Date: 2005-09-27
From: US 19E

To: Dennis Cove Road
Miles today: 23.8

My stay at the Mountain Harbour hostel paid off - I heard the rain on the barn roof at night, but had beautiful weather to hike the next trail section the next morning.I had my Pop Tarts *toasted* this morning, filled my water bottle with coffee, and joyously embarked. All morning, I was bursting with energy. (This is the first time I've brought coffee on the trail.) The first bit of the trail had piles of trash around it: old boots, beer boxes, and a computer monitor, among other things. It stood out because in my weeks of hiking on the trail, I usually see only one or two small pieces of trash a day. Past the garbage, though, the trail turned very scenic, passing streams and alternating between meadow and forest. I appreciated the variety of scenery. The forest was starting to change color, the meadows had diverse flowers and fruits, and there was no more trash to be seen.I met a maintenance crew several miles down the trail, by a river. A man weed-whacking a meadow path told me that the upcoming, overgrown section was called the Car Wash. I didn't understand until I walked through and the wet tendrils of grasses wiped my legs clean. About a dozen other maintenance volunteers were patrolling the trail for problems and installing water bars. It was obvious that they paid attention to detail; this section of the trail had a nicely graded path with numerous bridged screen crossings and other nice features.Back in the forest, I scared a rabbit down the path in front of me, and enjoyed the rays of sunlight dappling through the trees. The hike was pleasant all the way to Dennis Cove Road, where I stayed at the Kincora hostel. Kincora is owned by Bob Peoples, the head of the maintenance crew I passed in the morning. (The trail club is sponsored my Eastman Chemical, and the weed-whacker and several others were retired executives, but Bob is there just for the love of the trail.)Bob was probably the most friendly and generous person I have met on the trail. Although I was his only guest, he took me shopping, gave me fresh garden tomatoes for my chicken salad dinner, and sat down with me for an hour to chat and impart some knowledge of trail lore.Bob is a trail legend. He and his wife bought the hostel property sight unseen solely because of its proximity to the trail. They then built the dorm themselves and started taking in hikers for $4 each. This year, they welcomed their 10,000th guest, and the dorm is decorated with triumphal pictures of people completing thru-hikes each year.Bob told me that the trash I saw yesterday by 19E was put there by a local who was still upset about the eminent domain seizure of his property for the trail in 1988. He told me that his laundry detergent bucket had been the "backpack" of a legendary hiker who was dropped off at the trailhead in Georgia by the police after a vagrancy conviction, and just kept on walking. He told me about the coming terrain in amazing technical detail. He talked about the longhorn cattle that keep Hump Mountain bramble-free. And he told me funny stories about the eccentric people who have hiked and stayed with him over the years. While the acommodations here were rustic, to put it euphemistically, and show traces of the dirty guests, I am glad I came to visit.