Deja Vu

Day 37
We woke up early and left the shelter as others were waking up and putting away their gear. We hiked over Little Hump Mountain and Hump Mountain which were a couple of large balds with great views. The weather was great and even though it was windy it was great to take in the mountain scenes every which way around us. We walked down the mountain to Doll Flats where the Appalachian Trail left North Carolina behind for good and continued a ways solely in Tennessee. Just before US 19, a couple set up a table of trail magic. We ate an oatmeal cream pie and I downed a soda quickly so we could spend some time in the town. We started walking down the road and were soon picked up. We climbed in the back of a pick-up truck and were whisked down the mountain road to Ole Country House, which was a little country diner with a bunch of country-style decorations and signs all around. Just to give you a taste: one sign read "This Matrimony Will Now Be Interrupted for Hunting Season," another read "Squirrels Will Attack Exposed Nuts" and another read "Two Things Every American Should Know How to Use . . ." followed by a picture of the Holy Bible crossed with a pistol and ". . . Neither of Which Are Taught in Schools." I had a burger with lettuce, tomatoes, ham, bacon, and coleslaw on top. It was real messy, but enjoyable. After lunch we walked over to the nearby Creative Grounds Coffee which was actually more of an antique shop and pizzeria than a coffee shop. I might have blogged there, but the wifi wasn't very strong. So we bought another trail dinner we needed at a little grocery store and as I was about to snap a photo of Nepsis by a statue of an elk a man ran up and offered to take a photo of both of us and drive us back to the Trail. I had hiked a portion of the Trail starting here almost six years ago with a dear friend. As I hiked some parts seemed familiar and some parts seemed different. I thought it was possible we had actually started somewhere else. A few miles down the Trail I remembered that we had forgot to fill up on water in town, but we soon passed a church that was listed in the guide book for water. So we filled up from the faucet on the side of the building. It was really hot as we walked on a pretty easy section and at one point Nepsis screamed behind me because she noticed a snake just off the trail. At the end of the hike we went alongside a big river and as we were about to pass a footbridge we noticed somebody had wrote 400 using sticks on the path. We looked in our guide book and discovered we were actually at mile 400.6 so we gathered more sticks and made the correction. The period was difficult to see. We walked on, past a waterfall just before the shelter. The shelter clued me in that I was indeed correct that this is where my friend and I started six years ago. Mountaineer Shelter was the first shelter I ever stayed at on the Appalachian Trail! It is distinct from other shelters because it actually has a little two-person loft as a third floor and a wood sculpture of a bear inside. After we came another thruhiker came in confused as to why some wrote 4006 on the path.     

Miles hiked today: 18 Total AT miles completed: 401.1 Total AT miles left to hike: 1784.2

Day 38

We had heard that it was supposed to rain all day so when we woke up I expected everything to be wet. It wasn't. It didn't even look like it was going to rain anytime soon. The terrain all day was just a lot of little ups and downs, no big climbs or descents. It started to sprinkle in the late morning and all at once it started to rain. We put on our ponchos and in five minutes the rain stopped so we took them off again. We stopped to eat lunch under a shelter and the rain fell again, fast and hard. It stopped again just as we were finishing up eating. As we continued on, the dark clouds rolled above us. All day the small rain clouds passed overhead, threatening rain, interepted by blue patches of sky. We heard one crack of thunder. The rain started coming and we ran dowm the trail to get out from under the gray cloud. We managed to stay fairly dry all day. We hiked down, off the mountain and turned right at the road to the Black Bear Resort. To the left was another cheaper hostel, but it didn't have food for resupply. We're glad we didn't go there because everyone we met who had stayed there except one hiker got violently sick. At our hostel, we were surprised to see J-walk and Willy Wonka who we thought were far ahead of us. They told us they had been at the hostel for several days. J-walk was waiting for his dog to be delivered so he could hike with her and Willy Wonka had to go to a doctor who said she had ruptured a tendon in her foot. She was hiking too fast, especially downhill and feared she'd have to get off the Trail. At the hostel we showered, did laundry, resupplied, ate lots of food including two frozen pizzas and hung out with the other hikers there. I was going to blog, but instead watched The Shawshank Redemption and Dumb and Dumber in a little hiker lounge. It felt really good just to rest like that before going to sleep late for a thruhiker.

