Mile 393.1
Elevation 2,895
Miles Hiked 9.3
I left Overmountain Shelter or as it is also known, the Barn, wearing my rain jacket. Why I didn’t put on my rain pants is still a question I’m asking myself. Rain was expected to start about 1 PM, but it actually started at 8:30 AM. The first part of the day was hiking across open fields on a path only wide enough for one foot. I had to put each foot step directly in front of the other. And there were rocks and stones – lots of them in the path. Plus it was raining and windy in the open fields. What a miserable hike it turned out to be.
After a few hours, I finally got into the forest again, which gave much protection from the wind and rain. Still, it was wet. My pants were soaked and the moisture was even getting inside my jacket. The distance was melting away. The hostel would be a good place to dry out and rest. About 6 hours into the hike, I lost direction and headed off onto what I thought was the path. It wasn’t. Then I hit a pile of slick leaves and down I went. Fortunately, it was only about 10 feet down a steep slope. I landed on a tree branch, which prevented me from going further down.
With some difficulty, mostly due to my backpack, I climbed out but now I couldn’t find the trail. I have a GPS trail program, but my phone was wet and it wasn’t working. So, I found the part of the trail I had just traveled and went back to get reoriented. Just then, a group of three hikers came down the trail. I told them of my problem and fell in behind them. They had a problem finding the trail in the same spot, but finally made a guess, which proved to be correct. I stayed with them and we hiked together to the hostel, which was another .3 mile from the trailhead. I thanked Grumpy, Longfellow and Dave (a couple of trail names in there) for the help and they took off for home in a car they had parked at the hostel.
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- Mountain Harbour Hostel – Interior looking toward the loft
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- Mountain Harbour Hostel – Loft Beds
The hostel is one of the better ones I stayed in. My bunk was in a loft with three other hikers in their mid 30’s, Cody, Matt and Tony (good name). We had a great time talking. I ate a whole Pizza (loosing weight like crazy again) for dinner and we later watched a DVD movie (Unforgiven).
Later that night after we all turned in, a young couple came in to the hostel and took their bed downstairs from the loft. Without going into too much detail, they clearly were not aware of the acoustics. They provided over an hour of amorous entertainment for the four of us in the loft. I wonder if the couple ever figured it out.
