouldn't stay for more than a night.
The Hostel at Laughing Heart Lodge was one of our favorite places that we have stayed so far. The location is a little outside of the main drag and the room we stayed in was a little small for the price (the smallest double room in the place, I think), but the common area and the people were awesome. Chuck Norris was a really great guy to talk to and he even let us leave Sheila in the room when we went to lunch and to do resupply. He let us do work-for-stay for one of the nights that we stayed, so we swept and cleaned rooms as hikers left. We were able to save a bit of money by buying some frozen pizzas and frozen fried chicken from the Dollar General and cook in the common kitchen. We hung out with the other hikers staying the night in the living room and watched "Pitch Perfect" while eating pints of Ben & Jerry's. The showers were awesome and had seemingly endless hot water. The lawn was also really great for spreading gear out on. We would most definitely stay again!
Hemlock Hollow is just outside of Hot Springs, and I don't imagine they get too much business unless it's during peak hiker-season. We really enjoyed our time there! Mark and his mom are great people who love the trail! The bunkhouse, cabins, and bathrooms were all built using lumber logged from the property, which was really neat. The location was beautiful! A small creek runs straight thorugh the middle of the property and the cafe has this wonderful porch that overlooks the creek. They let us do work-for-stay for one of the nights, so we stacked firewood with Mark, which was awesome. The bunkroom is heated via wood-burning stove, and it was really easy to overheat the place. We woke up sweating the first night and kept the windows open for an hour to let the heat out. Sheila loved hanging out with Rowdy, Mark's Aussie-mix dog. They played for hours! The only reason we stayed here was because of Sheila: she ate some trash back at Spring Mountain Shelter (the place was a dump) and didn't want to eat or drink that morning or that afternoon. Some winter weather was blowing in that night, so we didn't want to be stuck on the trail if something was seriously wrong. She was feeling fine again by the next day, and we all watched the crazy sleet/snow/rain/wind from the comfort of the cafe. The showers weren't very good, but it has something to do with the way they get the water, so you only have 5 minutes to shower and the next person has to wait 20 minutes. Sailor showers are a must there. The bathroom is nicely heated though, so this wasn't a problem in the winter. The resupply there is pretty limited, but they weren't fully stocked up for hiker-season yet, so that may have been why. We would stay again, but the distance from Hot Springs makes it not ideal.
The Hiker Bubble
We were unfortunate enough to get a taste for what hiking in the Bubble must be like when we stayed at Jerry Cabin Shelter. We hiked in around 5 o'clock and decided to stay as a section hiker named Codger had a fire going in the fireplace. We set our packs down and start collecting firewood to dry out our socks after hiking in snow and slush all day. About 30 minutes later, a couple come into the shelter and proceed to roll out their sleeping pads right next to the fire. They didn't even say hello to any of us before deciding to set up. Codger had his pack sitting on the floor of the sleeping area next to the fire and he had to awkwardly move it out of their way as they set up. Ramen Shaman and I thought it was weird and really rude, because we hadn't experienced anything like that before. Anyway, we all are introduced and everything seems fine until about 10 minutes later. I'm in the process of blowing up our sleeping pads because we decided we wanted to stay in the shelter with Sheila for the first time, and 8 people show up at the same time. All of them are thru-hikers. All of them started March 1st. I was very instantly overwhelmed with this group. I quickly decided that we should tent, so we moved out of the shelter, and they instantly took over. Everyone was great and nice and happy, but it just seemed so strange to me that such a large group had set out from Springer together and had been hiking together for nearly a month. We then put two and two together and decided that the couple that had come in a little early were claiming their space because they knew that there was a bubble of hikers coming. I remember hearing that there were something like 100 people at Hawk Mountain Shelter one night, and I cannot even imagine how crazy that must have been. My experience with the trail has very much been of an intimate community of hikers that are usually hiking alone and will probably camp or shelter with very few other hikers on any given day. We all know each other and can recognize one another coming down the trail. March and April starters will have no idea what that is like until much later in the game after most people have quit. I prefer the small group dynamic of early-starters, and I'll be happy when the fast March bubble pass us by.
40th day on the Trail!
