I spent the weekend in a castle

I spent this weekend with fellow hikers at the PA Ruck, which was held in VA.  It's kind of a long story.  the important thing is it was very nice, and also fun.  We stayed at Bear's Den Hostel instead of Iron Master's Mansion Hostel this time.  The place was MUCH nicer.  Not as much history, but the plumbing and electric all worked.  I'll take a functional toilet over an underground railroad story most days.

As is traditional for Rucks, we had several delicious communal meals.

With a foot of snow outside, we set up some tents indoors.  I bought a new Lightheart tent - very light, and the huge amounts of mesh may solve condensation issues for me.

I took a walk out to Bear's Den Overlook. Those hummocks in the front are the snow covered rocks at the edge of the cliff.

The hostel is sometimes called The Castle.  It has 2-3 foot thick stone walls and a slate roof.  It's lovely.

The ruck was much smaller than usual at this new location.  That made it much nicer for me.  I find the 80-120 people attending most rucks to be overwhelming.  I didn't count but I'd guess we had 40 at the most.  I was able to talk to nearly everybody, and even have reasonably long conversations with Skeeter, Heartfire, Vera, Lisa, Mark, and Merry Mary.  It was a good time.

Despite that I had my typical desire to escape to somewhere quieter.  I went in to the women's bunkroom and got under my covers with my ipod at one point.  I listened to Garrison Keillor and was blissful.  But then I got up and went back out.  It was time for cooking and doing dishes.  (I am not sure how I got into that racket.  I gotta stop being OCD about dirty dishes at hostels.) 

While eating dinner I found myself gazing out the window at the beautiful winter scene.  And then I remembered just how much I would have given to have dinner partners on very many solo occasions during my hike last year, and I forced my attention back to the table.  I love people, I guess.. but in small quantities.

After a pleasantly short drive home, I celebrated the last of my weekend with a few hershey's kisses and a trip to the local Mongolian grill.  And now I'm ready to be good again next week.  Tomorrow also starts a 10k challenge for me - trying to walk 10,000 steps per day, by pedometer count.  It will be a  good reminder and incentive for me to get out and walk even when the weather isn't nice.  Which seems to be a lot of the time, recently. 

Sooner or later I need to run, also.  Or that 5 kilometer race in April is going to be pretty rough.