Day 66 - Bears Den Hostile

Fortunately, this was a low mileage day because the frame on my pack completely went out. Just walking the 10 miles from Rod Hollow shelter to Bear's Den was painful. My pack straps are pulling on my shoulders. Someone left a couple inches in a Makers Mark bourbon bottle on the trail. I took that with me to use for medicinal purposes later in the day.

This section of the trail is called the roller coaster. It has a series of pointless ups and downs for about 13 miles. The map in the hostile shows the trail going to the top of every high point even though there are no views there. It looks like little was done to follow topography. This section wasn't hard, it was just annoying especially with a broken pack and sore thoat.

I can not seem to shake a sore throat. I lost my voice too. I think that breathing hard during the day keeps irritating it.

Bear's Den is an incredible place. Maybe Heather can find some pictures online to post. I forgot to take any pictures. Bear's Den was built by a doctor in the 1930s. The ATC owns the building now. It is a stone building with a stone wall surrounding most of the property. Redwing and his wife (Hopefull, I think her name was) are the caretakers. Both did a thru hike together in 2005, and Redwing did a previous thru hike in 1999. They have an 18 month little girl. What a wonderful place for a child to grow up.

I met up with Teresa's uncle Al today. We were going to meet for dinner when I was passing through. The trail is full of unusual coincidences. With my pack frame breaking yesterday, my options were to get a ride into Harpers Ferry (and miss the 1,000 mile mark) or have someone transport most of my stuff to Harpers Ferry so I could slack pack that section. Al was more than happy to transport my gear. We also went out for a few beers at a place called the Horseshoe Curve (I think that was the name). The beers tasted great. Its not often that I get cold beers on the trail.

When I got back to Bear's Den, South Paw, Bus Driver, Sunbeam, and Grits were there. South Paw said he did a 34 mile day to get there. I think Bus Driver was with him. The last time I saw them was at Skyland. Bus Driver has some really funny posts in the shelter registers. We all enjoy reading them.