Date: 2016-07-10
From: Trent's Grocery

To: Wood's Hole Hostel
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I got up, loaded my pack and headed to the grocery store for a breakfast of eggs and bacon. I had debated with myself about waiting for the mail to arrive at 10:30. It didn't make sense to me that it hadn't arrived yet. I checked the notes in my iPhone and realized I hadn't sent the mail drop to the grocery store; I had sent it to Wood's Hole Hostel, my destination for today. I guess that explains why the clerk at Trent's Grocery couldn't find my package. In fact, I remembered why I had sent my mail drop to the hostel; they specialize in sustainable gardening and offer a gourmet, organic meal to hikers for a reasonable fee with lots of great food! I planned to stay there, sleep in a real bed, and have a great meal - oh, and pick up a mail drop. Chives and I hit the trail first. It wasn't long before he got ahead of me and I was hiking alone. I had blisters on both feet which impacted my hiking speed a bit. Of course the day started by hiking up away from the road crossing. A short connection to Dismal Falls came in the first mile or so. The falls weren't dismal at all, they were on Dismal Creek. In fact, with all the rain lately, the falls were going strong. There were also several stream crossings back on the main trail and one small elevation gain, about 1500 feet, with a great view from a rock outcropping near the top. By late afternoon, Elisa and Kolby had caught up to me. They had a later start from Trent's Grocery. I asked if they were stopping at Wood's Hole Hostel. Elisa said they were going to stop there, but when they called, they found out that the owners were on vacation. The temporary caretakers were not doing the meals. By that time in the afternoon, I had been thinking about that meal for about 5 hours! Well, meal or no meal, I needed to go there for my mail drop. We hiked together until the forest road that led to Wood's Hole Hostel. They were going on a few more miles. I was calling it quits at 15 miles - plus the half mile down the road to the hostel. At one point the trail wound among some large boulders. If I hadn't been close behind Elisa and Kolby, I wouldn't have noticed that the trail went over a large rock and dropped down about four feet between two boulders. It would have been a great spot for a couple white blazes, but I didn't see any. When I got to the hostel, there were three other guys staying there. Merlin (trail name) had hiked from Springer Mountain, GA. He was hiking until he was ready to stop, recently retired, no obligations of commitments. Gandalf (obviously a trail name) was a young, deaf man who had also hiked from Georgia and was ending his hike to go talk about hiking at a camp for deaf teenagers. The third guy was not a backpacker, he drove to the hostel. He was from New Zealand. He had two weeks to see the U.S. before heading to Colorado for a conference. He decided to spend the two weeks learning about Appalachia.   He is driving from hostel to campsite, doing day hikes, visiting small mountain towns, and talking with the proper. I was so impressed that someone would have two weeks in the U.S. and was spending it somewhere besides Disney World or New York. Plus he had just driven to the grocery store and he shared some fresh vegetables with me. A journalist from the Roanoke Times and his wife, a special ed teacher and reading specialist, were the temporary caretakers. They brought us some roasted vegetables and quiche. - for free! It was definitely worth the half-Mike walk to the hostel! And I got mail drop.