Pretty Fantastic
Today is Saturday, May 11, and I’m actually sitting in the dining room right now at the Weary Feet Hostel. Today didn't turn out at all like I was expecting it to, but in all good ways.
I woke up this morning at the Big Walker Motel in Bland. Chuck the shuttle driver picked me up at about 7:30, dropped me off at the trailhead, and I was on my way. My plan was to go about 15 miles and then just find a place to set up my tent. The first eight or so miles went very quickly, and I was excited to hit the 600-mile mark!
Shortly after that, I came to a road crossing. I’d done just about nine miles at that point, so it seemed like a good time for a snack and a little bit of water. As soon as I sat down, Other Rob [Wife note: Rabbit?] came out of the woods. When he saw me, he looked like he’d just seen a ghost, because he’d thought I was way ahead of him. We compared notes, and it turns out that over the past 100 miles, we were always within a couple miles of each other, but because we’d made different camping decisions along the way, we never bumped into each other.
A few minutes later, Bubble Bath came out of the woods. She’s the one who told me a while back, “Time for hikey hikey!” I hadn't seen her for probably 400 miles. Then, a guy named Fire Dog, who I was on a bus with on the way back to the trail at mile 69 in Hiawassee, came out of the woods. So it's funny how you can meet someone, then hike literally hundreds of miles without seeing them once, and then suddenly cross paths with them again out of nowhere.
When we were done with our snack, Other Rob/Rabbit mentioned that he was going to make his way to the Weary Feet Hostel for the night, and I was like, you know, That's almost 10 more miles. I'm not going to do that! But as the day progressed, the weather started turning darker and darker. And as I reached the various tent sites I’d been considering stopping at, they just weren't very attractive. So I decided to push ahead to Weary Feet Hostel, too, and boy, am I glad I did!
I put in an 18-plus-mile day. I got wet with a little rain, but in the end, I got here, had a great spaghetti dinner, followed by a great piece of strawberry cake, and there are dogs here. So that's always a bonus!
I met someone named Pub Crawl, and she had the idea of finding a driver to take our stuff from here to the Woods Hole Hostel tomorrow so we could slack pack from here to there. So she called a shuttle company and arranged everything, and we’re going to split the cost with her. We meaning me, Bubble bath, and a guy named Heisenberg. That means I’ll be slack packing about 16 miles tomorrow to Woods Hole, where the rest of my stuff will be waiting for me. That’s just fantastic.
On top of that, I’d been looking into possibly taking a zero in Perrysburg, Virginia, but the lodging options weren't looking all that great. And since I did the extra miles today and will be slack packing tomorrow, I can actually make up some time. I was expecting to reach the rendezvous point where I was going to meet up with my friend Charlie on the 17th, but now I'm going to get there on the 15th.
So then I had the idea of asking my dad whether he’d be willing to drive down and get me on the 15th so I could actually go home for a day, and he was on board with the idea. So now, I can spend the night of the 15th and take a zero on the 16th at home, rather than at some hostel or random hotel, and then come back to the trail with Charlie on the 17th. His lovely wife, Laurel, will drive us both to the trailhead that day.
So I started the day planning to camp somewhere on the side of the trail tonight, and instead, I'm in a great hostel, slack packing to another great hostel tomorrow, and heading home the next day for a super quick visit before meeting up with my friend. Pretty fantastic day.
