Day 148: Bear Garden Hostel

Start: Stealth Site (AT mi 574.6 miles). Stop: Bear Garden Hostel (AT mi 558.5). Today’s miles: 16.1 miles. Total AT mileage: 1634.6 miles

I slept great, once I fell asleep.. it took some rolling around to get comfortable. Then I slept so well, I pushed snooze until 7. Dammit. I was supposed to get up early and knock out a lot of miles. Strike one.

I did, however, try out Cactus’ routine and get my food bag first-and eat breakfast and have coffee in my tent before packing up, aka: snuggled back in my quilt. It really is all it’s cracked up to be. I’ve always had this mentality of packing quickly and eating afterwards, but with these cold mornings, it makes breakfast miserable. As much as I care about getting to Georgia and finishing this thing, I’m not in favor of suffering for no reason. So, my mornings will probably take a little longer, but it’ll give me a better start to the day. Like it did today..

I got on trail right before 8am and less than 5 minutes later, Smash came rolling by! He and his tramily camped 2 miles back.. and he mentioned they were all headed to Bear Garden Hiker Hostel and had a cabin rented.. it sleeps 6 and they only had 5. He invited me to be their number 6. I told him I’d think on it for a little while and let them know, since I was supposed to be hiking more than 16 miles today to stay on schedule to meet up with Lizard. He laughed and agreed, but then said if the others catch up to me they’ll probably all invite me, too.

As I hiked I played with numbers and mileage.. all of the what if’s for stopping early today. By the time LongShot came up on me, I mentally decided I was in.. I just waited to see if he’d say something about it. He did after a bit of pleasant chit chat. I told him I was more than likely in. I was suddenly excited.. I kinda like being randomly adopted into other tramilies.. I was with Soundscape, TwoHats, and Bookworm awhile, with Butterfingers and Blueberry, and then Cactus and Bones are always great to be around, which they’re kinda sorta with this group, too.. it makes trail life so much more enjoyable!

Anyway-the trail was a bit harsh on some of the climbs today. The first real climb came early on, and was roughly 900 feet of elevation gain in just over a mile. Which, it was during this climb that Sunshine and MashedPotato passed me, too.. and invited me to the cabin. They were all sitting at the shelter on top of the climb, Chestnut Knob shelter, eating snacks and looking out a the incredible view. The top was mostly grass and had great views of the farmland below. I stayed a bit, ate some snacks, soaked in my surroundings.
I got up to get ready to go before the others, and as I was started to head downhill, Zebra appeared.. she had seen 2 bears this morning! I was a little jealous I didn’t have a sighting of my own. She invited me to the cabin.. haha Smash was right, I got invites by all 5 people! I told I was coming, but since they’re faster than me, I was going to get a move on so I wouldn’t be hours after them getting there.

The next few miles we’re simply lovely. I was walking downhill through grassy fields. The mountains looked majestic off in the distance in their different hues of blue. The vastness surrounding me gives me a feeling I’ve never been quite able to explain-but I think it’s because of longing for this feeling that I have such a hard time sitting still in real life. I’m always on the move, always on another adventure, because I love the way this feeling feels. It’s truly beyond words for me.

Eventually the fields turned to woods and even that was beautiful. I stopped for lunch and a water fill up at Lick Creek. The bridge washed out some time ago, so there’s warnings all around about needing to fjord it.. but for us, that water so low my feet didn’t even get wet. I sat and ate on the banks of the creek that surely used to be submerged, not that you’d be able to tell that now. The water through Virginia has not been the easiest to come by. It was also part of my decision to stay at the cabin tonight, so I wouldn’t have to fill up and tote more to camp.

The group caught me while I was eating lunch and they hung out and rested and filtered their water. LongShot was ahead of us, we all laughed that he was probably already showered at the hostel. I got my head start on them again, and I pushed along my last 5 miles. Eventually, one by one, they all passed me on the last uphill of the day, which was long and steep in parts. Zebra technically caught me on the start of the downhill, but same difference.

