Hostel Takeover

Last night’s tentative plan for today was to ride 120 km to Brunswick, GA. This morning, that plan went from tentative to confirmed. I’m not really sure why it was tentative in the first place. There was a slight amendment to the route though. Google, once again, wanted to send me all over the place rather than stay on a direct path via Highway 17. Having ridden Highway 17 for some time now, I saw no reason to deviate from it. Spoiler Alert: That proved to be a good decision.

My morning routine of rising before the sun, filling up on the continental breakfast, and packing up my gear took place without issue. Although, the morning temperature was significantly below my preferred range. At least it was in the double digits.

I was on the road by 8:35 and it took close to an hour for my body to get warm. And another 20 minutes after that for my hands warm up. I have to say, I really didn’t expect Georgia to be this chilly. Then again, I also didn’t expect to see signs that read, “Bridge Ices Before Road”. Despite the temperature, this morning’s ride was really quite enjoyable. The road had a nice (enough) shoulder and I had another tailwind helping me along. The wind helped so much that I was able to travel nearly 70 km by the time I stopped for lunch at 11:30.

Lunch consisted of yet another Subway. And the meeting of two more people. The first was Witt – he inquired if it was my bike outside, which led to a short but good chat about the trip. I met the second person as I was back at my bike getting ready to leave. Actually, I had just made a phone call to try to arrange accommodation for the night when I met Gary. We had a more involved conversation about my trip, where I’ve been, where I’m going. By coincidence, Gary lives close to tonight’s planned accommodations – of course, if you’ve read the Guestbook recently you’d already know that. Thanks to Gary for stopping by the site and the history lesson on the marshes. Gary’s post pretty much sums up our meeting.

Tonight’s previously mentioned accommodation was to be The Hostel in the Forest. About a two hour ride from the Subway in Darien. I first heard about the hostel from Eneko back in Walterboro and it sounded really interesting, and perhaps mildly challenging to find. It’s located right off the highway but the only marking for it is a modest sized sign next to a lane leading into the forest. I should point out that the lane isn’t particularly bike-friendly. Actually, it’s probably not particularly car-friendly either. However, I think this was to be expected given the concept of The Hostel.

It didn’t take long after my arrival to confirm that the Hostel in the Forest is, in fact, an interesting place – especially if you’re looking to unleash your inner-hippie. As a side note, this could be the only place I’ve been where my unruly beard almost sort of fit in. I’ve found my people! The Hostel in the Forest has tree houses for accommodation, trails to hike, a lake for swimming or paddling, composting toilets, sweat lodges, healthy meals, chickens that contribute fresh eggs to the cause, and even a gong to welcome new guests. Everyone pitches in to some degree, whether it’s helping with food preparation, doing dishes, sweeping the floor, laundry, and so on. I can honestly say I’ve never been any place quite like it. There was even a “Circle of Gratitude” prior to dinner where everyone held hands, introduced themselves and stated what they were grateful for that day. After which, everyone stomped their feet and then, on the count of three, let out a boisterous “CHOMP!”. Dinner was then served. For the record, kumbaya was never sung.

There were about 25 people there last night (including staff) – as I recall, most were from somewhere along the east coast ranging from Maine down to Florida but there were also two guys from Germany and, of course, one Canadian.

After dinner, and a thorough sweeping of the dining area, I returned to my tree house. Side note: The Hostel has a policy whereby they never turn away cyclists or foreigners. As you can imagine, I fully support this policy. It turns out they were actually booked up tonight so I didn’t have my own tree house. Instead, I ended up sleeping upstairs in The Collaboratorium. In addition to this being a space for art, it was recently cleaned up and has two bunk beds. I ended up in one of them. As seen in the photos, The Collaboratorium only has screens for walls so it was almost like sleeping outside. I have to say, it was a very relaxing evening. My inner-hippie slept very well.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 112.43 km
Time on bike: 4:29:18
Maximum speed: 38.78 km/h
Average speed: 25.02 km/h