Nero to Jim & Molly’s
It is Friday, June 14, at 8:20 p.m., and there's a huge storm happening right now. I’ll be surprised if S. can even hear me on this recording over the sound of the rain. It’s intense. But I’ll give it a shot. Right now, I’m at the Jim and Molly Denton shelter, which is a really lovely complex. I don't know who Jim and Molly are, but they must have donated some money or something to make this place so nice. There’s a really great pavilion with a picnic table under it. There's a horseshoe pit. There’s a really cool multi-person Adirondak-style bench on the porch of the shelter. There's even a shower that's fed by a spring, but it looks a little bit too complicated, so I don’t plan on taking a shower there. Plus it's spring water, so it’s freaking cold.
I woke up this morning at the Super 8 Motel in Front Royal, and I hadn’t seen any signage about this, but apparently, it was the morning that whenever you left your room, you were obligated to let your door absolutely slam shut. It must have been somewhere in the fine print. I’d been planning on sleeping in a little bit, but that plan was quickly foiled by all my exiting neighbors.
So I gave up on sleeping and instead went down to the lobby to enjoy a feast of a breakfast. They had one of those little DIY pancake machines with the conveyor belt, and it took forever to spit out two tiny pancakes. I just resorted to eating toast after that.
When I left the hotel, I walked over to the Front Royal visitor center. The town is really very charming. They've done a good job of cultivating the cute little Main Street vibe. And the visitors center is where you pick up the free trolley that takes you back to the trailhead. There was a trolley scheduled at 9:30 that I technically could have made, but it's like, You know what? I’ve got a hotel room. I'll sit in the air conditioning and look at my maps and just kind of chill out while I plan out my next few days. So that's what I did. And I caught the trolley that came at 11:30 instead.
There were two other thru-hikers on the trolley, heading back to the trail. One of them was named Happy Ass, and he had hiked three 26-mile days in a row through the Shenandoahs, which is just insane to me. He zeroed in Front Royal yesterday. I didn’t get the other hiker’s name.
When we got off the trolley, there was a nice little surprise there. A hiker named Trailblazer needed to get off the trail, and his mom had come to pick him up and brought a bunch of goodies with her. So they were handing out some Trail Magic at the trailhead. We all chugged a bunch of Gatorade before we hiked out. Happy Ass and the other hiker got back on the trail before me and were gone in about 20 seconds. At this point, they're probably 15 miles up the trail from me.
I'm meeting S. in Harpers Ferry on the 18th, and it would be fairly easy for me to get there on the 17th. However, we booked an Airbnb, and S. made arrangements for someone to watch the cats and all that, which means we don’t have a lot of flexibility on dates. So, I’m just going to take my time getting to Harpers Ferry. That’s why I only did a little over 5 miles today — 5.2, to be specific. I got here probably around 2:30 and had a nice afternoon, just relaxing.
While I was sitting at the picnic table, having some food, some other thru-hikers rolled in. One was a guy from New York named Gentle Yeti. He started the AT two days after I did, and this is the first time I've seen him. The other guy is section hiking. He turned out to be a fellow home brewer, so we talked about that for a bit. He lives in NOVA and is going to be hiking with his son later. Nice guy.
Interestingly, a Mennonite couple came in next. I actually camped next to them on night three of my hike. Way back when. We all remembered each other, and they both seem to have very, very keen memories. The woman's trail name is Gloss, and the guy is named Low Key, and for very good reason. It's not an ironic name at all. The dude is always super chill. They’re both very nice people, and we chatted for a little while.
L to R: Gloss, Gentle Yeti, Low Key (photo credit: Christopher Marshburn)
After I finished my dinner, it was still stiflingly hot out. I got into my tent anyway and talked to S. for a bit, just pouring sweat the whole time. But then, while I was on the phone, a rather large storm rolled through, and now it’s like someone put on the air conditioning outside — and I’m eternally grateful for it, even though my tent is now a muddy mess on the outside because of the hard rain. The tent site I’m on is all dirt. But those things are going to happen sometimes.
Even though I’m ahead of schedule, I'm planning on doing a very big day tomorrow. The temperature's not supposed to be that bad, so I'm going to try to do 18.5 miles, which will set me up to stay at the Bear’s Den hostel on Sunday night. And the Bear’s Den hostel is notable — to me, anyway — for two reasons. The first is that it used to be a private residence, and it's a very beautiful stone house. It kind of looks like a castle, actually, and I believe the Appalachian Trail Conservancy owns it now and runs the hostel. It should be a nice place to stay.
The second reason is that there’s a brewery just about a 10-minute walk from the hostel. The section hiker from Northern Virginia has been there and told me it's really nice. So basically, on Sunday, I'm just going to hike straight there. That's the plan. Let's hope it works out that way. And now that it’s finally cooling down a little, I think I should be able to get some sleep.
