Today's miles 12.6. AT miles 417
We had a nice warm night in the hostel. It must have been cold overnight because a pond near the hostel had half frozen over. It was a cold, frosty, clear sunny day. There was some heat in the sun but the shady spots were cold and remained frozen. The trail continued through mainly rhododendron/oak forest again, past Hardcore Cascades and gradually heading upwards from 3335ft to just over 4000ft, with lots of little ups and downs in between.
We stopped at Moreland Gap shelter for a quick snack at midday. Meeple and Odysseus were just leaving when we arrived, they'd stayed at the shelter but had a late start. From the shelter it was up and over a couple more camel humps before heading downhill to Dennis Cove Road, USFS 50. From there we walked east along the road for about 0.4 miles to Black Bear Resort. We are taking an unplanned zero and staying here for two nights. Our next planned zero was going to be in Damascus in about 3 or 4 days time. The weather is forecast for snow overnight and tomorrow and to turn bitterly cold tomorrow night, -12°C/10°F. Plus it's 12 days since our last zero day so we decided it's a good time to take another zero, we're both ready for a rest and Black Bear Resort seemed the perfect place.
Bob, who owns the resort jointly with his daughter, showed us all the accommodation options, they had a bunk room and some 4 bunk cabins. We would definitely recommend them, they were all very clean but quite basic, not what we wanted for a relaxing zero day. They'd be perfect just for an overnight stay if we were carrying on hiking tomorrow. We decided to rent a self contained cabin, 'Creekside Cottage', very reasonably priced compared to other places we've stayed. It has a sofa, DVD player, kitchenette, bathroom and bedroom so we can relax, sleep, eat and watch DVDs all day long!
The resort is in the middle of nowhere so around 5ish Bob kindly drove us into Hampton, the nearest small town about 3-4 miles away, and took us to Brown's, a local family owned grocery/hardware store, a real country town set up with very friendly staff. We wanted to buy some fresh salad and fruit for tomorrow. He then drove us to McDonald's for a takeaway. He got one too, his wife was happy, saved her having to cook! They have a small shop on site with everything else we need for our food resupplies and remaining food for our rest day tomorrow. The resort also has a selection of DVD's and games available so in the evening we got comfy on the sofa and watched a DVD.
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