At the bottom of the downhill there was a road crossing with a sign to the hostel heading left. As I walked up, the 4 of them were resting at a picnic table and when they saw me they popped up so we could walk the rest of the way to the hostel together to check in.. LongShot was definitely already there, but they wanted to make sure I didn’t miss it. It was within eyesight of the picnic table, but I was happy they waited for me.

The Bear Garden Hiker Hostel is on a little farm that has chickens, and they grow their own veggies. There was a bunkhouse with all the snacks and goodies, I had a Mountain Dew.. everyone got their loaner clothes, and then Bert drove us the quarter mile down to the cabin we were renting. It was only 3pm, so it felt like we had tons of time to kill. Bert brought us fresh eggs from her chickens and told the guys that whatever potatoes they dug up they were free to have.

We took turns showering, and after I was clean I went to help dig. Sounds a little backwards, I know, but I was cold from the wet sweat so I wanted the hot shower. They showed me how to look for the potatoes and between all 6 of us (mostly everyone but me, I maybe contributed 6-8 lol), we had two big bowls of small to medium sized potatoes! It was pretty cool. One by one people showered that hadn’t already. Smash, Sunshine, and MashedPotato taught me how to play Euchre.. a card game like spades but with only the high cards and some slightly different rules. I think I caught on relatively quick. We also started popping frozen pizzas in the oven, one at a time until all 4 pizzas were cooked.. we shared and then some of the group at other things too if they weren’t full on the pizzas. We drank soda like it was beer and played cards while listening to music. I let Zebra and MashedPotato use my hairbrush, and the dreads in the back of MashedPotato’s head ended up breaking the handle off! We all laughed hysterically!

Later into the evening, after laundry was done and everyone just sat around sorting their stuff and talking, MashedPotato made up a song about my brush. Then, he told me and Zebra a story about his grandparents’ farm and his grandpa taught him how to make a turkey caller. He pulls out a piece of paper and sets to work, both of us watching him closely. After 5 or so minutes of folding, poking holes, and making a barrel on one end, we follow him outside to see his handiwork. He takes a huge breath, and as he goes to blow into his little paper contraption, he instead yells, “HERE TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY! HEEEEEERE TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY!” I am still laughing about this now. Talk about being gullible.. we ate it up! Hahahaha

Eventually, I headed to bed before the rest, to lay on my top bunk and write this out. I’m going to pop in my earplugs and get some shut eye. I have a feeling I’ll be up and out before them.. they have intentions of cooking a big breakfast with the potatoes and the eggs.. and as enticing as that is.. I need to get between 20 and 24 miles tomorrow.

They’re faster hikers than I am, so they could probably leave at 9 and still make it before dark, but I definitely don’t see me doing that, or wanting to risk not making it at least 20 miles so I can stay on track to meet Lizard the following day. Technically, I’d still be able to meet her if I did fall short any, but then I wouldn’t be able to hike out with her the following day.. and that’s my priority. While I really enjoy hanging out and meeting new people, knowing she’s so close seems silly for me to not try to catch her, at least for a little bit anyway. It’s not like we’ll be able to hike the rest of the way to Georgia together.. mom is coming in a week from now, so that’s a zero Lizard probably won’t take, plus I have Lauren’s Bachelorette weekend the following weekend, so that’s 3 more zeros.

Depending on when Lizard takes her zeros, there’s hope of me catching her again, but I’m trying to keep reality in check that I may not be able to. Also, Sauce, FarOut, and Towelie are just a bit ahead of Lizard, so depending on their zeros, there’s a very slight chance of catching them.. although I believe they’re wanting to finish before November, and I don’t see me being able to pull that one off. Even still, I won’t let hope die! I can still keep my fingers crossed that I’ll see them again! Curmudgeon on the other hand is like 170 miles ahead of me—sooooo I’ll just have to see him and Cholula some day off trail LOL, I’m not that completely unrealistic that I think I could catch him!

Anyway, I’ll quit rambling. Today was incredible. Let’s hope tomorrow is too, and that I meet my mileage goals! Goodnight!