Date: 2011-04-28
From: Jenny Knob Shelter

To: Southern Terminus Ribble Trail/Woods Hole Hostel
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: mist

What a long, strange week the last week has been. This is being written on 5/4, but for the sake of Trail Journal continuity I have broken it into the individual days. Woke up and slowly packed up camp today after an intense lightning storm last night. For several hours the lightning flickered constantly like a strobe light, and had much the same effect. I was making 'raver hands' in the tent to amuse myself. Very little rain, one massive 15 minute downpour, then another round of light rain, but the lightning went on for hours. Wish I had thought to catch video but didn't. Last one out of the shelter today, not hitting the trail until 10:00. Hiked slowly down to Trent's Grocery to find that everyone had already moved on. Sat and ate a pizza (yes, a whole pizza. And I'm losing weight. Best. Diet. EVER.) and some candy while deciding what to do with the day. Both legs are dead lame, and I just kind of hobble. The right shin and left quad hurt in their own separate ways, and are worsened by different things, so basically no avoiding it while walking. The girl working the counter let me use her cell phone to call my mom who estimated that she would arrive around 8:00 that night. Looked at the map and figured out that I could do an easy slow couple of miles to a blue blaze, then cut over to the forest road and head back to Trent's, then go to Woods Hole Hostel because it sounded pretty neat in AWOL's book.The hike was nice and nearly dead flat. Still not moving very fast, took until nearly 5:00 to do another 5.8 miles to the Ribble Trail. Made it over to the forest road and started the equally long hike back to Trent's. I told my mom that if I wasn't at Trent's, to drive down the forest road until she found me so I wasn't worried about missing her. I didn't see a single car for an hour and a half, and sat down and took my shoes and socks off to have a rest for a while. As I sat sprawled, a car with a couple in it went by. I didn't thumb a ride because my stuff was sprawled everywhere, but regretted it as soon as they were out of site. I didn't want to walk anymore. As luck would have it, a minute later the car came back the other way and stopped, and the guy asked if I was OK. I told him I was fine, but would appreciate a ride to Trent's if he could. He said sure and I hopped in. He and his wife live on that road, one of only a small handful of people that do, so I was lucky that anyone went by. Got back to Trent's and ate dinner there too, and as it turned out Tigger, Lightning and Not Far were tenting there, and I went and hung out with them. At nearly 8:00 exactly my mom pulled in, and we ended up sitting around drinking some homemade beer that a friend in NJ brews for a good hour before heading to the hostel.Now, the AT maps are interesting in that they show only the narrow corridor that the trail goes through, and nothing around it. I could see where the hostel was on the map, but not where the road it is on comes out. What I could see were a series of Forest Service road that went over the mountain and connected to Sugar Run Road near where the trail came out. The road I had been walking on was a FS road and was in great condition, so I told my mom to go that way. Unfortunately, the road becomes minimum maintenance after the last house, just about where I got onto it from the trail and it was deeply rutted and steep, and the GPS just showed a little car icon driving around in black space with no roads. So. An hour of that, and at 10:00 pulled into the hostel about 10 miles away from where we started. Considered just going into town because of the late hour, but saw people walking around from the driveway, so decided to go in. Knocked at the door and Neville, who owns the place with her husband Michael answered and told us that the shared room was available for the night. When we told them of our drive there, Michael was amazed and he said that the Forest Service doesn't even use those roads unless there is a forest fire or other emergency, and the highway that my mom came in on is the same one that their road connects too. Well, we got there at least.Let me start by saying that the first thing I noticed was that this place was absolutely gorgeous. I mean FABULOUS. Renovated 1800s log cabin made completely rustic-modern, with a flow to the whole space that gave it a feel that you wouldn't believe. ( www.woodsholehostel.com ) I didn't look for long though after the exhausting day, and quickly fell asleep upstairs.