Date: 2014-05-11
From: Damascus, va

To: Beech Grove Gap
Miles today: 5.3

5/1139Damascus to Beech Grove Gap5.3miMade it a really lazy day. Apparently Woodchuck likes having me around according to Kim (twinkle toes). I don't know if there was any particular reason - giving him an extra $5 for my stay couldn't have been the sole factor. I don't know. Didn't really talk to him much. His hostel was kind of impressive considering how he had just started it. Doors opened a few months prior to my arrival. Later on I ran into bayou who runs The Place and Crazy Larry who runs Crazy Larry's hostel. They both indirectly said chuck is lucky with the prime location for hikers. It's true... That's how I ended up there but I think woodchuck hostel also provides a better vibe overall. Even if chuck does not like alcohol and wants zero drugs on the premises. Well that's part of the reason it's so chill I guess. I respected the rules for the most part despite packing in a jar of moonshine and bringing in the 2 beers Collin freaking mail dropped me haha. I forgot to drink them so I packed out 2 beers and half a jar of moonshine with me when I left town late in the evening.But back to Bayou who runs The Place - I've heard a lot of things about him. Mostly involving crazy amounts of rules and being kind of a control freak. I could see that but I also hate to spread negative gossip especially if I personally didn't see it for myself. My interactions with him were good. This makes me want to say a thing or two about having an attitude check. I know there's less than nice people everywhere but I hardly ever have any direct interactions with people being a dick around me. Part of that is because I treat everybody as similarly as I can - just be cool. Even if you don't like them. Yeah it can be a drag dealing with people harassing you over stupid little things but if you modify your behavior so that you pretty much go out of your own way to make everywhere you step into a better place, the amount of assholish behavior you have to deal with gets minimized to a minuscule amount in the grand scheme of things. Big picture folks. Be cool.With that said, one particular thing I heard about Bayou that doesn't sit well with me would be how there may have been an instance he opened the door on a girl who was changing. Supposedly there's a rule where there are no locked doors allowed in the hostel. So that may have happened. Another thing was that he turned away Tikka when he was looking for a place to crash based on how he's not currently thru hiking or cycling the pan american or whatever. It's a donation based place to stay... And he discriminated against a triple crowner based on the premise he's not currently hiking.Enough of that talk. Tikka showed us the documentary Walk which kind of stars him when he was thru hiking the Pct in 2003. There was a really funny animosity thing going on between him and a Pakistani physicist named Roni. "He name me honey buns and I call him asshole." Hahah. That was entertaining and it was also really interesting to see the struggle of pct thru hikers. My hike has been a total breeze compared to what the interviewees/thru hikers were going through. Apparently the filmer will be showing it at trail days along with 2 other documentaries he made. Tikka will be in a booth with him saying hi to people.Unfortunately I didn't finish watching the documentary myself. It was 4pm before I knew it and I was really stretching on the hospitality/welcome by that point even though woodchuck even told me himself that I could hang out however long I wanted for the day. Pretty cool guy who likes to relive the trail through hikers. (Tip to anyone staying at the woodchuck hostel, be an early morning/quiet riser - Woodchuck makes great coffee starting at 6am and typically few people are awake by 7am. You get quality morning time to hang with him, or read a book, and enjoy the morning Virginia beauty outside.)I caught up with more hikers that were behind making it into town then left town by 8pm.Thought night hiking would have been a lot more fun this time than it turned out to be. Obviously I didn't learn a lesson from the smokies. I certainly learned a lesson the hard way about va having a lot more spider webs than anywhere else I've hiked so far. Could be the weather differences due to elevation and season. It just was not fun. You try to have fun with it by thinking of the Karate Kid and walk forward in the dark by yourself yelling Wax on! Wax off! Using your trekking poles in huge circular motions in front of you every step of the way in an attempt to Kung fu your way out of infinite spider webs to the face. It really doesn't matter what you do, every 10 steps will still result in having to wipe webs out of your eye lashes (instead of having to do that every other step.) technique to using your trekking poles also varies. Wax on wax off technique is tiring after a tenth of a mile. The scissor & flail technique makes you look and feel particularly less intelligent as you walk leaning back with your trekking pulls swinging in front of you in a strictly vertical up and down motion. Whatever man, hike your own hike. If I want to use my poles as if they were dual machetes, I'm going to do just that. If I had an audience though, I'd probably just macho up and charge forward with a sailor cursing rampage. Or have them walk in front of me...The highlight of the night was getting to the top of iron mountain, turning off my headlamp and indulging in the moonlight views. Really glad I brought a turkey bacon avocado sub from subway just for that moment too. Overall the night hike sucked though. Nearly fell off the trail when I was traversing a narrow ridge and half the path crumbled away under my foot. If you Hollywood that moment up, just imagine me barely hanging on with my pack serving as an anchor to keep me from falling completely off a cliff as boulders go crashing down into the abyss and possibly killing a family of goats or something.Yes yes