Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 60 – Zero at the Lookout Hostel
24th September 2023
Lookout hostel
Daily miles: 0
Total miles: 959.8
Stayed up far too late on my phone, as usual, but it was fine because I could lie in until 8am.
Inside the bunk room at the Lookout Hostel
I had to deal with the lump of puss on my knee. It could be a spider bite, it could be where I fell on my knee a few days ago, but it’s more likely a bite I think. Every morning I have to squeeze the goo out of it. It feels like it might be spreading.
Possibly a spider bite?
So there was some hydrogen peroxide in the bathroom and May Queen told me to put that on it. I thought it was going to sting but it didn’t at all.
Hikers hiding from the rain featuring Yardsale (the lady standing up) who owns the hostel
This morning was lazy. Hanging out, calling home, updating social media… all that stuff. I was hungry and thirsty. There was stuff to make pancakes but I didn’t have the energy. I remembered there was a croissant in my pack so I ate that, and a giant Twix.
It got to about 1pm and we decided to walk up the road to the Thunderhead Lodge. It was pouring with rain. It made me happy it was raining so much, it justified our decision to zero. Hiking today would have been really miserable.
My shoes are still very wet and the right one had a massive hole in. It was two holes which in the rain yesterday joined up to make one big one. There were a big pile of shoes, discarded by other hikers so I put on a pair to walk to the lodge. They were a size too big but they were in better shape than mine. I considered using them instead of mine until I could get new shoes.
When 2 holes become 1
I got a crab cake burger. I’m not sure why I went for that, I think I was swayed by the pickled onions. I can’t get enough of pickled onions lately. It was ok. It wasn’t great, but it filled a large hole and the water I finally drank was good. And the Ginger Ale.
Walking to the lodge in loaner clothes
A crab burger
We walked back in the rain and Toe’s friend Road Soda came to see her and help us out. He very generously paid for all 5 of us to stay 2 nights here at the Lookout.
Entrance to the hostel
He drove us to Walmart where we did our resupply and we got food for this evening. Toe cooked up a big vegan chilli and May Queen made corn bread.
I sorted my resupply; pretty sure I either have too much or not enough. It will be one or the other.
My resupply – I know people struggle with accepting what I eat on trail!
This is Pyro’s resupply just to prove that we ALL have terrible diets when hiking!
I made a plan for the next 4 days. It’s quite big miles and I will only have myself to blame when I’m hating my life! A trail angel called Natalie has been messaging me on instagram and we have arranged to stay with her in 4 days time. She also told me REI have a sale on and members get 20% off one full price item until the end of the day so I ordered new shoes to be sent to her house. Hopefully they will get there on time.
We invited Yardsale and Mr Yardsale – who own the lookout – over for dinner too, and we had the 3 other SOBOs, plus Dang. It was quite the gathering!
Familey dinner
Homemade chilli, cornbread and crispy onions
Yardsale brought a big tray of brownies for dessert and Pyro and I had bought a tub of Ben and Jerrys each, but there was no way we would be able to eat all that so we shared it with everyone to go with the Brownies.
A lot of love in the room
It’s now 10pm. Where does the time go on a zero?
I think my split under my little toe has had a chance to heal so I just have to be careful to not split that open again.
