Day 11 here folks!....I had to literally count that out. Pretty sure we'll stop counting the days soon, I can hardly remember what day of the week it is.
We are currently enjoying a fantastically lazy zero day in Bluemont, VA, 95.8 miles in, at the Bears Den Hostel. Never so happy to see a hostel. Yesterday we pushed super hard, 18 miles, through what is called the "roller coaster." Unfortunately, it's not as fun as the name would like you to believe. All in all, 10 steep ascents and descents over 13 miles - I think we covered 7 of them yesterday. The last one tricked us with a double hill - we thought we were done the huge inclines so that's pretty much where we (I) started swearing a lot. And of course a storm was also brewing behind us like the great Nothing in the Neverending Story. BUT! in the nick of time, there was that blessed sign telling us Bears Den was just around the bend. And waiting for us? Not only were our friends Ram Sham and Ad Cane there, but also a legendary "hikers' deal" - which we had literally heard about from day 1 on the trip.
For a mere $27.50, you can get a bunk, a shower, laundry, soda, a pizza, and a pint of Ben & Jerry's. We obviously both got the deal. It was amazing. Don't judge our gluttony.
This morning woke up to a cold, rainy world and super happy we were taking a zero day to recover. Trying to catch up on the world and plan out Harper's Ferry stay this weekend.
Speaking of world news...pretty weird to find out about the bin Laden story out on the trail. Monday night we hiked in to a cool little shelter by a stream called Dick's Dome and met another hiker called Rolling Stone from Cape Cod, who was segment hiking. I picked up the trail register (journal in every shelter where hikers write updates, notes, jokes, etc) and started reading as Rolling Stone and Adam (i mean Bear Jew) started chatting. Read in the journal "Just found out from another hiker that Osama was killed" - what?? So weird to get huge world news from a notepad in a shelter...
Tonight - going to check out what Bluemont has to offer, then hike out tomorrow for a hostel/hiker center that allegedly makes dinner for the hikers. Not too shabby! Then on to Harper's Ferry, where we'll hopefully see some familiar smiling faces. Cant wait - see you then!
And Jen - we'll try to take photos of our growing dirtiness for you. No worries, there will be plenty of opportunities along the way...