Date: 2013-08-13
From: Ore Camping area,NH

To: Hikers Welcome Hostel, Glencliff, NH
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: moderate rain

We decided to sleep in because we knew the shelter was only 8 miles away...uphill but still. I woke at 7am to beautiful blue skies. THe girls were still sleeping. At 8:30am the rain woke us all. Bummer because we now had a wet tent, wet clothes...We started rushing about getting the tent down. We were wet and cold so we cooked oatmeal for breakfast. A guy scared us as he hiked up from out of the storm. He is temporarily taking care of the hostel and invited us to it, saying there is alot of food and Ms. Janet is cooking. His name was Berkum, he hiked up because he hadn't done the section in a while and wanted to see what was going on at Ore Hill. Apparently a woman was having an affair in the shelter (again...how romantic could that be? Cheap affair!!!)The husband thought burning the shelter down would be sweet revenge, thus since 2011 there has been no shelter. Berkum wanted to see the privy. He said priorities called for the privy to be built first. I went to look at it and it is hilarious! Steps lead up to a porch where double doors greet you. Inside a spacious room, with clear plastic roof (lots of light which is UNIQUE and much needed)leads to a throne...literally the toilet seat(!) is built upon the throne. Hopefully Blueberry can get a photo on here for you. You can't begin to appreciate how wonderful it is until you've seen the privies we've seen. Let's just say Cub prefers the woods over the bug laden, dank, stinky, dark privies. We had the coldest, wettest hike. We literally slid into this hostel. There was so much thick gooey mud on the trail I thought I would loose Cub. She slipped into a thick mud muck and her whole leg went in. When we pulled her out her shoe was miraculously still on her foot. It was Nature's slip and slide. The back of our legs were thick with mud when we arrived. Fairly quiet day though Cub did manage to tell us the rest of her Merlin book. She entertains us on the trail with the retelling of her books. It makes the miles and miles and miles go by. We also learned a game from Clevergirl...you hide a thimble anywhere...real or fantasy and the others have to find it. We love this new game. The other ones got a bit worn out. The Hikers Welcome Hostel is the place to be. There was a huge crowd here when we walked into the dark, warm room of a garage off of a house. We put our packs out back to drip dry or at least drip. No hope of drying today. We claimed a questionably clean top bunk bed and a couch. Guess two of us will smoosh in as all the bunks are taken. We were told they don't like too many people up there because they aren't quite sure about the strength of the floor. Yikes, if its not one thing that kills you it's another! You simply take care of yourself...filling out a paper with everything we eat. The girls have eaten several pizzas, lots of soda, about 10 ice cream sandwiches, chips, and bags of popcorn. I'll be broke when we leave here! Now I need to tell you that we have had the good fortune of meeting the incredibly generous Ms. Janet. She is a legend on the trail. She used to have a hostel but due to her generosity she lost it because she couldn't cover the costs. So now she drives this huge van just for hikers. She drives up the trail following the groups and feeds them, drives them and all around helps them at no cost. Hikers donate money but I doubt is covers her generosity. She is happy and gracious. Tonight she made us all...every hiker here...tacos! I was especially happy since I've been carrying a heavy package of dried tofu with Mexican spices. It was so huge we knew we couldn't eat it all so we have been putting it off. WE donated tonight for all the vegetarians. They said they liked it. Badonkadonk's favorite food is Mexican so she was beyond thrilled. It was a nice communal feeling eating with all these hikers. Berkum ran us to the convenience store where we found a cold, sad Second Time Steamer. We gave him a ride to the hostel. He was happy to find a hot meal waiting. He is the fluorescent pink man walking for the second time for breast cancer. Clevergirl, Whistle Ralph, Dumptrunk, Hunger, Mongoose, Grizzly, Fossil Phoenix, Mother Theresa, Peaches, Shrek and many more that we know. The hostel has a tent outside with a shower on one side, washer, dryer and sink in the middle and toilet on the other side. The shower and toilet are hidden by shower curtains. Not especially the most secure feeling. The shower has warm water which felt so good. To be clean after such BO and grime is beyond explanation. The gaping slates surrounding the shower didn't even bother me I was so happy to be wet and clean. Of course if any 20 something guy dared to look in it would be his horror show. There is a huge fire pit with chairs around it, a compost pile, recycling center and tent with picnic tables. Inside the downstairs of the garage is a table with free food on it. Everyone sits around and eats that or the snacks you can buy. We watched movies, of which there are thousands. There are also thousands of CDs. Cub lost our tent stakes and we found 4 in the hiker box. We only need 8 more. Not a good place to loose them because we are heading out into The Whites, the mountainous wilderness of NH. Wish us Floridians luck..Mount Moosilauke looms outside the window, ominous and covered in a misty cloud. Going to blog backwards and catch up. We have no service out here so we haven't been able to be in touch for a while. I understand it will only get worse so we will talk to y'all when we can.