TRAIL DAY 82
Thu, May 12, 2016 We were approaching Trail Days, the weekend when Damascus, Virginia hosts Appalachian Trail hikers of all kinds. The town is abuzz with swarms of hikers, parades, music, performances, outfitters and lots and lots of food. Joe, the owner of Four Pines Hostel is retired from the railroad and I’m told enjoys a good beer and perhaps more than adequate cash. Every year he donates several butchered pigs and other food to Trail Days and transports the stuff there in a trailer taking along any hikers who want to go with him.
While Trail Days is a phenomenon on the AT, I opted to stay put to tend to business and keep my mind and efforts on heading north. I had made arrangements for two packages to be shipped to Four Pines and I wanted to be there for their arrival, not to mention resting for the miles ahead.
Joe’s wife managed to locate the packages. One was from Leki trekking poles containing new tips. Mine had gone 1111.8 miles including my shakedown hikes. I also received more boots from Merrell. It was soon apparent to me that, despite the wider toe box in my Moabs, my toes were not faring any better. It probably would have been different if I could have stopped and let them heal but I had to keep going and the daily miles prevented healing.
After a lengthy discussion with Merrell from some prominent terrain, they offered to send me two new pairs of boots of different sizes from which I could pick one and send the other new and my old boots back to them.
It bears repeating that outfitters go out of their way to support thru-hikers anywhere. Of course, long-distance hikers are their bread and butter in many respects but there is also an unspoken awareness that these customers are undertaking something serious and need and deserve respect and all the support that can be given.
Before I got to Four Pines, I had come to the opinion that another pair of boots was probably not going to help and that it was just going to take time for my damaged feet to heal as I walked, I decided to stick with what I had. I put RETURN TO SENDER on the package and sent it back to Merrell unopened. They would wonder why the package had been refused as I hiked another 300.6 miles to The Bears Den just south of the West Virginia border. I would explain there.
Farel and Pop-Tart had stayed crammed in the garage my first night and were heading back to the trail. I would see them again.
With departures for Trail Days, there was now room in the garage. I opted to move there and took a bed in the back left corner. Additional beds were lined up against the back wall.
Neat, clean and tidy were qualities absent from the garage and all parts of it but you could hang out with ease. One pretty hiker even got a foot rub from a guy who seemed to know what he was doing. She got relief. At night she slept in a bed right next to Sacket – that’s just the way it was on the trail and I never heard of any incident of unwanted or even questionable conduct.
Rather, just one, and it was not a hiker but a hostel owner, somewhere who apparently got a little randy with a female hiker. That’s all I heard. In New Hampshire I would encounter a father and daughter hiking south. We chatted and the daughter was planning on hiking in 2017. She asked about women on the trail and I mentioned the single incident I’d heard about and intentionally gave the impression that there was really nothing to worry about. She is probably out there now as I write.
I was glad to find tools I needed to change the tips on my trekking poles and I was glad to get a shower when I found it free with the sparse numbers. Glad, too, as always, to get my laundry done, at the main house.
Poles fixed, body and clothes “fixed,” rested and more or less recovered, I would be ready to go on the morrow and would leave the garage at Four Pines without adding my name to the crowded wall above the stove.
I needed to take the Merrell boots to the post office and Dan was willing to take me when he was ready to make an afternoon run to town. He gave me a time around 2:00 p.m. The time came and went and he wasn’t really ready yet. And so it went for a good while. Dan called the shots seeming to enjoy the power and control. I decided to go with someone else who was getting the same vibe. He had a nice, red truck and had driven several of us for morning coffee to the gas station down the road. He was happy to take me to the post office.
He had been out hiking a little and was going to be heading home somewhere in the south. He had a condition that prevented him from sweating, definitely an extra burden on a long hike.
We talked gear as we drove along and I mentioned that I did not have a pad for Theo. Since he was going off the trail, he offered me a brand new one for $10.00. I didn’t really like the large, bulky foam pads that folded into 6 stacked layers of more than half a foot but I couldn’t decline his offer especially in light of his kind mission driving me around.
The pad was the kind most hikers fasten to the top or bottom of their packs. I had to have everything inside, including crocks which so many dangle on the outside. I have reputation at home for being a good packer and so I was with this bulky pad. I opened it to form a triptych and scrunched it down in the back lining the sides and the back and then jammed the rest inside. It worked!
Day #82 Four Pines Hostel 0 miles