Miles: 942.3 | A gray, foggy hike out of Shenandoah ends with a perfectly timed hostel pickup, deep-clean laundry, Tex-Mex, showers, chess, and quiet moments with cats—followed by a sleepless town night before an early return to the trail.
Rain fell on my tent as I awoke around 7am. We quickly hiked the 14 miles to where we agreed to be picked up by the hostel owner, just after Mary’s rock.
She took us into town and got two of my packages for me. Then we went to the laundromat to wash my quilt. It had been over 800 miles and I hadn’t been using a bag liner. It smelled awful and needed to be washed. Miles’ jacket needed to be cleaned, too. What I didn’t realize at this point in time was that washing my quilt in the washing machine, even on delicate, voids the warranty. It came out fine after 4.5 hours in the dryer. But more on that in another post.
Every view was gray and foggy as the storm rolled through. Miles and I switched packs later in the day because his was lighter and my hip was bothering me.
The hostel owner picked us up just as it began to rain again.
During laundry we took turns getting some resupply stuff at Dollar General next door. We also went and got some Tex-Mex food down the street. By 7:30pm our laundry and resupply was done. The hostel owner came and picked us up.
Back at the hostel, we set up Miles’ tent to share and got our showers. The hostel cats hung out with me outside. Shirt Pants, his brother Jeans, and his dad Bugs were there, too. I charged my devices on the porch and organized my resupply. I finally put Velcro on my new shoes to hold my gaiters in place. We played a game of chess on Miles’ new chess board and tried to go to bed early. We would have to get up early the next day because the hostel pan could only take us back to the trail at 7am sharp.
That night it was hard to sleep. There were lots of sirens, neighborhood dogs barking, and loud road noise.