Our 40th day was spent hiking miserably in slush. Thankfully we didn't even realize it was our 40th Trailaversary!
I'm changing our format again to make it easier on me, especially since we hardly ever have cell service and I never want to write in camp at night. I'd rather be sleeping!
Day 26: Zero at Double Spring Shelter
Day 27: Double Spring Shelter to Icewater Spring Shelter
Day 28: Icewater to Tricorner Knob Shelter
Day 29: Tricorner Knob to Cosby Knob Shelter
Day 30: Cosby Knob to Standing Bear Hostel
Day 31: Standing Bear to Brown Gap
Day 32: Brown Gap to Old Rd.
Day 33: Old Rd. to Laughing Heart Lodge in Hot Springs, NC
Day 34: Zero at Laughing Heart
Day 35: Hot Springs to Campsite near Lover's Leap
Day 36: Campsite to Spring Mountain Shelter
Day 37: Spring Mountain to Hemlock Hollow Hostel in Greeneville, TN
Day 38: Zero at Hemlock Hollow
Day 39: Hemlock Hollow to Jerry Cabin Shelter
Day 40: Jerry Cabin to Hogback Ridge Shelter
The Smoky's
So, as you might have guessed, we survived our super cold night in the Smoky's. The temperature in our little bungalow never dipped below 25 degrees, which is just insane when you consider that it was less than 10 degrees outside the shelter. We spent our zero day playing in the snow (give us a break, we're Floridians!) and yogi-ing food off of the section hikers that passed through. Yogi-ing is the term for acting like a "Yogi Bear" trying to get food from someones pic-a-nic basket! It's easy to do: first, find a day hiker or a section hiker. Next, continually mention how hungry you are and that you are low on food. Section hikers almost always pack too much food, so if they catch on that you are discretely asking for food, they will off-load some of the extra weight right into your belly. It also helps to be a semi-attractive girl asking a bunch of college-age guys. In the Smoky's this was really amazing because we actually were low on food and had to ration for 2 extra days.
Chase actually got his official trail-name on our zero day in the Smoky's, because Pacman was gracious enough to point out that Angeleyes was "so gay." So Chase was redubbed "The Ramen Shaman" for his ability to suggest that mostly anything left at the bottom of your foodbag would probably be really good in Ramen. And he is so right on that.
The rest of our time in the Smoky's was pretty great. Hiking in the deep snow was an experience for sure. Icicle came down with a head cold at Icewater Spring Shelter and her last few days were really miserable. She wrote a really great blog post about it, which you can check out here. We all carry cold medicine now! Our second to last day to Cosby Knob was really great weatherwise, as it was blowing 40mph across the ridgeline with heavy rain! Superfun to hike in! NOT.
We were all very excited to leave the Smoky Mountains. "At least it's not the Smoky's" became a favorite phrase.
Hostels
We've stayed in a lot of diverse places so far on our journey. There is a lot of lore behind many of the hostels along the AT, and a lot of rumors about each one. I'm going to take a moment to talk about the three hostels we stayed in on this stretch of trail.
Standing Bear Hostel divides the AT community pretty decisively into two camps: people who love it, and people who hate it. I'm pretty sure this chasm is created over the people who own Standing Bear and the resupply options, because the accomodations are normal for the AT (basic bunkhouse, OK cabin). The community kitchen area was really awesome, and the shower was great (hot water FOREVER). The people who run it, Curtis and Rocket, are pretty typical "Dueling Banjos" mountain folk. We interacted with Rocket mainly, and he seemed like a pretty genuine and decent human being (though blazed out of his mind), but our brief conversations with Curtis left us feeling pretty uneasy. Drug use is pretty open and rampant there, so if you're uncomfortable with that sort of thing, definitely stay away. My main problem with the place was the resupply. Everything that a hiker would actually want to buy was marked waaaaay up. All of the meat was out of date. The coolers smelled like pee. I get the impression that they buy groceries at a discount grocery store and then just mark everything up 50%. While you can get buy here, I would suggest sending a resupply box (though I also wouldn't be surprised if they did away with accepting mail drops, as Curtis mentioned that it takes away from his business). Overall, I would stay there again, though we wouldn't resupply and we wouldn't stay for more than a night.
