TRAIL DAY 90
Fri, May 20, 2016 For some reason I don’t recall, I awoke near 2:00 a.m. and took a picture of Theo and me. It appeared that I was using him for a pillow which, but for a short, affectionate time, I don’t remember ever doing.
Speaking of “pillow,” let me tell you what worked really well for me as a pillow: my crocks!
Yep!
I would force the heel strap of each crock over the toe of the other holding the together. Then I would put the crocks in the spongiest alignment, one sole down and the other up, under the head of my Thermarest pad for a spongy head elevation without lumps. My pillow was footwear and a sleeping pad. No unnecessary weight to carry! Super! Saw me the whole way from early preparations in Vermont to Katahdin. Love it!
I surely went back to sleep and was awake again at 6:40 a.m., the time I took a picture of the view out my tent.
It was a sunny morning on our hilltop. We did the usual morning things and returned down the steep slope of dense growth to the narrow trail cut into the side of the hill and continued our trek northward. We had spent the night buried in the woods all by ourselves. No one knew. We survived just fine and now we were back on the trail – cool!
During a long descent we came upon a jovial, heavy-set woman heading southbound. She was wearing a brilliant chartreuse T-shirt offset by earrings. She was too clean and bejeweled to be a thru-hiker. It turned out she was a teacher taking a long weekend for some hiking. She had been through this region before and recommended the Three Springs Hostel in Buena Vista which, in time, I would learn was not pronounced by the locals with anything close to a Spanish accent. The hostel was actually in Vesuvius, Virginia about 20 miles from Buena Vista.
Coming up was Bluff Mountain which for some was the boundary between winter gear and summer. I’d already made the switch as my feet well knew. But I had not heard of the reason Bluff Mountain would forever have a tender spot in my memory.
I took some pictures of my acquaintance and she of me and we each went our opposite way. Other than what looked like a cannon ready for war, there was nothing unusual about the path to the sad surprise at the top of Bluff Mountain.
Just before I rounded the last bend to the summit, I noticed a monument of some sort off to the right. I went over to read it.
Ottie was a bright little boy helping to collect firewood for the schoolhouse stove. He went into the woods and never return. Countless efforts of neighbors were fruitless, no one ever thinking that this little fellow would climb the mountain until a hunter’s dog found the body many months later after a cold winter.
There is something about the little monument that evokes a sense of presence, knowing the little body of this young boy was found exactly here. The depth of the spirit carrying him up the cold and lonely mountain 125 years before meets something within the unwary hiker coming by surprise to this spot.
At the summit were the base supports of a fire tower erected sometime after Ottie was discovered, remnants of the structure long gone.
I sat for a time at the summit taking in the view and decided to call the Three Springs Hostel. There was room and, yes, they could meet me at US 60. There would be no cell service after I began the descent, so I had to give them my best estimate on arrival. I checked the AWOL profile and distance and estimated I could be at the road by 6:00 p.m. I would be descending most of the way with an up-is-up incline at the end. The distance was 12.9 miles! I was underway at 10:20 a.m. If I could do about 1.7 miles per hour, I would be good.
The trail was comfortable. No big obstacles. Just cruisin’ along. And then, at mile 799.3, I came to Reservoir Road – and Trail Magic!
I thoroughly enjoyed myself with 3 hot dogs, 2 bags of chips and 2 beers. For lunch – while hiking – 2 beers! Theo had a hotdog or 2 as well. The TAs were talkative and fun. They were a couple, each out of a “bad” marriage and planning to wed soon. They were enjoying each other and Theo and me as company.
I was welcomed to more – but with the modicum of wisdom left in me I declined. I had arrived at the road at 11:20 a.m. and wasn’t back in the woods until around 1:00 p.m. I had enjoyed myself just a little too much. I remember a faint fog and slight unsteadiness as I returned to the task at hand with nearly 10 miles to go!
“Walk it off!” as “Chuck the Butcher” used to say in prep school. He was the campus doctor for whom this was the main prescription for sports injuries. My “injury” was self-inflicted.
We walked it off.
The trail took us over a suspension bridge, past the 800-mile mark, to an unusual lizard, over streams and through mud.
At 1.8 miles from US 60 there was a turn-off to a shelter. In spite of my bolting through the woods as fast as I could, I was clearly not going to make the road by the appointed hour. I had visions of my ride eventually giving up. I walked all the faster – really pushing hard to make my delay as short as possible. The closer I got, the harder I pushed until. . . .
I saw a dark-haired lady in the half-light under the forest canopy calling out to me. She was my ride! Marcia.
I told her I was sorry I was late and that I’d tried to call in time to prevent her waiting at the trail. She said.
Not a problem. I was getting ready to hike into the shelter and wait for you there. I’ve done that before.
All was well. My worst fears vanished as gratitude took their place. As I have done well over a thousand times back home, I took a picture of a vanity plate which seemed to express well our attitude toward the trail as Theo and I crawled in Marcia’s van for the long ride to the hostel.
Three Springs is, without a doubt, the neatest hostel on the trail. I mean clean-and-orderly kinda neat. The hostel was owned by Oma who said her name means grandmother. I got the impression that she and Marcia were partners. That opposites are supposed to attract lent itself to that surmise. I think I might have been sleeping along the side of the road had Oma been my driver – not sure. Both were very nice.
Boots were left outside as you entered the sleeping quarters with 3 double-decker bunks and a wood-burning stove. At the back left of the room was the door into a large, very clean bathroom with one of those old-folks tubs where you close the door and sit down as the tub fills. I was invited to enjoy the device as soon as I was ready.
From the bunk room, you passed through a spare-clothes-and-laundry room – again, very clean – into a large kitchen and gathering area. At the back right, there was a door into the resupply room where there was a door to the right into Oma’s office. To the back left of the supply room was a door out to a side porch where there was a refrigerator with frozen pizzas and other goodies. There were drinks, ice cream and enough to stuff yourself. Everything was on the honor system. There was, of course, a pizza oven as needed.
I had a deep sitz bath which was thoroughly delightful even though I couldn’t figure out how to get the jets to work. Totally mellowed out, I headed for the side porch for a pizza. I also had two hamburgers Oma made for me. It was just another one of those gimme-all-ya-got food fests.
Oma also delivered half a bag of Snickers left for me by PB who was tenting out in the woods nearby. He was always careful with his expenses. He’d been at the hostel earlier and they told him I’d be coming. PB’s offering came with his note which simply said: EAT!
He was looking out for me even then – long after we last saw each other. I remember another time when PB took off on a 23-mile day, leaving Justice behind – she then left me behind.
Soon after my arrival at Three Springs, I plugged in the back-up phone battery PB had given me to maximize the amount of time it would be charging. I had laid out my stuff on the bottom bunk near the bathroom and took the bottom one next to it for mine.
Rested, charging, blessed by Oma, Marcia and PB, I turned in.
Day #90 Hill above Saddle Gap > US 60 (Three Springs) 15.5 miles