Date: 2012-06-10
From: Bald Knob

To: Dutch Haus
Miles today: 22.6

We were up at 6:30am. PMo left early and I finally got moving in the warming morning by 7:40am. A late start considering that we wanted to catch the shuttle/free lunch offered by the Dutch Haus B&B. For some reason, this was a desperate need in our minds. By hiking 3MPH, we would have exactly enough time. I was hiking so fast. The tall dew-laden grasses soaked my feet. I was practically running down the trail, pack full from the resupply, just beating up my feet. I felt the hot spots forming but kept moving. Free food was more important right now. I caught up with PMo who was also moving really fast and we encouraged each other to pick up the pace. We were still on track to just barely make it. I was hungry, thirsty, out of breath, but we were at the dirt road at 11am.But there weren't any signs, no hints as to where to go from here. The tree cover was thick and shady and in the quiet of the forest, I felt like we must have just missed it. Totally dejected, I spoke to a few passing day hikers about the location of the Dutch Haus. PMo continued on the trail without me up a steep hill through the woods We didn't have a plan. The hikers told me the Dutch Haus was just down the road a bit. Ten minutes passed and she hadn't come back. I was starting to get frustrated. I went up after her knowing I might miss the shuttle. I also figured catching her with a ten minute head-start up this hill was gonna be tough. However, I knew I wouldn't be going to the Dutch Haus without her. How long could I possibly stall them anyway? Certainly not my calmest of moments, I reconsidered the potential loss. It wasn't that big of a deal. Sure, we had busted our butts to get here on time, but we didn't really know where we were going, and we did have plenty of food. I pulled myself together and walked up the steep hill. I found her a quarter of a mile up coming back down. Nothing up ahead. We sauntered back to the road and ran into Scoobie who was on the phone talking to Lois, one of the owners. She gave us directions to the pick-up spot. We knew Beast Mode was coming in right behind us and we waited for him. Side by side, the four of us walked down the long gravel road.Earl, the other owner of the Dutch Haus, came to pick us up in his big pickup truck, complete with bean bag chair in the bed and Hiker Trash Tour sticker on the window. We loaded into the back and rambled on down the gravel road bouncing toward lunch. We watched hummingbirds from their porch while their niece, Hannah, cooked up some burgers. The smells coming out of that house were unbelievable. Lunch was finally served and the anticipation added considerably: cheeseburgers, grilled onions, mac'n'cheese, and sliced carrots. It was all gone far too quickly. We chatted with Lois and Earl about their lives and found we had a mutual appreciation of the local brewery, Devil's Backbone. This brewery made my list over a year ago as a place I didn't want to miss. They do a bunch of collaborations with other brewers and have won numerous awards. They also employ a brewer who specializes in lagers. I spent some time in China and feel that the main reason you brew lagers with passion like that is humidity. There is irony in the need for cool brewing temperatures. Their lagers are no joke.I really liked the wonderful folks at the Dutch Haus. The problem I was now facing was how to stay the night there and still make the brewery visit happen without losing a day. The mileage and hours just didn't work out and there were two giant mountains in our way. Lois offered a solution: she would drive us ahead on the trail right after lunch and we could walk south back to the Dutch Haus for the night. Then, she would take us back to where she originally dropped us off the next morning and we could walk north to the brewery. And, we could slack-pack one of the mountains, The Priest, standing in our way! It was perfect.While we were getting ready to go back out to the trail, we bumped into Michael from the wine shop yesterday. Earl drove us to the trailhead and we cruised up the mountain, very thankful to be slacking it. After 3000 feet we were near the top and exhausted. We took a short nap on a big granite slab overlooking the green valley and blue mountain ranges. We saw Daffy coming down and donated our space on the granite slab for his nap and got back to hiking. We stopped in at the shelter at the top. It was pretty buggy and Semplesee, King of the Hill, Jiffy Pop were fighting off the bites. There were many other hikers, including a few section hikers I had never met. I filtered some water at the spring and found a bunch of ramen noodles in it. I was shocked. You stopped seeing stuff like that hundreds of miles ago. We fished them out and gave them to the fire that was started likely to keep the bugs at bay.We ate a fast snack and got to walking again. Down, up, down we went, rolling through the next 4.3 miles. The pounding of my feet was making my head hurt. We were so tired and hungry that we were getting dizzy. Thankfully we were getting close. Earl told us to call him from Spyrock and we would meet in the middle. He came and picked us up like a hero saving us the long walk down the gravel road again. There were many signs indicating that this was not entirely legal. He also brought us a couple of beers to enjoy on the way back. This is obviously not his first rodeo. He drove like a bat out of hell, crashing through tree branches as we bounced up and down in the back of his truck. One of the branches whipped around and the leaves hit me in the forehead. I pressed the cold beer against my skin and realized I was bleeding. It didn't matter though. This was a big favor.We got back a little late for dinner. Pork Loin! It was also Kentucky's birthday. We sang to her and then helped her dig into a fantastic birthday dessert spread. Earl and Lois shared some wine with us and when our motor skills were all properly impaired, we headed to the backyard to play corn hole in the cool, dark evening. Yeti and PMo were on one team and Crazy Top and I were on the other, boys vs. girls. We saw a giant Luna moth mid-game. The boys, as you would expect, were in the lead throughout the night but PMo came back and threw a triple officially ending the game. We retired to our rooms late and I snuggled deep into the soft mattress and warm quilts. The window was cracked just enough to feel a cool breeze on my face and I drifted off with ease.