The Hostel at Laughing Heart Lodge was one of our favorite places that we have stayed so far. The location is a little outside of the main drag and the room we stayed in was a little small for the price (the smallest double room in the place, I think), but the common area and the people were awesome. Chuck Norris was a really great guy to talk to and he even let us leave Sheila in the room when we went to lunch and to do resupply. He let us do work-for-stay for one of the nights that we stayed, so we swept and cleaned rooms as hikers left. We were able to save a bit of money by buying some frozen pizzas and frozen fried chicken from the Dollar General and cook in the common kitchen. We hung out with the other hikers staying the night in the living room and watched "Pitch Perfect" while eating pints of Ben & Jerry's. The showers were awesome and had seemingly endless hot water. The lawn was also really great for spreading gear out on. We would most definitely stay again!
Hemlock Hollow is just outside of Hot Springs, and I don't imagine they get too much business unless it's during peak hiker-season. We really enjoyed our time there! Mark and his mom are great people who love the trail! The bunkhouse, cabins, and bathrooms were all built using lumber logged from the property, which was really neat. The location was beautiful! A small creek runs straight thorugh the middle of the property and the cafe has this wonderful porch that overlooks the creek. They let us do work-for-stay for one of the nights, so we stacked firewood with Mark, which was awesome. The bunkroom is heated via wood-burning stove, and it was really easy to overheat the place. We woke up sweating the first night and kept the windows open for an hour to let the heat out. Sheila loved hanging out with Rowdy, Mark's Aussie-mix dog. They played for hours! The only reason we stayed here was because of Sheila: she ate some trash back at Spring Mountain Shelter (the place was a dump) and didn't want to eat or drink that morning or that afternoon. Some winter weather was blowing in that night, so we didn't want to be stuck on the trail if something was seriously wrong. She was feeling fine again by the next day, and we all watched the crazy sleet/snow/rain/wind from the comfort of the cafe. The showers weren't very good, but it has something to do with the way they get the water, so you only have 5 minutes to shower and the next person has to wait 20 minutes. Sailor showers are a must there. The bathroom is nicely heated though, so this wasn't a problem in the winter. The resupply there is pretty limited, but they weren't fully stocked up for hiker-season yet, so that may have been why. We would stay again, but the distance from Hot Springs makes it not ideal.
The Hiker Bubble
We were unfortunate enough to get a taste for what hiking in the Bubble must be like when we stayed at Jerry Cabin Shelter. We hiked in around 5 o'clock and decided to stay as a section hiker named Codger had a fire going in the fireplace. We set our packs down and start collecting firewood to dry out our socks after hiking in snow and slush all day. About 30 minutes later, a couple come into the shelter and proceed to roll out their sleeping pads right next to the fire. They didn't even say hello to any of us before deciding to set up. Codger had his pack sitting on the floor of the sleeping area next to the fire and he had to awkwardly move it out of their way as they set up. Ramen Shaman and I thought it was weird and really rude, because we hadn't experienced anything like that before. Anyway, we all are introduced and everything seems fine until about 10 minutes later. I'm in the process of blowing up our sleeping pads because we decided we wanted to stay in the shelter with Sheila for the first time, and 8 people show up at the same time. All of them are thru-hikers. All of them started March 1st. I was very instantly overwhelmed with this group. I quickly decided that we should tent, so we moved out of the shelter, and they instantly took over. Everyone was great and nice and happy, but it just seemed so strange to me that such a large group had set out from Springer together and had been hiking together for nearly a month. We then put two and two together and decided that the couple that had come in a little early were claiming their space because they knew that there was a bubble of hikers coming. I remember hearing that there were something like 100 people at Hawk Mountain Shelter one night, and I cannot even imagine how crazy that must have been. My experience with the trail has very much been of an intimate community of hikers that are usually hiking alone and will probably camp or shelter with very few other hikers on any given day. We all know each other and can recognize one another coming down the trail. March and April starters will have no idea what that is like until much later in the game after most people have quit. I prefer the small group dynamic of early-starters, and I'll be happy when the fast March bubble pass us by.
40th day on the Trail!
Our 40th day was spent hiking miserably in slush. Thankfully we didn't even realize it was our 40th Trailaversary!
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