Date: 2016-04-15
From: Dismal Falls

To: Wood's Hole Hostel 
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: clear sky

Palindrome was up, as he promised, at 5:30. Apparently he and Rabbit have a tradition of going over to King's tent and waking him up and yelling that the kingdom is under attack or the family jewels have been stolen. Anyways. I was up earlier than normal around 7:15, but I broke camp pretty slowly. Lightning was out early. I wandered down to the water to have breakfast. Bill Nye came over and said that he and Grandma have both been having some pretty bad nausea. They thought the culprit may have been the pizza at Trent's, the only food they had in common. Bill Nye pushed on ahead of me, I followed a few minutes behind. The miles to Wapiti Shelter moved faster than any others I've encountered, almost entirely flat and on good tread, through rhododendrons and meadows around a pond. Took me about an hour and 45 to do over 6 miles. Good pace. I pulled into the shelter where Quixote, Audubon and Lightning were having what they called brunch. The couple pulled away soon but I hung out and made plans to pace with Lightning. We stopped at the next water source before crushing it up the only real climb all day. We move pretty compatibly together. It's amazing what I can do now my legs are working and I've lost almost as much weight as I was originally carrying in my pack. We topped out along the ridge and stopped at a lovely view of the huge Pearisburg valley and the surrounding ridges. It's amazing how big some of these views feel. What a huge country. We leapfrogged with the couple as we made our rocky and roller coaster way down to Sugar Run Road, where the Wood's Hole Hostel side trail is. The side trail is dirt, and a number of big vehicles were regrading it as we went down. Soon enough, a complex of buildings came into sight: Wood's Hole! We were immediately greeted by Smokey Bear and Jess, two Work-for-stay employees. Jess is a local working on and off here for a few months, Smokey Bear a hiker waiting on a replacement pack to get shipped. Unfortunately the owners were out; apparently their cooking and company add another great facet to the hostel. But man it's the sweet life here at Wood's Hole. The bunkhouse is gorgeous with real mattresses upstairs, and a mini fridge filled with drinks and snacks hit the spot immediately even without having any real lunch. The other folks had packages arriving here so I watched as they enjoyed all their new snacks. Lightning's mother also sneakily paid for a private room for him in the main house. There were ducklings and chicks in a bathtub, which they are apparently trying to "socialize" to humans. Grandma showed up, having hitched a ride from Dismal Falls back to Trent's Grocery and then to here with the very outspoken local whose catchphrase is "Tell the Truth!" He said he was still feeling quite ill and took the other indoor room and was promptly asleep. Slug and Frito came in, as did Alpha and Unicorn. I hung out, had snacks and put in some laundry before catching a ride into town from a shuttle driver named Don. We decided that with no dinner here, we'd rather just go into town and resupply now and eat at the All you can eat Chinese buffet tonight rather than tomorrow at lunch (though lunch is still an option). We stopped at the post office, where I sent a couple postcards and was delighted to find Ghost shipping his winter gear north! We chatted and said we'd see each other up the trail. We went on to Food Lion and did a little resupply. I had quite a bit of food leftover from Atkins, but still ended up doing a full round of grocery shopping because the next chunk of trail is one of the longest we've had without good resupply, probably five days of hiking before Daleville. Lightning, the couple and I headed over to the Lucky Star buffet and promptly gorged ourselves. Slug rolled in with Frito and Alpha and Unicorn soon after. I ate a bunch of those fried dough rolls covered in sugar. Everybody else wanted to go to Dairy Queen across the street, and I hung out a little longer, not needing ice cream with my extremely full stomach. As I crossed the parking lot I thought I recognized the two men heading to the buffet. Northstar and Large! I thought they were significantly ahead of me, so it was great to see them! Northstar is meeting up with his wife in a few days and Large and White Rabbit had to take a day off here yesterday because she was feeling ill. Large told me that another group of hikers were up at the motel next to the DQ hanging out, so I stopped by and said hello to Thor, White Rabbit, Ash, and the hikers I knew as Statler and Waldorf who I think now go by different names. I then headed to DQ where we were promptly picked up and brought back to the hostel. I folded laundry and organized food before sitting around a fire Smokey Bear had built and talking with the folks around. Lightning came down from the Big house and after we called him king of the castle he greeted us with "What's up, peasants?" Slug and Frito pulled back up soon; unicorn and alpha stayed in town. I think they've already blue blazed/yellow blazed a lot, they're just looking for a fun time. We sat around the fire and talked a lot about people who've gotten off the trail. It's so easy to just kind of fall off and out of the world of hiking. It would've been super easy for me to fall off just a few days ago. There were a few hours there with ali when I seriously was considering just not coming back. God bless her, she just said that I have to finish the trail for me and for us. That thought has been on my mind a lot and it's keeping me going. But I'm having fun out here now. Tomorrow will be tough with my pack really heavy, but we've got an 18 mile day planned. Should be alright.