Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 54, Monday, 5/9 – It was a lazy morning at the hostel. No one seemed to be in a hurry today. Everyone was hanging out drinking coffee and eating breakfast. Sprite is doing a work-for-stay while she rests her Achilles tendon, so we all said our goodbyes for now. She should only be a few days behind.

I found Nick, and we played a few more games of chess. It was late morning by the time I got serious about thinking about hiking. I was chatting with some hikers and we started talking about water treatment. I overestimated how long my water treatment would last, and have had anxiety about finding more drops before I run out. As I was explaining this, Acres pulled out a full set of aquamira and gave it to me. He said he didn’t need it. This was unexpected. I have only met a few other people on trail who have had aquamira, and certainly no one just carried extra. I got very lucky!

Right before noon, the hostel offered bread and cheese again. Of course I said yes to both. It was a block of mozzarella this time with a loaf of bread. It was noon by the time I finally started hiking. I snacked on the bread and cheese as I hiked. Once again, I had too much, and it’s too good not to share, so I shared some with Blue Cheese, Kodak, Bugs, and Cash.

I originally planned on zeroing at Woods Hole so I could shower and do laundry. Since Woods Hole didn’t have water, I decided to hike to Pearisburg. Because I hadn’t planned on hiking, I really wasn’t into the hike today. That being said, there were some beautiful views along the way.

At about 5:00pm, I made it to the road, got shuttled by Jolly Rancher, and I arrived at Angels Rest Hiker Haven (11 miles total to mile 636). I set up my hammock, found loaner clothes, took a cold shower, and headed off to dinner.

Parkour, Jetpack, Jeff, and I walked over to the Mexican restaurant next to the hostel. We ran into Karen, who joined our table. KJ guessed we were hikers and joined our table as well. I was going to get my food resupply after dinner, but instead got DQ with Jeff and KJ.

When I got back to the hostel I started my laundry. I quickly discovered that the washing machine had been piped backwards. The cold line was piped to the hot water connection, and the hot line was connected to the cold water connection. This helped explain the cold shower earlier. The washer was using hot water to rinse clothes. I can’t believe that I’m the first one to identify this issue, I’m guessing it’s been like this for years. Andy and Rock were going to use the washer after me, and didn’t want hot water. We called the hostel and John came out. We explained the issue to him. Andy and Rock wanted to fix the issue tonight. The hostel didn’t want to address the issue at 9pm. The tension was a bit awkward. I didn’t care either way, my stuff had been washed and was in the dryer already. I finished my chores and went off to bed.