Date: 2005-06-23
From: Bear's Den Hostel

To: Woods
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: broken clouds

I left the Bear's Den Hostel after chatting with Litmus and Cricket this morning. My tent was comfortable on the lawn last night, but I swear the deer were teenage deer and conspired to wake up the humans and have a little deer fun. They plunged around in the woods behind me all night, blew and snorted at me numerous times as if they had never seen a tent, and generally made nuisances of themselves. I even unzipped my tent and threw a Croc at one munching right in front of my tent door. Yeah....I missed, the Jackass. I'm sure he was grinning.I left late to do the second half of the roller coaster. I could only procrastinate for so long. It went fairly quickly since I had just eaten and had a morning soda. Food hits your system immediately out here, and will power you up the tallest mountains.I flip flopped with Socks and Sleeveless throughout the day, and took a break around 4PM. They walked up and I told them David Lesser was the last water for the next ten miles. They were good on water, but I needed more.I got to David Lesser and refused to do the half mile round trip to get water. I was having a lazy moment. Socks and Sleeveless walked up, and informed me there was a convenience store at the next road crossing, 3 miles up and a half mile to the left on the road. Excellent...I'll go get a Pepsi and some Gatorade. I saw Sleeveless thinking, but she did not say anything.I stopped for a break at Key's Gap and Sleeveless informed me that if they could catch a quick hitch, that they were going to go in with me.The road was very busy and fast. We did not think we would get a ride, but a pick-up ran off the road, and slammed on its breaks. I swear I thought it was going in the ditch. We told him where we were going, jumped in the back, and held on tightly as he floored it into traffic. I caught my breath as I lurched forward.We pulled up, and I grinned broadly as I noticed the "Bar and Lounge" attached to the Quickie convenience store. I so miss the south. This was clearly a local hangout, because all the regulars turned and peered at us as we walked into the bar. I had EXCELLENT hot chicken wings...some of the best I've ever had, cheeseburger, fries, and two 16oz Pepsis. Heaven. While eating, one of the locals walked over, a tad unsteadily, to chat. Sleeveless proceeded to ask him for a hitch back up the road. Was she crazy?!!! As soon as she walked away I turned an said "Do you really want to ride with a guy that's been sitting at a bar drinking all afternoon"? "I guess not she said." Socks and I both started laughing.We finished up (thank goodness the guy got tired of waiting and left), and I went next door to the convenience store to purchase two gatorades and two cupcakes for dinner. Typical hiker diet...crap, carbs, more crap, and more carbs.We quickly got a squealing hitch back to the trail. We were not five minutes up the trail when I noticed two bodies in the middle of the trail. I recognized Litmus and Cricket snoozing. I bellowed at them to get out of the way and get their lazy butts up. They slowly got up grinning. I told them I had a suprise, and gave them one of my gatorades and the cupcakes. They were thrilled!Socks and Sleeveless hiked on to camp, and I sat and chatted for a bit with Cricket and Litmus. They were headed to DC to be tourists for a day, so I'm not sure when I'll see them again. Such is life ....some people you see often, some you meet only once.I caught up with Socks and Sleeveless about 3 miles later, and we found a pretty place to camp outside Harper's Ferry. It's late, and tomorrow is town day! Night all....