I woke up on a top bunk in the corner of the bunk room with about 10 other people. I was relieved that I didn’t have to rush to be anywhere. I slowly climbed down trying to manage the pain in my legs and feet. The hostel owner’s father was making waffles in the kitchen. I had two with bananas and almond butter on top. I spent the rest of the morning blogging. At lunch time, I walked next door to check out he Anvil Restaurant. A hiker named No Collar was at the bar drinking a bloody mary. He was my bunk neighbor. I sat down to chat and he told me the place was hit or miss and I should go to the Canal House. No Collar had been in town for two weeks because of sore knees. He was planning on hiking out Monday. After a few minutes of hanging out and a glass of water I walked out and down the street to the Canal House where I had a chicken burrito. It was pretty good.

Now to the biggest task of the day: a visit to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy where hikers can register their hike and get a tag for their packs identifying them as a thru hiker. It’s a milestone for folks and a point of recognition of progress. Some hikers walked 1025 miles to get their photo taken. I checked in and filled out my information below my photo to submit to the year’s album of hikers. I’m flip flopper 295. I spent some time there looking back at the photos of hikers I had met in the beginning. Most of them 10 to 25 days ahead. It looked like my friend Patches didn’t make it. I couldn’t find her photo.

I realized I needed to do a few chores so I walked to the 7 Eleven to get some snacks for tomorrow. I was going to do an 18 mile slackpack back to the hostel. I called Strings for a shuttle and booked it for 9am with another hiker named Fraulein (she’s from Germany). I walked back to the hostel and settled in for the evening writing and uploading blog posts.

Miles: zero

Total: 419.6