Miles Hiked: 12.0
Today was another perfect weather day. Sunny and warm with beautiful views from the top of Blood Mountain. I hit my stride today and felt good hiking, felt like I was where I belonged and that I could trust my body to carry me forward. Even with a full pack I felt energized. It was good.
I was sitting in Jarrard Gap on a log, studying my map at 12:00 noon. I felt good and I was congratulating myself on already hiking 7 miles today when The Hardway strolled in! Remember The Hardway from Maine? I hiked with him for about four days around Rangely and Sabbath Day Pond. He plans to finish tomorrow at Springer. He told me that he had already hiked 15 miles today (by noon) and felt good, so he thought he might go 30 miles today to set one last personal distance record before he ends tomorrow. Wow.
Tonight I checked into the Walasi-Yi Hostel in Neels Gap. It is a privately owned historic building on a highway through National Forest Lands. The trail literally passes through an archway of the building. It houses a convenience store/ hiker merchandising/ tourist kitchy-trail stuff for sale/ hiker hostel. For $20 I did one load of laundry, had the use of the shower, and a mattress on which to put my sleeping bag. I also was able to eat a by-donation dinner and breakfast cooked by A.T. Pirate. A.T. Pirate is an old Georgia guy who has run the Walasi-Yi hostel for the last 22 years. I was the only hiker there so I picked the movie and A.T. Pirate and I enjoyed a popcorn and wine movie night after dinner. The place was very dusty and dirty, and I counted three dogs and two cats that roam in and out of the kitchen, living room, and sleeping bunk room. But it was heated and dry, so who can complain? Also, A.T. Pirate was a fun host.
An aside story about doing laundry. When I hike I carry only the clothing I am wearing and one extra set of everything. When I hiked into Neels Gap today everything I had was quite dirty and smelly. I asked A.T. Pirate if the hostel kept a hiker laundry clothing box. It is custom for places that offer hiker laundry to have a box of thrift store clothing so that hikers can wash everything they have at once, borrow the clothes and throw them into the next hiker's load. It is a definite advantage for any hiker. Also, hikers are a very low theft risk because no hiker wants to carry any more weight-no matter if it was free. So hikers tend to NOT have 'sticky fingers'. Pirate explained that they used to keep a box of clothing, but they had so many homeless persons -he called them 'duffel bag hikers'- using the hostel as a shelter as well as 'traditional hikers' that they found the clothing disappearing into duffel bags of people who needed another set of clothes. So he told me matter of factly- 'I gave you one towel. That should be enough.' 'Oh', I said, 'where is the laundry?' 'Outside, up the stairs, and across the trail, beside the other building.' So, I took a shower, wrapped myself in a damp towel, and carried my laundry outside, up the stone steps, and to the other building in 40 degree weather, barefoot because my boots were wet. And then I watched TV wearing only my towel while washing and drying my clothing, occasionally chatting with hikers as I crossed the trail to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. I didn't need to explain. Everyone understood why I was wearing only a towel for a couple of hours. Again it leads me to the question-what is happening with our system in this country when the best option for a homeless person is a smelly hiker hostel? Its something to think about, anyway.
Me at the sign. "Chattahoochee National Forest. Woody Gap Recreation Area"
Blood Mountain Shelter
Views from the top of Blood Mountain
An interesting rock along the trial.
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