Date: 2017-05-04
From: Mountaineer Shelter

To: Kincora Hostel
Miles today: 15.9

We woke up and the rain had not yet started. We got ready along with MiddleBrother and Frisbee, who had also stayed at the shelter last night. I ended up heading out a few minutes early, intending to take it easy on my knees and to hopefully have some extra time to enjoy the trail. The trail for the first couple hours was fairly easy, gradually rising and falling over the contours of the land. This is the first time that I can remember that it's felt like I was hiking through the lowlands... water was plentiful from the many streams I hiked over, the flora had fully bloomed into spring, and the terrain was fairly gradual.As I was hiking I came across a bench on the trail, the same that you'd expect to see positioned in any city park. I stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view... the bench was set under a tree which, had the day been sunnier, would have provided much appreciated protection from the sun's intense rays. The trees in front of bench had been cut a while ago and were slowly growing back, most standing less than 20ft tall on the hill which sloped down away from the bench.  Over the tops of the trees stood a series of overlapping wooded hills, their trees coloring the hills with various shades of green and brown as the trees grew their new leaves. In the distance, an imposing line of mountains, the balds we traversed, punctured the thick grey clouds as they flew past. Beyond them blue sky was visible through holes in the gray blanket and puffy clouds drifted slowly through the sky behind them.After having enjoyed the view for a couple minutes, Frisbee joined me and then we both moved on, him outpacing me as I continued to try to take it easy. Throughout the morning the trail wound upward, gently enough that it didn't tire my legs, but nonetheless upwards and onto a very windy ridge. I'm no metrologist, but the cold wind seemed a portent of the rain we were expecting in the afternoon and so I picked up the pace, hoping to at least reach the shelter and have some lunch before it started.I eventually reached the shelter, took a quick PB tortilla lunch with Tarzan, MiddleBrother, Frisbee, BirdPerson, Pigasis, and a few other hikers and was about to keep moving when Lookout and Classy arrived. I waited and chatted while they ate and we decided to head for Kincora hostel instead of the shelter since it was only 2 miles short of the shelter (milage we could make up tomorrow), only required a suggested donation of $5 to stay at, and would keep us dry for the night.Lookout and I headed out together but I pretty quickly fell behind since the path was mostly downhill, which I was attempting to take slower to preserve my knees. I listen to podcasts throughout the afternoon and I descended from the ridge under the ever-more-threatening clouds. I eventually reached the gap to find Lookout already jumping into a car to get a free ride up to the hostel from a friendly group of day hikers. Though they offered me a ride as well but it was only 0.2mi up to the hostel so I elected to wait for Classy just to make sure we all ended up at the same place. Only a minute or two after Lookout was chauffered away she arrived and so we walked up to the hostel, arriving just as the car that had dropped Lookout off pulled away.The owner of the hostel wasn't around, so at the behest of the sign and the other hikers already there, we made ourselves at home. The hostel was rustic... the hikers had a building to ourselves which contained 16 bunks spread across 2 floors, a bed, a kitchen, and a living room. Connected by a covered porch was 2 bathrooms, a laundry room, a shower room, and a picnic table to hang out at. The inside of the abode had the studs exposed and in between each of them (throughout the ENTIRE building), were cards and pictures of thru hikers standing on Katahdin which they had sent to thank the hostel owner, Bob Peoples. We all availed ourselves of the showers, by which time our host had returned and so we took him up on his offer for a ride into town.  He warned us, but the ride into town was slightly nauseating as we twisted down the 11 switchbacks which brought the one lane road down the several thousand feet of elevation into town.First stop was a store which had groceries at which I picked up another pound of peanut butter that I'd need for lunches to make it to Damascus. After that we headed over to McDonald's to grab dinner.  They had a make-your-own burger option from which I had a crispy chicken sandwich with guac and pico, fries, a salad, and 2 apple pies. I don't think this is entirely hiker hunger talking, but the Hampton, TN McDonald's is pretty legit... the food was actually good (a word I'm not used to using to describe McDonald's food).We ate once we got back to the hostel and while eating the power went out (Bob had tripped a breaker while working on getting a light bulb working), but we're used to not having electricity at this point, so we just broke out the headlamps and kept chowing down and chatting.Classy, Lookout, and I retired to the master suite (named by Lookout since it was the room which had the only bed, but which Classy had passed up since the window wouldn't close) and watched the last hour of Braveheart. After finishing it we hung out for a bit longer with the other hikers before heading to bed.