Date: 2013-04-22
From: Jenny Knob Shelter

To: Woods Hole Hostel
Miles today: 21.4

(In which I have mediocre food and then have pretty good food)It is a decent night for hammocking though I still wake up very early. I am not moving early but I am awake enough to hear Just Dave pack up and leave. I consider following suit but I do not move for another hour or two. When I am awake, I am still the second one to pack up and leave. Nobody is woken by my efforts, at least so far as I see. This morning I plan to make it to Trent's Grocery. Dozer and Funyuns and I were considering a push for there yesterday but there wasn't enough time to get there before their closing. I planned to night hike to the road crossing near the store but instead I lingered at the shelter.After the descent from this Brushy Mountain, there is a road crossing and a stream and an ascent back up onto nondescript ridge. I am alone on this ridge, never catching Just Dave who left much earlier. The folks at the shelter are probably just waking and starting to move now, and nobody overtakes me. When I reach the road there is a large stream crossed by a pedestrian suspension bridge. It looks like the area would have made a decent campsite last night, but that doesn't matter now. The store is a half mile away so I make no attempt to hitchhike there. Usually I walk along the road while I hitch, and I stand as much a chance of walking a half mile to the store as I do of getting a ride in a few minutes of standing around at the trailhead.Trent's Grocery is vastly underwhelming. It is about the size of a convenience store and stocked worse than most. The only hiker food I see is a few packages of instant potatoes and some candy. I order some hot food and find a hidden spot to charge my phone. The local flavour in here is a few old folks making a fuss about how they won't let the liberals take their guns. If I had not ordered my food yet I would have simply left and walked back to the Trail. I would rather listen to the relative silence on the Trail than listen to the nonsense I am hearing from these folks. Fortunately they are content to ramble amongst themselves and do not include me.I inhale my food when it arrives, am not satisfied with what I ate versus what I spent, and get back to the Trail. Dozer is walking toward the store, and I warn him of the limited offerings there. I wanted to check out the Amish store a few miles east of the Trail but I've wasted enough time with Trent's Grocery already this morning. There is not much climb away from this road crossing, and the Trail parallels the road as it climbs the toward the ridge. I reach Shipwright and wind up offloading some of my extra food onto him, as he has run out and missed the grocery store. He goes on to eat at the Dismal Falls side trail, but I forego this side trail to make faster progress.I want to reach Woods Hole Hostel tonight, as I have heard good things about it and don't want to just nero in tomorrow. Splinter catches up to me on the climb before the terrain flattens out into pine forest. This is wonderful walking as I meaner through pines and cross streams over and over. I couldn't say if there is one stream that I am crossing repeatedly or if I am crossing many different streams, but either way this section is a refreshing departure from nondescript ridge walks. I move fast on the flat ground, and the Trail is dry pine needles and easy on the feet.In this section we encounter Sherpa Chief, a southbounder who has been moving since late last season. He carries a tremendous pack and more water than any other hiker I have seen. An alarm goes off and Sherpa explains it is a reminder to drink water - 200mL every 20 minutes. He mentions that he is down to only two liters of water and needs to refill soon. I have only carried more than two liters of water a few times, when I have packed out half-gallons of orange juice away from town. I couldn't imagine carrying more than two liters most of the time, but everyone has to hike their own hike and do what works for them.Following this flat area is a tough, steep climb from 2500ish feet to 4000ish feet. Splinter pulls ahead of me on the steep incline. I let my water run low as I approached and started this climb to make the ascent area, so I stop to drink at a spring halfway up while Splinter continues uphill. When I reach the top of the unnamed peak and the side trail to a lookout tower I stop for a break. A southbound hiker shows up and asks me if I have seen Moon Dozer or Matt - she is meeting him for the weekend. I am unfamiliar with that trail name, so they must have been just behind me but never caught up.I take the side trail for the lookout tower and find no lookout tower. There is a fenced-in communications tower but nothing I can actually climb. Splinter is on a rock outcrop that looks south over terrain we have just crossed. In the distance, numerous patches of smoke show where a prescribed burn has been started. The section up to the next road will be closed tomorrow, with the forest service shuttling hikers around the closed area. We return to the Trail and the young lady asks Splinter if he knows Moon Dozer. Something clicks in her description this time and I realize she is talking about Dozer. He is not far behind, I assume, unless he has stopped for throwing knife practice. Dozer and Funyuns found throwing knives discarded at a shelter recently, and have been wearing them dull trying to use them on trees.The Trail descends slightly into Sugar Run Gap, where a gravel road brings me east to Woods Hole Hostel. Nomad is here with his van and several hikers are tenting and cooking outside. I arrive just in time to catch the dinner the hosts cook. It isn't a cheap meal, but I have heard the food here is good and I can allow the expense for nice meals sometimes. Tonight it is lasagna, but I am also very interested in the fresh bread offered in great quantity here. Here I find Leprechaun, Fly, Woodrow, and others I already know. I meet Olde English, a Brit over for backpacking on the AT and Hampshire, another Englishman that now lives in New Hampshire. It is Olde English's birthday today, so there is carrot cake in addition to the normal fare.The bunkhouse is almost full, but I claim the mattress next to the entry. Once I set up my bedding for the night I return to the dining / living room and linger a while, writing while I chat with a few folks and check out a photo book from a past season on the Trail. The hosts close off the living room eventually, since their bed is just above the room. Now I go outside and join a Canadian section hiker around the fire on my way toward the bunkhouse. It is dark before I slip into my sleeping bag. Someone is snoring in here, but not too loud to keep away sleep.Peace,