Date: 2009-06-06
From: Bear's Den Rocks

To: Bear's Den Rocks (Cottage)
Miles today: 0.0

The Bear's Den Hostel is a very, very nice hostel. I had a hard time convincing my sister that other hostels are not like this one! It is a converted mansion with plenty of grounds surrounding the mansion itself. It is run by the Potomac A.T. Club. Hopeful and her husband Scott (a former thru-hiker...twice) run the operation there. Wow, what a wonderful couple. The ATC is lucky to have those two running things.There are bunks downstairs in a coed bunk room, with shower and Internet. They even have a dresser full of clothes you can wear while yours are being washed. They have 2 bunk rooms upstairs, one male and one female. There are showers in each of these. There is a huge kitchen with everything under the sun to cook whatever you could dream of....every appliance, every cooking item, 2 ovens, etc. They have a huge dining room that seats about 14 or so. And there is a huge common room complete with piano. We were fortunate that Leon had hiked in the same day, so we had hours of built-in entertainment as he played the piano....and played it extremely well. He says it relaxes him! OK....I highly recommend a stay at this hostel. Outstanding place.Well, they also have a cottage there which I reserved for Saturday and Sunday evening. We had a big group and I thought that would get us out of the way, free up hostel space for hikers coming in, and also give us some privacy to entertain family and friends. So we moved down there later in the day. We made a grocery run to get supplies and hauled them down to the cottage...about a .1 - .2 mile walk. We also grabbed our hiking gear. The cottage was rustic meaning it didn't have plumbing. It had electricity, and there was a privy. There is a faucet outside for water. It had a wood-burning stove, microwave, refrigerator, and hot plates. It had one bedroom with a queen bed. It had a loft with 3 sleeping pads, two sleeping pads on benches in the living room, and a pullout twin-sofa. We slept 7 comfortably.Saturday afternoon was spent in Harper's Ferry. It was Trail Days weekend there and we walked around, grabbed some lunch, grabbed some ice cream, and just chatted. Nice relaxing afternoon. Thanks Mark (my brother-in-law), who bought lunch for the herd of us!!That night my sister had another surprise for me. She had cooked up some meatballs using our grandmother's recipe which I love! So we had a feast tonight of spaghetti and meatballs, salad, potato/macaroni salad, strawberry shortcake, and other stuff. Full house at the cottage for dinner....Goof, Mr Buffalo Man, Mary (my sister), Mark (brother-in-law), Scott (best friend), Mer (Mr Buffalo Man's Mom), Mickey (my nephew), Derrick (Mickey's friend), Nick (Derrick's brother who lives in Harper's Ferry), me, and Sunnuke. Yep, you read right. Sunnuke drove up today to hang out with us this weekend. It was great to see him. The cottage is open design so was perfect for this occasion as we could all mingle easily in one big open room.The gas grill was not working, so we tried everything to boil water for the spaghetti. Remember we're trying to boil enough water for 3 pounds of spaghetti!!! We stoked up the wood burning stove....couldn't get it hot enough and close enough to the pot. The hot plates couldn't do it. I guess we could have used all of our campstoves. But Mark and I finally ended up going to the main house to cook the spaghetti and then bring it down to the cottage. I was a bit irritated....but not at anyone....at the grill not working. But we got it done and had a great meal....with a bunch of meatballs! Thanks Mary.It was a great day spent with great family and friends at a cool location. What more can one ask for? It was great to see Mary, Mark and Mickey.