Miles hiked today: 15.9 Total AT miles completed: 417 Total miles left to hike: 1768.3

Day 39

We left the hostel in the morning after a hot night. Within a few miles we were surrounded by large rock faces, like walking through a non-desert canyon. Then we headed down rocks to a river and the magnificent Laurel Falls. In order to get good pictures, I slipped and soaked my feet in the river. So be thankful! After walking along the river and crossing several bridges we climbed up Pond Mountain which was very tough going. After we came back down we had lunch at the Watauga Lake beach and proceeded around it, across the dam, and back up into the mountains to Vandeventer Shelter. The view from this shelter is one that greatly inspired me six years ago. The water source was very far away downhill and it took a very long time to retrieve it and bring it back up the long climb.

Miles hiked today: 17.5 Total AT miles completed: 434.5 Total AT miles left to hike: 1750.8

Day 40

We hiked. We ate lunch at a monument to a hermit who lived there forty-five years. We hiked to a road where a man gave us water and crackers. We hiked on to the shelter we intended to stay at, but it was still pretty early and those ahead of us had also moved ahead, so we did too. We hiked on and tired ourselves out, but kept on. Just after another road a church left a box of sodas. We downed one for the caffeine and pushed through the last couple of miles to Abingdon Gap Shelter. This was our new record for mileage.

Miles hiked today: 22.7 Total AT miles completed: 457.2 Total AT miles left to hike: 1728.1

Day 41: Part I

We woke up early and packed up quickly in anticipation of making it to Damascus just over the border of Virginia before the projected big storm hit. We hiked fast, but were still caught in small pockets of rain. At long last we made it to the Virginia border! Some parts of the Trail that I remembered from six years back were missing so the Trail must have been relocated in parts. Other places I definitely passed were different than I remembered, revealing that the mind fills in the gaps of our memories with things that are completely untrue. This is another reason why we shouldn't feel like we know any kind of truth so absolutely.

