Date: 2016-06-05
From: Hiker Cabin, Lewis Mountain Campground

To: Cabin, Lewis Mountain Campground
Miles today: 0.0

Day 86I slept well last night on the floor next to Tree and an old wood stove. When I awoke, Tree Beard was on the porch in deep thought, plotting a strategy. I have been amazed out here with the boldness with which hikers ask for things. I know a hiker who saw an older woman working on some landscaping and other yard work on the main drag in Hot Springs. He approached her and offered to do whatever yard work needed done in exchange for a bed or couch to sleep on. She counter-offered that in exchange for his work, she would pay the $20 fee for his hostel stay that night. Deal! That's how you do the AT on a budget.I don't know what he said or how he did it, but somehow Tree Beard convinced Randy to loan us his truck not once, but twice, today! I wouldn't loan a vehicle to a just passing through thru-hiker in a million years. We smell and we haven't driven a vehicle in awhile. Still, I appreciated Randy's kindness and the trust he put in us. Perhaps after thirty years of doing this, he has a good sense of who he can trust. I repaid the favor by filling up his truck with gas.We all piled in the truck and headed to the Big Meadows Wayside for a delicious hiker's breakfast. At the gift shop, I got several SNP postcards for family. Tree Beard dropped $40 on a red bear onesie with a trap door opening in the back. It reminded me of something Jason, my eldest, would have worn to play club softball in at Harding University.We returned to the campground and checked into our new, upgraded cabin. This one had two bedrooms with queen beds, and a bathroom in the middle. It's designed for four people. Our plan was to double that number, plus a dog, by bringing in two cots and using the remaining floor space. Tree Beard offered the 8th and final spot to Fire Starter, a rare late 30s/early 40s female hiker. We spent the afternoon resting, reading, napping, blogging, calling family, and snacking.That evening, we all piled back into Randy's truck as rain started to fall. Tree, bless his heart, volunteered to sit in the bed of the truck and endure the rain for our 20-minute drive to Elkton. I was scrunched in the back kiddie jumper seat with two other hikers, including Fire Starter. With our knees semi-painfully jammed next to each other's, I asked her where she was from (near Nashville) and what college she went to (Harding University). Imagine that! She graduated in 2006 and won some awards as editor of the school newspaper, The Bison. I'm in the backseat of a truck in the rain with a fellow hiker, and she graduated from the same university as my two sons. I thought...it's a small world. In fact, here on the AT in SNP, you could say it's a small world after all.After a delicious meal at Ciro's Italian restaurant in Elkton, we stopped at a grocery store and then returned to the cabin. Since I slept on the floor the previous night, I qualified for a highly coveted spot on the queen bed. Tree Beard earned the other spot by virtue of having suggested the zero day and for acquiring the use of the truck. Pantry and his dog were on the floor, Arrow was on the cot, and the four other hikers were in the adjoining cabin.As I laid there on the bed, Tree Beard emerged from the bathroom wearing his red bear onesie with a trap door. Of the roughly 4000 people who will attempt an AT thru-hike this year, I somehow managed to be in bed with a guy named Tree Beard wearing a red onesie. I can't make this stuff up. As he crawled into bed and we turned the lights off, I told him I appreciated all he had done for us today. I also reminded him that I'm happily married and he had better keep his trap door shut!Fob