Date: 2022-03-01
From: Hot Springs, NC.

To: Allen Gap
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: overcast clouds

March 1Hot Springs to Allen Gap.  Slack packed 15.3 miles. Was still long and hard. Definitely getting warmer.  Wanted to zero today but the lodge was fully booked and didn¢t want to zero in the hostel, where I had to move to after one night in the lodge. This was my introduction to staying in a hostel. I will say up front that most people that stay in hostels are perfectly normal and you wouldn¢t give them a second thought.  However, it always seems there are a few hangers on that just seem like unique individuals.  When I got back from my hike I walked into the hostel. There was an guy standing by the coffee machine. He had on a mechanics shirt, like the guys wear when they work on cars at gas stations, and it had the name ¢Mick¢ on it. He had on purple and yellow bell bottom pants. I assumed they were loaner clothes you can wear while you do your laundry. I¢ll refer to him as Mechanic.  I asked how he was doing. He was all glassy eyed and asked me if I knew ¢Quadzilla¢.  I said no. I have since come to see pictures of Quadzilla on FaceBook, and as Mechanic reported, he is attempting the Triple Crown within one year.  I think there are only 7 or 8 people that have accomplished that to date.  Mechanic immediately launched into this rambling story about how Quadzilla was going to hike the AT, CDT and PCT all in one year. Mechanic told Quadzilla he could keep up with him because he ran marathons. He said they left at 1:30 PM and hiked 19 miles and had to hike in the dark. Mechanic only had a small headlamp not designed for night hiking. Anyway, he made it to the shelter. When he got up the next morning he told Quadzilla he could not keep up so Quadzilla left him there. He said he then started hiking on a red blaze trail for 3 hours. He said he didn¢t know why because he knew from YouTube videos he had to hike white blazes. He retreated back to the shelter and then it took him 2 days to make it back to the hostel. I asked if he was going to regroup and start out again and he looked like he didn¢t understand my question.  He was starting his hike of the AT from Hot Springs.  Most people start at the beginning or the middle and hike northbound or the northern end and hike southbound.  I asked why he started his thru hike in Hot Springs.  Again, he looked like he didn¢t understand my question and then said ¢Because I am here.¢Just then another hostel resident came in. He had a huge tangled up beard with stuff in it - it looked like food and leaves and I don¢t know what else. The most alarming thing about him were his eyes. They were bulging out of his face. He came up to me and half shouted ¢I haven¢t slept in 24 hours¢.  He then launched into this rambling story how he can¢t sleep on on the trail so he hikes 24 hours. He said he passes all the big mileage guys because they they are sleeping when he is still hiking. I was to going suggest this was likely not a sustainable strategy but he didn¢t seem in the mood for unsolicited advice so I asked how he hiked around the ice in the dark. He said in the military they issue lights with 4 colors-white, red, green and blue.  He said he hiked at night with the blue light because it made the ice visible and he could hike around it. He then asked me where I was from. I said Ohio. He asked Mechanic and apparently bearded guy thought Mechanic said Hawaii. He shouts out ¢I love Hawaii¢. Mechanic says not Hawaii, LA. Bearded guy shouts ¢I hate LA¢. At that point I said hey guys, I am going into my room and get my pack unpacked. Catch you later. Later I went outside to do my laundry. The hostel has the washers and dryers in a wooden cabinet on the side of the building.  As soon as I came around the corner there were several chairs around a kind of coffee table. There was a guy with huge Rasta braids and he had a dog on a leash. The dog lunged at me and started barking. Rasta man said he¢s very friendly and is just talking to you. That was not the first thought that came mind. There was another guy sitting there and we started talking - the usual stuff. Are you a thru-hiker, what¢s your trail name, when did you start, etc. He thru-hiked the AT in 2016 and was living in a back room in the hostel. He said he did IT work remotely and was saving money so he could go to Oregon to hike the PCT with friends. I felt like the guy in an old movie called The King of Hearts. The film is set in a small town in France near the end of World War I. As the Imperial German Army retreats, they booby trap the whole town to explode. The locals flee but there is an asylum on a hill above town. As the locals leave, they open the gates to the asylum and, left to their own devices, a gaggle of cheerful lunatics escape the asylum and take over the town ¢ thoroughly confusing the lone Scottish soldier who has been dispatched to defuse the bomb. And that is why I chose not to zero in the hostel and to continue hiking and fall way behind in my trail updates.