Date: 2003-05-03
From: VA 606, Trent's Store

To: Sugar Run Gap/ Woods Hole Hostel
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: clear sky

A river ran by Trent's store camping area, and in the morning my tent was soaked with condensation, and so was I. I packed up the wet tent (after a vigorous shaking) and made a mental note to dry it out at lunch.I thought about a shower - after all, I'd paid for it with the campsite - but there was no towel, the morning was chilly and the bathhouses were, well, primitive even by my wilderness-slackened standards. Sigh. I passed.I set off early to hike, after Sandal and The White Brothers. Soon I came to the turnoff for Dismal Falls. Some people were so intent on mileage they walk right by these spots. That confounds me. What are we out here for?Despite the dreary name, Dismal Falls couldn't be more charming, generous rock ledges to get right out next to the waterfall. I'll bet it's a popular swimming hole in summer, the blue-green pool at the base of the falls looked tempting to this unshowered thru-hiker.Note to future hikers: go down to Trent's store, buy your pizza and drinks, then pack up and walk two more miles. The campsite at the falls is to die for, and the camping at the store is useful but forgettable.Climbing one peak, I see more azaleas, these a little later on the blooming thing, still in bud, prolific - a mountain garden ready to pop.Later, I round a bend and see four horses around a pond, their trail riders chatting with Sandal. I had to go up and see. Everyone was friendly."They were as interested in me and my trip as I was in theirs," Sandal said later.The highlight of the day's hike was lunch with Sandal on a spectacular rocky outcrop. Below us were black buzzards floating on thermals, the sun and clouds streaking the green land below, farm sounds drifting up. THIS is what I envisioned thru-hiking might be like - lunch at lofty view spots.Sandal and I hike on together, discussing science and philosophy. He is an interesting young man, very bright and centered. After a little hunting, we locate Wood's Hole Hostel, an AT classic - an old homestead belonging to Roy and Tillie Wood. Roy is dead now and Tillie lives mainly in Atlanta. But she returns for April and May to turn her lovely log barn/ hostel into a welcome spot for hikers. Her nearest neighbor is a mile and a half away.The old barn has a common area for lounging and cooking, and hefty, plastic mattresses in the loft. My hipbones spy the latter and sigh with relief - they are hating this light but thin Z-Rest I am carrying.I use the phone in the house, also log - huge, chestnut logs to be exact. I learn that the chestnut root systems still live on in the mountains, sending up juvenile sprouts, sometimes even getting large enough to reproduce before the chestnut blight knocks them down again.I have never seen a chestnut tree, the blight starting in the '30s, but a few huge chestnut logs still lie rotting in the mountains, and they are impressively huge. It must have been quite a tree to be around.I sign up for her $3.50 breakfast.Frog Caller is here, I met this section hiker last March when I went out. Here she is again.The White Brothers are here too, so Sandal and I are #4 and #5 on the Tillie Wood breakfast list. Hurray! She only feeds 8 around her table.Later Raisenette and Two Dogs, Load Runner and Apricot join us on the porch. Two Dogs claims the hammock on the porch.Tillie Wood is sharp as a tack, and has two hiker-volunteers here to help her run this lovely homestead property. There is a shelter in Georgia, "Woods Hole Shelter," named after Tillie and Roy.Not courageous enough to brave the solar shower, which I hear is "uh, invigorating...", I again go unshowered. Another factor is the cold wind which is blowing through - Sandal and I got here just before a storm. It pours off and on all night. We are very grateful, given the thunderous volume of water, to be under this loft's tin roof.