Date: 2006-04-26
To: Sue's Musings Continued...
Miles today: 0.0

Sue's musings from visit with Old Goat, continued:Wed, 04/26/06 ¢ Our day started out wonderful at the Holiday Inn Express when we met Jane, the breakfast hostess. What a delightful woman ¢ cheerful, helpful, and fun to chat with. We so enjoyed talking with Jane as we ate our breakfast. Jane was there Thursday morning as well ¢ and as cheerful and helpful as ever, even with a room full of tour bus passengers! She made sure everyone had everything they needed and handled the rush with such grace and cheer. Thank you, Jane, for being a bright spot to start our days with! :-) Doing the trail magic with Old Goat was wonderful! It was a perfect day for it ¢ rainy, foggy, and cold (42 degrees). How is that perfect? Because the trail magic is such a pick-me-up for the thru-hikers, so getting trail magic on such a crappy day is a highlight for them! Coca Cola and Moon Pies ¢ they seemed to love them! Old Goat knew approximately where his friends were and what their daily routines are like, so he guessed they would start coming by around 11am. He was right on the money! The hikers we saw while we were there were:1. O 2 Bee Hiking ¢ His family gave him his trail name because he has two bee hives he maintains as a hobby he enjoys.2. Diehard ¢ After hearing his name so much, I was so happy to meet him! 3. Sputnik4. 10 Speed5. Long Haul6. Gunner7. Coach K ¢ No, he¢s not THE Coach K at Duke University, but he works for that Coach K. Mike (the trail Coach K) was given his trail name when he was talking with others about his job. He takes care of Duke¢s sports equipment. Someone teasingly called him Coach K and decided that would be his trail name. Coach K was in a t-shirt and shorts, and carrying a metal Lacrosse stick (without the basket) in his bare hands as his hiking stick. That had to be cold! I was surprised to see all but two of the hikers come by solo. I didn¢t realize how many hikers hike the AT alone and only meet up with others at shelters or in towns.Diehard stayed and chatted the longest; he was the only one with his entire rain suit on. I was amazed to see that all the others were in shorts. They moved on quickly because they got cold when they stayed still for very long. We stayed at the site from 10:30am until 2:00pm. The location was perfect because the stream wasn¢t very far from the road and there was an in-ground trash can just before you pop out of the woods, so they didn¢t have to carry the empty bottles or Moon Pie wrappers. (We took the empty bottles and Moon Pie wrappers from the hikers we saw, and were happy to know the later hikers wouldn't have to carry extra trash.) Also, there was a nice Park sign with a small overhang we could stand under out of the rain. When we left, we taped the remaining Moon Pies on the glass. Old Goat also wrote a note about the trail on the other side of the road. It was so foggy there that you couldn¢t see the next white blaze across the road to see where the AT goes and there were three trails on the other side of the road. The AT was on the trail to the left, so Old Goat wrote that on the note (and we had told everyone who came by while we were there). (The next day, as we were hiking, many people said they loved the trail magic and that they were so glad he wrote that note because they wouldn¢t have known which trail to take!)The comments were fun to hear ¢ most said they thought they were seeing someone¢s trash on the trail, but when they got closer and saw that it was bottles of Coca cola, they were thrilled! One guy said it was ¢like being in heaven!¢ They were thrilled, too, to see the note from Old Goat that he and Moon Pies were at the bottom of the hill and came out of the woods looking for him. Someone told Old Goat that ¢the shelter wasn¢t the same without you.¢   In one of the conversations, Old Goat made a comment that ¢(I¢ve) got cotton on!¢ and how good it feels! One of the hikers said his mom sent him a cotton shirt ¢ he feels it¢s worth carrying the extra weight (the shirt) because it feels so good when he¢s in town. For those not familiar with back pack camping and intense hiking like this, you wear clothes that dry very quickly and are thin. No cotton on the trail. Take a look at what a store like Eastern Mountain Sports sells ¢ polypropylene and thin pants with lots of pockets¢¦that¢s what you wear. After we left our trail magic site, we went back into Damascus, where Old Goat introduced me to more people. He wanted to go in ¢The Place,¢ a hostel managed by a local church, so he could see who was there and find out where other people he¢s met are. I was surprised by how barren the hostel is ¢ basic bunk beds with no mattress were everywhere except for the dining room. There was a table in the dining room and some stuffed chairs scattered around the other rooms, but everything was very run down and very basic. No private rooms (I didn¢t expect any) ¢ it was all very much like being in Scout camp cabins. My surprise was only because I¢ve never been in a hostel before and didn¢t know what to expect. Since this looks like a normal house on the outside, it was more run down inside than I thought it would be. But, for $4.00, it¢s a bed out of the weather and ok when you¢re hiking and/or living frugally.Remember Old Goat hearing banjos? I met ¢Lunch Box,¢ the banjo player! His banjo is still strapped to his back pack. He was with a friend, ¢Park Bench,¢ and they were just leaving the hostel to hit the AT again. Park Bench got his name when he decided to sleep on top of the picnic table under the shelter roof when a shelter he stopped at was full. Someone said he looked like a bum on a park bench...thus the name. We had decided to hike 18 miles of the AT over the next two days, so we stopped at the outfitters to arrange a ride. The best place to park our car was in a State Park ¢ the same place where Old Goat got on the AT Monday to hike back to Damascus. The outfitter will meet us there and then take us to Dickie Gap ¢ we¢ll hike back to Massey Gap.Old Goat and I went back to the hotel for the night and he got on our laptop computer and checked out his Trail Journals web site. The first thing he looked at was his ¢Stats¢ to see how many miles per day he¢s averaging. He liked reading the Guest entries, too. When he checked his Yahoo mail, he found a message from Snowhoe. Snowhoe and his wife are having a baby boy in September. They have a 17 month old son, too. Old Goat was thrilled to see his message and immediately replied to Snowhoe. That was nice! We packed up the car to be ready to hit the trail in the morning and called it a night. I was very nervous about getting on the trail ¢ I wanted so much to do as many miles as possible so Old Goat wouldn¢t be too far behind, and I was worried if what I asked for might be too aggressive. (I pushed for planning the 18 miles.)