Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 37 – The cult of the Yellow Deli
1st September 2023
Rutland / The Yellow Deli
Daily miles: 0
Total miles: 496.1
I slept so badly. I was awake from 4 until 5 and tossed and turned all night. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do today and I was running through a bunch of different scenarios in my head.
Ultimately, my quest to do a quick thru is out of reach and now I just have to be done with the trail before my flight home on the 29th November – but ideally a bit before then of course so I can spend time with Aileen and get to New York – so the goal is around mid November.
Anyway. I didn’t really see the point of being constantly a day ahead of Toe and May Queen and them constantly trying to catch up or me being alone all the time. So the short story is that I decided to zero today. So did Cal.
Inside the Yellow Deli
Breakfast at the Yellow Deli
If you’re going to zero Rutland is a good place to do it, and the Yellow Deli in particular is a good place to be. It’s donation based and has everything a hiker could need (more than some expensive hostels) and everything is really central. Real food. Resupply. Entertainment.
There is of course the ongoing worry now that they will speed up, I won’t be able to keep up and I will get left behind, but if that happens it happens. For now what’s important to me is having a group of friends, not necessarily to hike alongside, but to camp with and to go to town with and have a shared experience with.
My feet were so swollen this morning they were very painful to walk on and I could barely stuff them into my shoes. Walking down the stairs was also pretty challenging. I honestly don’t remember my knees being this sore last time.
So we decided this over the hiker breakfast that the Yellow Deli made - I think it was some kind of grain, maybe quinoa or barley or something - with cheese on top and some salsa. It was nice, but my body definitely isn’t used to that kind of food.
A Brand New Culture?
Fixed it.
I then hung around the hostel for a bit chatting to other hikers. Folded some clean laundry. Saw Spice Cake again and he seemed much more normal than when I first met him in the shelter 2 nights ago. Went to Walmart to call my parents and the WiFi was good in there and the WiFi in the hostel was terrible.
I wandered around Price Chopper trying to choose food for resupply. It was so busy in there it was all a little overwhelming. I will either have enough food to get me the next 3 days or I’m going to be a little hungry.
I met Cal and we went to a Mexican for lunch. I had a burrito which doesn’t look all that in the photo but was actually delicious.
Chicken burrito
I went back to Walmart to speak to my mum who had been out the first time I called, then when I got back to the hostel a bunch of hikers were going to get pizza so Cal and I joined them. This was about 5pm, even though we were going to the Sabbath celebrations at 6!
We had a pizza recommendation by Mimi which was apple, bacon and maple syrup. It was surprisingly nice. We shared it and I had 2 slices which ended up costing me ten bucks which I thought was a lot for 2 slices of pizza. Towns are getting expensive!
Apple, bacon and maple syrup pizza
Back at the hostel Toe and May Queen had arrived and they were ready in their loaner clothes to get the twelve tribes sabbath experience.
Got caught scratching my mosquito bites
Ready for Shabbat
We got shuttles to their house and awkwardly watched them play music and dance in front of us, interspersed with some awkward silences. Then we ate dinner - salmon, potatoes and salad - and something with nuts in for dessert which I declined. They made us a banana smoothie instead which Toe thinks had almond milk in.
Dinner - we ate with chopsticks
May Queen and Toe
Then it was rounded off by more music and dancing with all of us getting involved. It was exactly the same as last time I was here. We had to make sure Toe didn’t get sucked into the cult because she is susceptible to it!
There was a girl there in 2018 who was an AT hiker who stopped at the Yellow Deli and never left. She’s still there. Now she has a kid.
Time to dance
Toe living her best life
All dances are circles
The band featuring SOBO hiker Spice Cake on the double bass
It’s a strange but pleasant evening
The only thing that was a bit different is that there seemed to be less of them. They said 2 families had left, but were quick to say they had more joining them.
It was hiker midnight when we left, and there was some big street party happening right outside the Yellow Deli with a live band, so we went to see that for 5 minutes before needing to go to bed.
Ghostbusters are in town
Am I glad I zeroed? Yes. Do I ever need the Yellow Deli experience again? No.
Am I very bloated and uncomfortable in the stomach? Yes. Is that from all the food I’ve eaten that my body isn’t used to? Probably.
The NOBO hikers we have been around today have been very nice, definitely an odd bunch, a few oddballs and misfits - but aren’t we all? I would call them The Chill Hard Tribe. They call themselves The Dirty Bubble. Basically they drink and smoke a lot and are always high.
I felt a lot today like I was floating outside myself. Having an out of body experience. One of those moments where you wonder how this is your life and what brought you here with these people at this time.
