Events.

Quite a bit happened today. It was a pretty miserable day, actually. Pretty high on my AT worst days list. Not all bad of course, there were some good moments. Just also a high percentage of bad ones, as well. 

First off the weather was unpleasant. It was just bad. Cold and rainy. I am so very tired of being cold. All morning. 

We went over Dragon's Tooth today, several really cool jagged stone monoliths that resembled the bottom teeth of a monster. And it was. I think the descent would have been challenging but fun in good weather. In the cold wind and rain it was more of a nightmare. 

The wind kept whipping my poncho around my legs as I tried to climb down steep rocks and traversing shallow ledges. The difficulty was compounded by holding hiking poles, wearing a pack, my broken frame digging into my back, the rocks being wet, the aforementioned poncho, and most worryingly, cold hands that were numb and slow to respond. I was very deliberate with every move. 

At the bottom of the mountain is Four Pines hostel. An odd place, it's just a 3 car garage that was converted into a place to stay. The story of how it came into existence is interesting. The proprietor, Joe, used to work at a store down the road (this store is why I came here, I needed food). One day a thru-hiker came in and asked if he knew anyone willing to give him a ride. Joe, being a good ol' boy, offered him a ride. When the hiker got in the cab of his truck, Joe told him "Man, you sure stink." So the hiker told him of the AT. Joe took him to his place first and let him use the shower in his garage, and eventually let him stay there. The hiker told him, "This sure would be a good hostel," to which Joe replied, "What the **** is a hostel?" As told by Joe. The rest is history, now he stays busy, running it as a donation only place. He charges for some stuff, such as laundry and deliveries. 

A lot of hikers are here. The Machine, Survivorman, Dinosaur, Squirrel (both of them), Listen, Violet, Quailman, Icicle, Treefrog, and several others. Even Bangerang showed up, though he's flip flopping and hiking south at the moment. All witness to the drama that unfolded tonight. 

Before the "drama," resupplied at a convenience store. Needed two days worth of food, pretty much got Pop-tarts and snack cakes, and cost as much as my 4-5 day resupplies run. Have to eat, though. Did get some gas station pizza. 

Back at the hostel, we played some games of Diamonds. I think it's starting to spread, several people really enjoy it now and are wanting to play. Joe came in after a while and challenged everyone to either chess or cornhole. He was driving some people somewhere, and the game would happen when he came back. Free laundry would be the prize if you beat him in cornhole ($6 otherwise). 

Dinosaur, Listen, and Squirrel had never played cornhole before, so I taught them how to play. Listen is extremely competitive (which makes her fun to play with) and took to it quickly. The other two seemed to enjoy themselves, but did not appear too enthused. When Joe came back, I played him in cornhole. I beat him. So yay, free laundry, right? Sigh.  Listen challenged him also, but lost. She played a good game, though. Joe then had to drive some section hikers to town. 

So we start playing cards again. And we were using the register to keep score. A fairly routine practice on the AT. But the registers here are pretty much sacred to Joe. Sigh. So here's how it went down. 

I'm keeping score, because someone else asked me to. They handed me the notebook (plain ol' notebook, but actually a register). We're playing cards. Joe comes in. Of course he's obviously drunk. I'm batting a pretty good percentage of interactions while hostel owners are inebriated. And he flips out about the register. Aggressively. 

My first thought was to defuse the situation, and I made the attempt, but he was having none of it. Some of the other hikers were attempting to calm him down, but he was having none of that, either. His ire is at me, of course, since I'm the one defacing his relic. 

After a fairly considerable amount of cussing from him, I finally snap and start yelling back. I really thought it was going to be physical for a minute (dude probably would have kicked my tail, he's older but probably twice my size!). 

Finally while other people are talking to him I just start packing my things. Then he tells me to get out of his place, and I say "what do you think I'm doing?" While I'm packing he calms down and it's obvious he feels bad and embarrassed about the situation. He leaves after more or less apologizing to everyone else. He wasn't angry anymore, anyway. I'm so tired of drunks. I think I'm only going to stay in places that don't allow drinking from now on. Well, depending on how cold and wet it is. 

I'm still packing, but after the door shuts literally everyone in the place (maybe one or two exceptions) is asking me to stay. Which makes me feel good, but now I'm embarrassed by my reaction, plus I'm so amped up on adrenalin that I'm shaking. So I'm still going to go, but they continued asking me to stay and finally one person says, "look, if you leave right now everyone here is going to feel awful. Please stay." So I did. Which might mean I'm trespassing right now. I'm not up on that law. 

I apologized to everyone for my part, and of course everyone tells me not to worry about it, that it was either justified or reasonable. But it's not okay. It doesn't really matter whether my actions were reasonable, I don't think they were right. 

Joe loves his registers. They tell him who and how many hikers he helps each year, and I believe they really are sacred to him. I think they give him purpose. And I think that is something every person needs. By defacing his register, however inadvertent, I disrespected his self appointed purpose in life. 

So I feel I should have apologized to him repeatedly and listened to him berate me. Sigh. It's hard to be the puppy who rolls over when your natural tendencies plus training and experience wants you to growl back and go for the throat. The guy really seemed cool. I was hoping to play him in a game of chess tomorrow. Plus I wanted the free laundry I won. I don't think I'm going to bring that up, now. I am going to attempt to apologize to him in the morning, but probably after I'm packed and on my way out. Seems smarter that way. C'est la vie. 

Dragon's Tooth. 

After traversing Dragon's Tooth. Rain had mostly stopped. The sign is the sign urging caution. 

Listen playing with the hostel cat. He has an inappropriate name so I will call him "Kitty."