Date: 2013-04-28
From: Standing Bear Hostel

To: Standing Bear Hostel
Miles today: 0.0

It is Sunday, April 28, 2013. I had hiked just north of the Great Smokies National Park in exactly 2 weeks since my departure from Springer Mountain. It was a perfect day to rest after hiking all day in the rain from Peck's Corner Shelter in the Smokies the previous day. The rain continued steadily into Sunday, with spurts of down pours, continuing throughout the day. The Standing Bear Hostel had a few rustic structures that served as shelters from the rain, the most popular one, being the kitchen, which the majority of hikers, including the hired hand, hung out at through the day. The kitchen contained a few shelves of books, and a picnic bench that served as a table for card games or consuming meals throughout the day. The laundry room, connected to the kitchen only by an open window over the kitchen sink contained a gas dryer and wash basin with wash board, which was in continuous operation like the kitchen. For those who've experienced Standing Bear Hostel first hand, one wonders how any of those structures keep the rain out! The facilities are filthy and rat infested. I ignored these factors, and made the best of what was there! Standing Bear Hostel is perhaps a quarter mile from the AT, which crosses the gravel Green Corner Road, which the Hostel is on. There is a bunk house located at the driveway-entrance that houses 18 hikers, with a tiny covered porch on the end facing the kitchen-laundry room facilities (a separate building next to the bunk house). Across the driveway from the bunk house, is the cabin which sleeps 6 hikers, two of which must be willing to share a queen-sized bed on the bottom floor with someone else. The upstairs loft, accessed by ladder, has two single mattresses. There was a vacancy, I discovered, in the cabin in the early morning. The five sleeping in the cabin were Sprouts, Arrow, Haggart, Cobalt, and an older Australian man whom I don't remember the name of. Cobalt offered to sleep in the loft on the floor between the two single mattresses, which freed a whole queen-sized bed to myself. Nobody would be snoring in my ear! I settled into the cabin before noon, in between eating multiple meals, created from self-serve food supplies in the food-cache room up a short muddy hill above the driveway and over a garage. The room served as storage for caches sent to through hikers and a mini-store, with assorted canned, dried, fresh, and frozen foods, many which had long expired. Most of the food was set on shelves behind glass cabinet doors, with prices for each item. The hiker would simply grab what they wanted, write it on the envelop provided when they arrived, and tally up the total before departure. My guess is that a lot of free loaders without money, found this room a free-for-all. At least one hiker did work for his stay. I recall him walking into the crowded kitchen area in the afternoon, pissed off about the task the hostel personnel made him do. He was assigned rat-shit cleanup beneath the bunk house, without the proper protection from hantavirus. Nevertheless, it was his choice to work for stay, and he could've refused to walk away from the job...but he was simply stupid and I suppose desperate. I might add thoughtless too, as he proceeded in washing himself in the kitchen where everyone was preparing food! I was surprised after my stay for 1.5 days here, that I didn't get ill from some virus myself. I spent the day, it seemed, cooking one meal after the next...corned beef hash with eggs, frozen pizza, and junk food, then a group dinner prepared by the group that stayed in the cabin. We cooked up a large pot of pasta with meat, and I tossed in a six pack of coke for the beverage side of things. It would've been nice to have a fresh garden salad...wishful thinking! Around 2pm, a group of hikers staying in the bunk house departed in the pouring rain to the trailhead. They were devoted to the concept of "Marathon Monday" and would hike to the Groundhog Creek Shelter in Deep Gap (mi 247.7) where they'd leave early Monday morning, pushing for the town of Hot Springs, NC. Ambitious! They were honoring a relative who was participating in a marathon, either the same day or the upcoming week. One hiker who had known this group said it was unlikely they'd follow through. By late day, I retired to the cabin, which its occupants had used as a large dryer for wet gear. A space heater ran all day, with a fan to circulate stagnant air. Gear had been strewn all over the place! I had taken caution myself not to mix my gear into the pile. I believe it was something close to 11pm by the time we had turned off the lights. The fan was left on. I could not handle the noise, so fumbled in the dark to switch it off. I opened the window in exchange.