Date: 2012-11-29
From: Iron Mountain Shelter 

To: Kincora Hostel 
Miles today: 24.5

(In which I meet Bob Peoples and stay at Kincora Hostel) -Currently sitting in Kincora all by my lonesome a little past my bed time-Last night was a full moon and when I got up this morning it hadn't set yet. I don't think I've ever been awake early for a full moon in the colder months. The moon lit up the trail so much that I didn't even need my headlamp. As I walked along a ridge, the eastern sky slowly lit up with shades of red and yellow while the western sky was rimmed with pink, blue, and a massive, brilliant moon. I wish I could have taken one picture with my camera pointed in both directions at once. Since I didn't think I could get a picture to do the view any justice, I decided to selfishly save it to my own memory. Instead, I leave you with a nice view from the shelter I took first lunch at...I learned via text message that Dante is a day behind now. Apparently he spent another night in Damascus just to get the maildrop that was arriving yesterday afternoon. I also found out, via shelter register, that Lotus is three days ahead and once again dreaming about cookie cake. As far as I can tell he's the only southbounder up ahead within a week. If Dante doesn't move quickly I'm in for a long stretch of hiking solo. Tis the season.The main attraction today was making it to Kincora hostel. I stopped in Hampton to get 3 days of supplies to hold me over until Erwin and packed out a luxery item to eat at the hostel... pasta sauce. Of all the foods I could possibly miss, simple pasta with tomato pasta sauce is at the top of the list. The smallest jar the grocery had weighed 14 ounces. Fortunately I only had to hike 3.7 miles over easy terrain to get here from town. There was absolutely no one at the hostel when I got here. It's a cozy little cabin (albeit a cold, cozy little cabin) that looks like it was pulled from a scene in the Goonies. Old eclectic lamps, crooked frames and a warped kitchen table top. I love it. The walls and celings are plastered with hundreds of summit photos of thru-hikers from years past. Each area of wall or celing contains a single year. Each year's worth of pictures and cards covers about 2 or 3 square meters...the hostel has been open since 1998. That's a lot of surface area.After I cooked, ate and drank about 5 cups of tea, a fella walked in who introduced himself as Jack. Baltimore Jack! Those who know, know. For everyone else, I'll just say he's a legend in his own right - a true trail personality. He had been out doing trail maintanance with Bob Peoples and they had just gotten back. He went straight to work lighting the wood stove and told me he'd get Bob to stop by before he went to bed. Bob stopped by a half hour later and I told him it must be a burden to have to meet everybody who comes through the door. He laughed and from his smile you could tell he really enjoys meeting the people who come through his hostel. Bob, Jack and I chatted a while about the post-Sandy trail conditions and we agreed that blow-downs in rhodadendron groves are the nastiest blow-downs of them all. They spent most of the day today hacking down rhodadendrons that I would have been crawling under and over tomorrow morning. Of course, the conversation didn't vary from trails, and when Bob found out that I'm headed to Belgium next year he filled me in on a bunch of trails in Europe that I need to explore. Something called GR5 apparently runs right through Belgium... Oh, and if you're planning to hike the Camino de Santiago any time soon, his advice is to bring ear plugs and plastic clothes pins... he said you'll understand when you get there. Just before he left I mentioned that the last book I read before the trail was "The Barefoot Sisters, Southbound". At the mention of that his face lit up with a big smile. He did a quick recap of events while the Barefoot Sisters were here and it was obvious that he thought fondly of the pair. They still keep in touch.Tomorrow morning I'll take my sweet time getting out of here and only go about 15 miles. I'll speed up over the next two days as my food weight drops.Today's post was brought to you by Bob Peoples, because every time Bob Peoples builds a switchback, an angel gets its wings... (I read this on a shelter wall)