Date: 2018-05-28
From: Lickskillet Road

To: Dismal Falls
Miles today: 7.1

I woke up in the safari tent well rested from the night before.  Theresa and I lounged around in the tent until 7:45. We walked down to the main house to get organic coffee. Kamikaze was already up with Theo hanging out on the porch. We hung out on the porch for a little bit then they started having breakfast by doing the greatful circle. Neville the hostel owner had us all stand in a circle holding hands.  We had to mention our name, where we were from, and something we were grateful for. I was grateful for family and tramily. Many others were grateful for coffee. Neville asked for volunteers to help serve breakfast as well as help clean up. There was text all over the hostel about having good karma. You even had to do chores while staying there. We went to the side of the house for breakfast. There were octagon tables where everyone could sit at and eat breakfast together. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with greens from the garden, cheesy grits, orange slices, and peach bread. It was all amazing food.  We went back to the safari tent to hang out. Theresa and I showed Kamikaze and Scissors our cozy room last night. Kamikaze said that Neville scolded Theo when he was running through the garden. Theo was chasing the other dog that lived there but Neville seemed to single out Theo. Theo made one yelp because he saw the other dog playing fetch. Neville was quick to tell Kamikaze to settle Theo down. We heard that Neville's partner left the hostel sometime ago and she had to run the place by herself. I'm sure it was stressful running that place especially if all your help was work for stays. For someone who talked about karma so much I wonder if some will come back to bite her.   Poncho and Bandito showed up. They wanted to travel with Kamikaze and Scissors again before they had to leave the trail. They got to meet Theresa too. Bandito had been having issues with rashes from her socks. Theresa gave her some sock liners that she used on her hike. The trail always provides.  I tried to convince Bandito to keep hiking but she said she would run out of money. Kamikaze, Scissors, Bandito, and Poncho all packed up to move out. We gave them some leftover food that we had from trail magic. They headed out around 11, I know that I'll meet up with them again soon.  Theresa and I headed to Parisburg for lunch. The town was a ghost town since it was memorial day. Even the Chinese restaurant was closed. We headed back to Dublin, VA for Mexican food. We called the restaurant to make sure they were open. I got a large beer and a huge burrito. Theresa got chimichangas. The food was loaded with calories just what I needed. After Mexican we headed to Walmart to pick up more beer to leave by the road as trail magic. We drove another 30 minutes to Lickskillet to drop me back off in the woods. We put two coolers out at the trailhead with beer, juice, and water. A few hikers passed through and were really excited to have a beer. I got dressed in my hiker garb and put together my food bag. I made sure that I had everything before Theresa left. As I was getting ready Halfway and Lost and Found walked into the road. They were waiting for a ride to the Lickskillet hostel. Eventually someone showed and they offered to clean up our trail magic after we left. I said my goodbye to Theresa and gave her a long hug. I was sad to see her go, but I knew that I had to keep pushing on.  The trail was a complete muddy mess from Lickskillet to Dismal falls. I gave up trying to walk around the mud puddles and walked straight through them. The mud covered my socks and sandels. It got under my feet and felt sandy. The bridges I came to were slippery as well. I heard a waterfall in the distance and knew I was close to Dismal falls. There was a random path without a sign that I took to get there. It was about 8:30 when I arrived at the falls. The fast flowing water looked eerie at night. I worried I would fall in as I grabbed water to filter from it. I setup my tent about one tenth of a mile from the falls. I had issues finding a good bear hang tree in the dark. I almost lost my rock bad to a fork in a tree. It took way too long to hang up.Tonight I'm listening to Dismal falls crash in the distance.