Appalachian Trail (day 93) - Shaw's Hiker Hostel [zero day] / mile 2081

"The footpath they build had no historical basis. It didn't follow any Indian trails or colonial post roads. It didn't even seek out the best views, highest hills or most notable landmarks. In the end, it went nowhere near Mount Mitchell, though it did take in Mount Washington and then carried on another 350 miles to Mount Katahdin in Maine. (Avery, who had grown up in Maine and done his formative hiking there, was most insistent on this.) Essentially, it went where access could be gained, mostly high up on the hills, over lonely ridges and forgotten hollows that no one had ever used or coveted, or sometimes even named. It fell short of the actual southern end of the Appalachian Mountain chain by 150 miles and of the northern end by nearer 700. The work camps and chalets, the schools and study centres, were never built." Bill Bryson "A Walk in the Woods"

Day spent eating, chatting and watching movies, a lot of familiar faces joined in.

In fact the hostel reached it's capacity of 40 people. Iceman, Twilight, Push, Trademark and Diehard got in, Tree House tramily and Small Foot tramily as well. I must have knew way over half of the hikers that were staying here tonight. Most of them were taking a zero day tomorrow.

After a hearty breakfast, I've ate cheeseburger from a gas station and another salad from general store, I've finished my final resupply and went to see Wendy, a local Appalachian Trail authority who explained how the things around Kathadin work. There was several ways up and down from the mountain and each required slightly different approach and planning. I've decided to not think about it until a day before ascending as the weather was a major factor here.

We got some beers and started watching old movies on VHS tapes supplied by the Shaw's hostel, we watched Jurassic Park and Jaws, few other section and sobo hikers joined us as well.

At one point during the day I've approached one of the managers at the Shaw's called Poet and asked him if they would do a week or so of work to stay for me and he confirmed that it would be possible as far as I stayed in a tent which was fine with me. It was great to have an option to come and stay here for a while before getting back to "real world" even if it required some work or perhaps that was even better.

[Iceman and myself]

We finished watching Jaws at 9 PM, some people went to bed, myself, Iceman and Diehard stayed for another hour and talked. Iceman was planning to move to San Diego after finishing the trail and start to attend a law school, Diehard was going back to Los Angeles where he was working for a company selling Christmas trees and pumpkins to the wealthy Californians, he could afford to go hiking in off season.

We finished talking at 10 PM which was super late for thru hikers and went to sleep at our full bunkhouses.