I walked for about three hours in the morning to get to Mountain Home B&B and hiker hostel. On the way there I got in touch with a shuttle driver, Gumbo, and arranged for him to drive me 9 miles uptrail so I could slackpack south. That will mean fewer miles to do Tuesday through Thursday, so I can get to Harper’s Ferry in time for my Friday train without exacerbating my leg issues. When I arrived I was handed a glass of ice cold lemonade. That sent a pretty clear signal that this place is a better than average hostel.
The B&B is a historic site. Apparently when Scott (Thru hiked 2012) and Lisa bought it, the buildings were all falling apart. But they have renovated carefully and preserved the original look. The main house, made of wood, is mostly off limits to hikers except for the main floor bathroom, and the dining room when breakfast is served. That’s the B&B part and their home. The hiker cabbin (sic) is a tiny two story brick house with a smallish kitchen and one bedroom downstairs (two beds) and a bathroom and one bedroom upstairs (four beds, no bunk beds). Since I got there first I strategically chose the bed closest to the bathroom, being an older man. As it turns out I am sharing the upstairs with Two Esses, Lone Star and Hootenanny, and Uncle Science is on his own downstairs.
Gumbo, who of course grew up in New Orleans, picked me up at 11:30. He is a freelance web developer, 60, trying to get out of that business (by not accepting any new clients) and just doing occasional shuttle driving. For $20 he took me through town to the trailhead 9 trail miles north, about 20 minutes of driving.
The idea of slackpacking is you either fill a small loaner pack with your essentials (water, filter, first aid kit, rain coat, lunch and snacks) or you empty your own pack and then put just the above items back into it. So instead of hiking with 25 lbs of gear, food and water I was hiking with maybe 10 lbs, which made the going easier. You either hike in your regular direction and arrange to have your gear driven forward to you, or, as in my case, you get shuttled further along the trail and hike back.
I ran into a day hiker who is training to hike the Grand Canyon this summer, then a trail volunteer who walks the same eight mile section three times a week to look for deadfalls so he can report any new ones to the chainsaw crew. I met Ghost and chatted briefly with him, and five minutes later Ground Control. We chatted for a few minutes. Apparently Major Tom is off trail temporarily for health reasons. Ground Control walked 40 miles yesterday. He’s training for the Four State Challenge, which involves getting up at an ungodly hour, putting one foot in Virginia, walking the 4 miles of the AT in West Virginia, walking the 40-odd miles of Maryland, and collapsing just over the Pennsylvania border. Lots of young men try it. Anyone my age who tries it is asking for major repetitive strain injuries.
There wasn’t much in terms of views today and much of the trail felt like a narrow corridor surrounded by dense brush with an invisible forest beyond, but I did enjoy walking through a fairly large area that was mostly American Tulip trees, because they grow so incredibly tall. If you ever tried to camp in a tulip tree forest, good luck finding a bear hang. The lowest branch is probably eighty feet up and I bet the trees grow upwards of 120 feet.
Close to the hostel the trail has an expansive fenced off area beside it marked No Tresspassing. Property of US Government. On my return I asked Lisa about this.
The land is used by the Smithsonian to raise endangered animals. She named a few. I remember cheetahs and Grzwalsky’s horse. Sure I spelled that wrong.
For dinner we ordered pizza. Uncle Science and I split a large veggie pizza, and the other three split a large Supreme, which has meat on it (perhaps some cheetah sausage?). We ate on the patio in front of the main house and had an enjoyable chat. The others have gone inside now. It was a pretty hot day (32 C here, hot in Ontario too I hear, Europe too). So it’s nice to sit out here in the evening when it’s finally comfortably cool. Based on how uncomfortably hot the hiking was today I am kind of dreading hiking in heat waves in June and July, but the hike must go on!
Tomorrow I hope to convince Lisa or Scott to drive me to the phone repair shop, wait five minutes while I drop off my phone, then drive me to the supermarket, which is on their way home, since that will save me 45 minutes of city walking. After resupplying I’ll visit a Thai restaurant, the outfitters, then back to the phone shop. Since I won’t have my phone with me I drew a map and my shopping list on paper. Fingers crossed the repair happens quickly and there are no complications, then I’ll call Gumbo for a ride and it’s off towards Harper’s Ferry three days from now.
Mile 966.2 to mile 981.1 = 14.9 miles.
A fair bit of today’s trail was on raised wood walkways
A tulip tree grove
Hiker patio outside main house
Front of Main House
Hiker cabbin