Everyone was raving about this place so I stayed on my way through. I just wanted to share a different experience that I had to the rosy one everyone seems to have had.
I got in a little later than I would have liked (due to waiting for a hitch at a dead roadside for 90 minutes) but I wouldn't have thought 7:30pm would be an issue and it didn't seem to be at the time.
I arrived promptly for the 7am breakfast at 6:55, after which the owner (Earl) asked if I would be going with everyone else who was hiking that day to the trailhead at 7:30am, and if I wanted to slackpack with them. I explained that I didn't want to slack as I was carrying my pack the whole way and I wanted to finish my (still wet) laundry and read and rest until around noon when I would make my own way back to the trail and hike the 10 miles to the next Andover road and make my own way back to the hostel because it was such a nice place I wanted to stay another night. I made it very clear I did not expect them to take me anywhere and that I would be back in time for dinner (6pm...).
It was then that Earl (I think they call him Bear?) got nasty with me and started accusing me of being selfish and only thinking of myself and not them. He then said that I'd arrived late the night before and disturbed them (not true - his wife was on the computer upstairs and the rest of the hikers were watching movies until gone 10:30pm) and hadn't been on time for breakfast in the morning (not true either), and that now I wanted to do my own thing and disturb them again. His wife was trying to tell him that he was mistaken but he wouldn't listen and ended with telling me I wasn't welcome and I should sleep in the woods that night.
I left them a note (as they were shuttling when I left) explaining what had happened, apologising if I had done anything wrong without knowing, and letting them know how upset I was that I had gone over 1900 miles without a single confrontation and then get told by a hostel that I'm not welcome for absolutely no reason. I also left my contact details in case they wished to apologise for any misunderstanding on their part and for the way Earl had acted but they have not so I'm posting this here to warn others. I spoke about it with other hikers who were at the hostel later down the trail and they thought it was very weird.
If you want to do their thing and get dropped off at the trailhead at 7:30am, go for it. It's a lovely place and the food is great. If you want to hike your own hike, this may not be the place for you.
From speaking to his wife's son, Earl may be having some age-related confusion and sundowning anger in the early morn or eve. I also heard about him giving another hiker **** for being 5 minutes late for dinner.
Very unpleasant experience and if you're not prepared to let a hiker do his own thing, you have no place in the hiking community in my opinion. As it happened, I got out of there two hours earlier than I wanted, overtook the slackpackers who had left two hours previously, and did the 10 mile section (with a long lunch break) in under 5 hours. I WOULD HAVE BEEN BACK IN TIME FOR DINNER.
Rant over.
Anyone else have a similar experience here? Or any other hostels which normally get good reviews?
There seem to be a few older hostel owners who should maybe think about retiring and want things done their way or the highway (cough*unclejonnys).