Unsavory characters in Glasgow – The Trek

Russell and Jessie make the final push towards Glasgow and meet some strange and uncomfortable characters along the way.

June 13, 2026

One more little climb and then a day in the city. Today we would be breaking into Glasgow, Virginia. It had been four days since our last shower and the extreme heat had caused us to sweat to a point where we gave off a considerable odor.

It was a beautiful start to the morning with all the fog left over from the previous night’s rain.

The promise of a city with shelter, laundry, and free public showers sounded like paradise. The walk into town was mostly insignificant, except for one strange interaction that would end up shaping most of our experience there.

About 2 miles before the junction where you get into town, I ran into a rather hyperactive man with a half-mohawk. It was evident that he had been at the shelter for a while. He jumped from rock to rock, stuck his head in the water, and talked to himself a lot. Without necessarily feeling warm and fuzzy, I quickly said hello, acted like I was listening to music too loud to have a conversation, and moved on. I thought that would be the end.

The pedestrian bridge leads to the pickup point in the city.

After crossing the footbridge, I was forced to walk 2 miles downstream by a man playing music so loud it could be heard downstream and his rather aggressive dog. Knowing that some of our friends had been bitten by dogs along the way, it was unsettling that he chose such a small section of the path to settle down.

The trip to the city was quite pleasant. Escaping in a minivan and some air conditioning gave us all a respite from the heat that had been plaguing us for the past few days. The town shelter wasn’t much, but it had port-a-potties, electricity, and an outdoor shower, all free to use for hikers.

There was already a fairly large group of people in the shelter. We knew most of them, but there were a few strangers who really stood out from the crowd. It was evident that a guy had been there for quite a few days drinking heavily; the various brown paper bags and empty Smirnoff bottles serve as evidence.

He was a friendly enough guy who slurred each word in a way that you had to strain your ears to understand, but in the end he didn’t seem like any threat. It seemed like the city was considering tearing down the shelter specifically for reasons like this. People treat the place like it’s a place to stay for days while drinking in public.

Walking down Main Street with our clothes to go to the laundromat.

We only intended to stay the night and move on, so we got straight to work on our town chores. The shower was pretty amazing. For a stall with a hose and shower head, it had the best water pressure and heat of any shower thus far. We each took turns getting rid of the stench of rainwater bacteria. and body odor.

When everyone had washed up and put on their city clothes, we went to the laundromat to drop off our clothes. There was a festival going on in town where the local church was giving away food and haircuts.

I’m planning to see how ridiculously crazy my hair can get over the course of the hike, but we managed to snag some hot dogs and strike up a conversation with some of the locals. Ultimately, it seemed like an incredibly friendly and neighborly town, which frankly bothered me because people had been abusing the friendliness of the free shelter.

A clothesline very “in use” right in front of the shelter.

After gathering our clothes, we hung them to dry on the lines just outside the shelter and excitedly rushed to Scott’s Italian restaurant. We sat in the air conditioning and enjoyed milkshakes and giant calzones and had fun chatting with the waitress.

Sal, Big Dripper and I enjoying some milkshakes.

A large group of hikers sitting around camp (the Mohawk guy is not in the photo).

When we returned to camp, one of the first things I noticed was that the Mohawk man had arrived at the shelter. There was a group talking around the fire, and he would randomly jump in to say some strange conspiracy nonsense. When no one took the bait, he proceeded to mutter to himself.

It was a pretty awkward moment, but he finally ended up packing his things and walking away. Shortly after another shuttle came to drop off a hiker and the driver came to talk to us.

He asked if that strange guy was still around or if he was gone. When we told him he was gone, he seemed relieved and confessed that the guy had been invaded in town and wasn’t welcome.

He had apparently been personally told to leave the city by the mayor the previous day and received a police escort to the city limits. Even though he was told not to return, it seemed that he had become quite attached to the city. The ferry driver then told us that if he returned, to call the police.

Suddenly, the stop in Glasgow seemed much less relaxing. We decided to stop thinking about it and return to Scottos. We were lucky to have the same waitress and informed her that we were going to have dessert there.

We all ordered the typical shake or cannoli, but Dripper decided he wanted a whole burger, which our waitress astutely noted was not a typical dessert. Then we joked that he should put powdered sugar on his fries.

When all the food came out and there was, in fact, no powdered sugar in his meal, he made a quick, casual comment that seemed to anger this woman. In fairly quick succession, she walked away, returned with a packet of sugar, told him to open his mouth, threw out the entire packet of sugar, and put in the chips. This woman had fire inside. It was amazing.

We were sad to return to camp and notice that the Mohawk man had returned and set up shop right in front of where we had all plugged in our battery banks to charge. Now that we knew for sure that he was technically an unwanted man who was breaking the law by being here, we wanted nothing to do with him.

I had to walk past him while he muttered to himself, grab the battery banks and get the hell out of there. We decided to set up our tents in the field, quite far from the shelter, in a large group to keep our distance.

Fortunately, it was an uneventful night, but the next morning the bus driver was an hour late to pick us up. The Mohawk man’s murmurings were starting to get a little more graphic and violent. All we could do was sit there and hope he didn’t have a full episode before escaping.

Glasgow is a great, beautiful city, but I think we are starting to reach that point in the road where people’s mental health is starting to deteriorate. Fortunately, this is fairly uncommon and does not appear to be an ongoing problem. It didn’t seem like this guy was too eager to get out of that area.

People always assume that the trail is a dangerous place. Honestly, the most uncomfortable experiences I’ve had in cities are the roads. Once we get a few kilometers away from civilization, everything starts to seem much safer.