Date: 2011-05-04
From: (44) Woods Hole Hostel

To: (45) Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: broken clouds

Helm woke and went to breakfast, but I slept in. When I finally got up I finished reading my book and then threw it in the garbage. There was no point in carrying something I could no longer use. I packed up and waved goodbye to Green Hat before leaving, because I knew that he was getting off soon to visit his family, and that I would not likely see him again. I hiked the morning by myself towards the next town, Pearisburg, where Helm and I were planning on resupplying at Wal-Mart and then uploading journals and photos at the library. I eventually grew weary of hiking, so I stopped to check out a blue blaze trail and climb some rock faces until Helm caught up. Together we descended from the mountains into the valley where the town was. In my opinion, the highlight of the hike was when Helm, showing off, dropped his hiking pole and nailed himself between the legs. (His parents read these things, so I have to embarrass him. Sorry Helm¢¦but not really. Well, maybe a little sorry¢¦nah never mind.) The weather was turning cold, and I had to put on my fleece. We had heard that there was a chance of a storm, and I no longer doubted it.In town I typed up trail journals while Helm went to Wal-Mart. When I saw him again he was wearing a flashy new pair of sneakers (Wal-Mart¢s finest at 13$). My computer¢s time limit ran out shortly after, so I left to resupply at Wal-Mart myself. It was a blast! Having only supplied at markets the past million times, I was overwhelmed at having everything and anything I wanted to eat laid out before me. I could barely fit all I bought into my pack!Helm and I ate supper at El Rancheros while it rained outside. Cold weather is fine and wet weather is fine, but we don¢t like to mix the two, so we made up our minds to call it a day and stay at the local hostel. We weren¢t sure where the hostel was, but while searching we saw fellow hiker ¢Turn Around¢ walking towards us through the shopping center parking lot and decided to ask him. I lifted my arms and yelled, ¢Hey, Turn Around!¢ A random girl in the lot next to us heard me and ¢turned around.¢ She wore a goofy smile on her face and shouted ¢HEYYYyyyee¢¦!¢ back. Her excitement vanished when she realized that she did not know us, that we had not been referring to her, and that she should not have turned around. Helm and I ignored this social awkwardness, despite how funny it was. I can only imagine how many times this has happened to other people while trying to get Turn Around¢s attention.What made Helm and I decide to ask a guy named Turn Around for directions is beyond me (he got his name for getting lost). Having come directly from the Hostel, he was unable to remember how he had got to Wal-Mart. I sighed; obviously it could not be far away. Frustrated, Helm pulled out a map of Pearisburg and showed it to Turn Around, but this did not help either. Finally, Helm asked him to simply point in the direction of the hostel, ¢Just point. Just point in the general direction that you came from.¢ Turn Around looked down at his hands and said something along the lines of, ¢Well see, the thing about that is¢¦¢And so, Helm and I ended up walking for two hours through the cold and the rain until finding the Hostel ourselves, which was over a hill behind the shopping center. It was a donation hostel, the type that relies on the honor system, and was maintained by a local church. The inside was nice, and one of the rooms contained a wood stove that a hiker named Tabasco was fueling, so we were able to warm up. Many other hikers had decided to take refuge from the cold as well, and we saw some familiar faces, including: Twig, Two Feathers, Slow and Steady, Turn Around (yeah, he made it back), and more. (For the record, Turn Around was an extremely nice guy, determined to finish the trail despite how badly he missed his family. I made it sound bad, but really Helm and I had a long laugh about the whole thing on our way to the hostel, and joked with Turn Around about it later that night. He cracks me up.)I spent the evening by the furnace talking with some of the guys. Twig was telling trail stories about this hiker named Tree Beard who was apparently quite the character. One story was that Tree Beard had arrived at Neel¢s Gap with an 80lb pack, so he did the ¢shakedown¢ to see what gear he could send home. When the guy doing the shakedown told him that he did not need his fishing pole and tackle box, Tree Beard responded in a raspy voice: ¢You mean to tell ME, that between HERE and MAINE, there¢s not ONE FISH!?!?! Put that back!¢ Helm and I had heard of Tree Beard before and greatly wanted to meet him, but Twig informed us that he had been hiking south the other day and that we had unknowingly passed him. According to this story, a hiker who saw him going the wrong way had shouted, ¢Hey Tree Beard you¢re hiking south!¢ Tree beard turned and retorted, ¢No YOU¢RE hiking south!!!¢ then continued on his jolly way. (He¢s probably halfway to Georgia by now)