Date: 2008-04-03
From: Laurel Fork

To: Dennis Cove (Kincora Hostel)
Miles today: 11.8

Easy Day (respectively). It rained on and off through the night, and packing up a wet tent is not my favorite thing in the world. My hands get cold pretty easily, and getting them wet doesn¢t help. But the rain didn¢t last too long, and the thought of a hostel tonight kept the hiking at a good pace. A few ups and downs, but nothing special. I hiked the last 30 minutes in rain, but I didn¢t care because I would be indoors shortly.        Kincora rocks. It is an old farm type house with horses grazing in the pasture right next to it. Sam was commenting on how animals such as these horses munching on the yummy grass don¢t seem to care at all if it rains, but most Americans run into the grocery store during a drizzle to avoid a few drops of water. The hostel is donation based, with a suggested donation of $4. Hello? 4 Dollars? That¢s like 4 Snickers bars. Many people donate more, but a donation style hostel lets some people sleaze out and never pay a dime. Anyways, we went into town for resupply and food. We went to Arby¢s where I took down 3.5 Bacon Cheddar melts, a chicken club salad with 3 ranch dressings, and 2 drinks. Shepherd calculated my calorie intake to be a grand total of over 3000 calories. That¢s the second big eater award contest I¢ve won. To be honest, it wasn¢t even hard. I could¢ve done more, but I think we all learned our lesson from the Erwin Chinese buffet. We hopped over to the grocery store where we got a 2 day resupply into Damascus. I went to pay using my debit card, but it was denied. Swipe again¢¦.denied. Awesome. I paid in cash. Either someone drained my bank account and left me $13 to pay for Arby¢s about 20 minutes ago, or my card got shut off. The guys think Bank of America probably thought I had been making too many weird purchases in weird places away from NH, so they shut my card off. Since there is no computer at Kincora, I¢ll have to wait until Damascus to figure this out. After resupply, we got back to Kincora and kept eating. CJ, Shepherd, Sam (now known as Cowboy Killer, or CK from now on), Lichentrope, and I started up a game of RISK. I did my best to bunker down in Africa, but Shepherd, who never owned a continent all game, cashed in his cards at the right time and kept knocking out players, stealing their cards, and repeating. It was well played.        We ordered pizza and wings, and I had a great conversation about corporate America and my generation. To be honest, I am disappointed in the majority of my generation. I know I sound like an old man yelling at ¢those damn kids,¢ but my generation has such a large sense of entitlement. We expect so much without having to work for it. We pay with plastic when we don¢t have the actual money. We expect others to clean up our messes. We think we are entitled to a free hostel stay because we have been in the woods for 3 days. Nice try, but we choose to be out here. That is part of what this hike is about. I have to earn every mile. I am making my own choices, and cleaning up after my own mess. My generation is also the generation of instant gratification, but I¢ll save that for another rainy day.        We¢ve got 50 miles planned for the next 2 days, so that means a 0600 wake up tomorrow morning. Yikes. I didn¢t know 0600 existed. ¢The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside. Somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature & God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be & that God wishes to see happy people, amidst the simple beauty of nature.¢ ¢Anne Frank