Date: 2009-06-08
From: Bear's Den Hostel

To: Blackburn Center
Miles today: 7.9
Weather: few clouds

Our only option for breakfast at the hostel was some pancake batter, and by the time I got upstairs, all of the syrup was gone! There were two grills and a lot of hungry people standing in one tiny area of the kitchen, waiting for a turn at making some pancakes. I was tired, hungry, and overwhelmed, and this was not helping my mood improve from the day before. Eventually, I got enough leftover batter from someone to make one pancake. I spread some peanut butter that Erik had mailed me, along with some chocolate syrup on top. Everyone at the dining table seemed fascinated with my toppings. Stats made coffee, and I chatted with him during breakfast. I planned to spend a half day writing and then move onto the Blackburn Center, where I heard the caretaker has been cooking the hikers dinner.   Due to some mix- ups in communication in regards to my maildrop, I was frustrated at certain things that I needed being left out, including guidebook pages for the section going into Harper's Ferry. I spent a lot of time on the phone with Erik, trying to get the next maildrop organized, and figuring out what I was going to do about the things that I didn't have or was about to run out of. When I finally started writing (I had been receiving guestbook messages from readers who thought I had quit because my journal was behind), my current mood came out stronger than the events of the days I was writing about... It was the worst writing I had produced.     I did not get out to the trail until 2:45, with almost 8 miles to go before dinnertime. I had the rest of the Roller Coaster to finish, as well as a lot of rocks to cross. Not long into my hike, I passed a mother and daughter hiking south. A man followed a little ways behind and stopped to ask me where I was going. I always have a hard time answering this question. Do they mean eventually, or tonight? He changed his question to where did I start. "Georgia." His eyes opened really wide and then he called his wife to come back and talk to me as well (she didn't come). "I've been trying to explain to her that this trail goes all the way to Georgia. Where are you going to?""Maine."This time, his mouth opened a little in awe and he reached out his hand to shake mine.   His excitement at meeting an actual thru-hiker gave me energy in return. It is a great pick-me-up to meet someone that is truly excited about what you are doing, and I really needed some positive energy at that time!    In a few miles, I reached my first milestone of the day- crossing over the Virginia border into West Virginia! Hooray! The next milestone would arrive a few miles later- the 1000 mile point. It was not marked on the trail, but someone had made a 1001 marker out of sticks at the Blackburn Center side trail. Yay!   I hurried down the steep 0.3 mile path, hoping I was in time for dinner (provided that there was dinner...) It was 6:20 pm. I found Stats, McBride, and Leif E, sitting on the porch. There was no caretaker around and no signs of dinner... It turns out that he was burned out from cooking for the hikers and was taking the night off (his first in three weeks)! Just my luck... (This happened the first night I stayed at Elmer's as well).   Stud the Dud rolled in a little later, exhausted and out of it. The three of them had left Bear's Den a couple of hours before me, but I came upon Stud the Dud, all by himself, sitting on a rock, snacking, about an hour before I reached Blackburn. He said he wasn't feeling well, so I asked him if he needed anything and if he had enough water. He said he was okay. His friends were worried that he had Lymes disease. They all gave him an enthusiastic round of applause as he made it in.   Since there was no dinner, the boys wanted to order pizza. It took a long time for the delivery man to find the place, and when we finally sat down to eat, everyone thought the pizza tasted more like cardboard. It was over-priced and I somehow ended up having to pay more than my fair share. In addition, the behavior of the hikers I was with was quite rude and obnoxious. Stopping here turned out to be the wrong decision for me. They had already claimed the benches on the porch for sleeping, so I tried to sleep on the floor (still without a sleeping pad). The night was hot and the no-see-ums and large, jumping bugs, made sleep impossible. I covered my body, but they still found my hands and head. I killed a number of them and got into my fleece liner, hoping that it would rain to cool the air down. A few drops fell during the night as a tease, but the temperature never dropped. It wasn't until the morning that a steady rain began to fall.