SGM-woods-hole
Sharla Bardin

sharla.bardin@roanoke.com, 381-1669

PEARISBURG — The hostel tucked away in Giles County’s woods is more than a place for hungry and exhausted hikers to rest a bit.

It also gives them a taste of home.

And Brian Scheller welcomed that feeling last week when he left the Appalachian Trail for a few nights’ stay at Wood’s Hole Hostel. The hostel is on Sugar Run Road, nestled in the gap between Pearis and Sugar Run mountains.

Scheller, 22, who started his journey on the trail in Maine in July, saw a flyer about the hostel and decided to check it out. He found the log cabin and adjacent bunkhouse inviting and was impressed with its rustic and down-to-earth vibe.

“When you’re on the trail for such a long time, you just want a place that feels like home,” the Connecticut native said while he sat in the cabin’s living room, warmed by the glow of a fireplace insert.

“The minute I walked in, I felt totally comfortable and totally at home.”

Scheller joins a long line of hikers who have found and treasured the rustic oasis that offers beds in the bunkhouse and bountiful meals. Since 1986, the hostel has served hikers coming off the AT, which is just a half-mile away.

In 1939, Tillie and Roy Wood discovered the cabin and later bought the property. They spent summers at the cabin and began doing renovations. They built a barn and then converted the barn into the bunkhouse when the couple decided to open their place to hikers.

Now, it’s Neville Lasecki’s turn to contribute to her family’s hostel history.

The 31-year-old is a granddaughter of the late Tillie and Roy Wood and, with her husband, Michael, operates the hostel year-round.

She is keeping most of the traditions intact, such as serving a big breakfast for hikers just as her “Mama Tillie” used to do, as well as bringing in a few ideas of her own, such as offering massages and a yoga class for guests and a retreat center for travelers who want to spend time in the wilderness.

Neville Lasecki also has added a dinnertime ritual with the hikers. Before the group feasts on the food that is prepared by the couple and the guests, she goes around the table to ask each person what he or she is thankful for.

One of the interesting things about hikers, she said, is that they are people from different backgrounds but the trail serves as a common thread among them because they “are all in the woods together and facing the same challenges.”

The dinners allow for more camaraderie.

“Every meal that hikers share with us is like sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner. It feels like a family sitting together,” Neville Lasecki said.

Last Thursday, she and her husband dined with Scheller and fellow AT hiker Lisa Dadian, 22, of New Jersey.

Lasecki led the group in the talk about gratitude by mentioning her own blessing.

“I’m grateful for my grandparents and the history they provided for us.”

Now the Laseckis are carrying on that legacy.

A place of love

When Tillie and Roy Wood discovered the cabin in 1939 they were newlyweds and the cabin was their honeymoon home.

History has repeated itself.

Neville and Michael Lasecki, 34, married in a field a short walk from the cabin in August. Their love story also began at the hostel when Neville was staying there in the summer of 2005 and Michael hiked there while on the AT.

They bonded over her stories about visiting India and his desire to go there. They used e-mail to keep in touch after that and then stayed connected through phone calls. At the time, he was hiking the trail and she lived in Dahlonega, Ga.

They met back up at Wood’s Hole in 2006 and he told her he loved her.

“We had a deep feeling that we were going to spend the rest of our life together,” she said. “It was a gut feeling that came to both of us at the same time that this was it.”

He proposed in 2008.

Neville Lasecki’s love for the family property began before she found her soul mate there, she said. She and her sister would spend summers at the site and would play in the woods, sit outside and bask in the sun, play in the creek and help her grandmother in the kitchen. She would continue to make visits to the cabin as she got older.

In 1987, her grandfather died after the completion of the renovation of the main cabin and bunkhouse, and her grandmother ran the hostel each spring for 22 years before her death in 2007.

A year before her death, Neville Lasecki helped her grandmother at the hostel and learned more about what was involved in running the business.

She and her grandmother shared a lot of laughs and deep conversations about life that season. Her grandmother also worried about what would happen to the hostel after her death.

“I made a promise to her that I would keep running it,” she said. “I knew I loved the cabin.”

She and her husband, who were working as massage therapists in Georgia, moved to Wood’s Hole in April and work full time operating it.

While there, the Laseckis have created organic garden beds, added a clay oven in the back yard and built a barn for Michael’s workshop.

They also credit hikers for helping them in the tasks, such as with landscaping and gardening, in a work-trade program where the hikers work in exchange for their stay.

As for overnight accommodations, hikers and travelers can head to the bunkhouse where a $10 suggested donation for each night allows them to sleep on mattresses in a loft setting.

For guests who want indoor rooms, the charge is more. AT hikers pay $35 to $45 and the cost includes access to do their laundry and to the Internet and to take an indoor shower.

The Laseckis still offer breakfast to hikers, while also adding the evening community dinners. Hikers also pitch in to help, whether it’s with preparing the meals or cleaning up afterward.

Dinner time blessings

Last Thursday, the dinner time spread included chicken and vegetable soup, oven-roasted chicken with vegetables and plum chutney sauce, homemade bread, salad and rice. For dessert, Neville Lasecki served a cheesecake in honor of her husband’s birthday.

Before dinner, she led the group in talking about their gratitude. She referenced her family, while her husband said he was grateful for the opportunity to work with hikers.

Scheller, who will finish his hike in Georgia next month, said he was grateful for “the best zero week of my life.” A zero day refers to a day when a hiker does not hike the AT.

Dadian said she was grateful that the weather was supposed to clear up from the week’s soggy conditions and “I’m grateful for this feast.”

She started hiking the AT in Maine in July and plans to finish in Georgia next month with Scheller. The two were headed back to the trail Friday morning.

Dadian heard about Wood’s Hole through her mom, who researched hostels on the trail and from word-of-mouth from other hikers on the trail.

The hospitality and cozy comforts of Wood’s Hole also impressed Dadian. “They treat us like friends, and I really like meeting strangers and becoming friends,” she said.

Scheller added that in the short time he stayed at the hostel, he sensed something special about the place and the couple running it.

“You can tell they love this place, they love each other and the hiker community.”

After dinner, Neville Lasecki reflected a little on her grandmother and what she might think about her granddaughter taking over the hostel duties.

“She’s beaming,” she said. “I can’t imagine a better way to stay in touch with her.”

For Neville Lasecki, Wood’s Hole is about more than a business.

“It means family. It means carrying on a tradition,” she said. “It was a matter of carrying something on that my grandmother treasured so much.”

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