New and Old Hotels

Day 32
We were the second-to last-hikers to leave the campground that was crowded the night before. It had rained during the night, but I guess everyone was excited to get to Erwin. We hiked down the mountain to Uncle Johnny's Nolichucky Hostel and Outfitters where many hikers scatted about the outside pavilion area. We ate a few snacks and talked with some of the other fellow hikers there like Fromage and North Star. As it rained around us, we waited with growing anticipation for Nepsis' parents to arrive. They were on their own road trip and kindly decided to stop by and spend a couple of days with us. Nepsis was grinning when the van pulled up and they whisked us away to the much bigger town of Johnson City to find a place to eat. We hit up the downtown, full of the finest eateries, and settled on Freiberg, a German cuisine restaurant. This restaurant was named after a town that was very near where I used to live in Germany and all the decorations inside reminded me of my time there. Since it was Saturday night, we had to wait awhile to be seated, well past our normal bed time on the Trail. Yawning, we were seated and I thoroughly enjoyed my German beer and schnitzel sandwich on a pretzel bun. After that we drove to a hotel that was way fancier than any place we've stayed on the Trail. It was so fancy there was a continental breakfast I fell asleep dreaming about.      
Miles hike today: 10.7 Total AT miles: 341.5 Total AT miles left to hike: 1843.8
Day 33
We woke up early as if we were still on the Trail and went to breakfast. There was so much to choose from. I was ecstatic to see make-your-own waffles with chocolate chips for a topping. It was also great to have juice and coffee. When the time came we went to a nearby church for an Easter service. We sang and got preached at, but I didn't really respond to the church's service. I should have been able to let my personal knowledge of Christ overwhelm me on this day of remembrance, but I did feel uncomfortable in the setting. After church we went to Little Cesears for lunch, but they were closed so we got Hardees and spent a long time finding a park in which to eat it. Back at the hotel, Nepsis and I blogged on actual computers which was wonderful. We then inventoried the food we had organized back at home for Nepsis' parents to bring us. My mom also sent a box full of candy bars, cookies, and homemade peanut butter balls which made for excellent breakfast for several days. Nepsis' parents then drove us to a Walmart so we could buy a little more food and some nail clippers. Nepsis didn't think the scissors on our Swiss army knife quite cut it. For dinner we went to the Mellow Mushroom which was a funky pizza joint. We got the very tasty Holy Shitake Mushroom pizza. Shortly after arriving back at the hotel we went to sleep.
Day 34
Once again we woke up early to delicious waffles at the continental breakfast. I wrote more of my blog, which seems to be a constant game of catch up. We also just let the hours pass resting. Not that we didn't want to get back on the Trail, we just weren't in any big hurry. We finally packed up our gear, leaving the water reservoir and Nepsis' stocking cap behind. The water reservoir was not needed because water is plentiful on the Trail and usually not very far away. Since Nepsis has a balaclava, she always wears that and has no need for a stocking cap. I was tempted to get rid of a couple cold weather items, but ultimately decided against it. On our way back to the Trail, we stopped by for lunch at Chick-fil-A. It was well past one o'clock when we began hiking again, but we were feeling pretty good. We felt well rested, but not out of touch with the Trail. We hiked on and on all day with few breaks. We finally broke our stride as it was getting dark on top of Unaka Mountain, in the middle of a spruce forest.
Miles hiked today: 14.2 Total AT miles completed: 355.7 Total AT miles left to hike: 1829.6
Day 35
It rained lightly as we hiked off the mountain and when it turned steady we broke out the ponchos, kept our heads down, and hiked on. Nepsis spotted two bright orange newts as we trudged along. As we were coming up a hill to a road at Iron Mountain Gap, Nepsis pointed out a large, creepy, white van with no windows parked there. When we got near a man inside rolled down the window and told us there was trail magic inside. Indeed, another hiker named Silver Stag was sitting inside enjoying snacks, sodas, fruit and a respite from the rain. We joined him and he showed us how to identify ramps. I had read about hikers picking ramps on the Trail, but forgot all about it. Ramps are like a wild leek and you can eat both the leaves and the roots. We hiked on and dug up a few ramps along the way. They were everywhere along the Trail. We passed the official sixth-of-the-way mark on the way to Clyde Smith Shelter. It was supposed to rain during the night so we squeezed into the bottom portion of the shelter even though there was two upper platforms that obviously could fit two people. Each platform was dominated by one person. We made dinner and added the ramps which was nice. Several hikers were also tenting behind the shelter. An older gentleman came up and asked to share one of the upper platforms, but the hikers up there refused him. Apparently a plaque on the wall said this shelter was only supposed to sleep six, but the platforms were obviously put in later and the guidr book said the shelter sleeps ten. Things were very awkward and tense for quite awhile, but finally the older gentleman moved on. I was irate at the two on top and the rest in the shelter for not chiming in. Why be so unaccommodating? Moving over would only be slightly more uncomfortable? And what about respecting elders? As I tried to fall asleep I imagined all kinds of violence against the one most vocal about refusing the man a spot in the shelter.
Miles hiked today: 12.4 Total AT miles completed: 368.1 Total AT miles left to hike: 1817.2
Day 36
We heard from multiple hikers that it wad supposed to be sunny and hot all day. Well, the sun was out, but it was windy and still rather cold. We had a lot of uphill to get up to Roan Mountain. On top was a field where the luxurious Cloudland Hotel used to stand from 1885 to 1910. We stopped by the highest shelter on the Trail for lunch. It was an actual cabin with four walls. After lunch we hopped over a few balds to Yellow Mountain Gap where the Revolution War Continental Army passed by.  Nearby was the Overmountain Shelter where we spent the night. It was a large, old, two-story barn that had been converted to a shelter. From it, we could see an amazing view down into a valley between two mountains. After we arrived many more people came, but there was plenty of room inside. We sat at a picnic table talking with Young Gun, Rocky, and Hoops before going to sleep.
Miles hiked today: 15 Total AT miles completed: 383.1 Total AT miles left to hike: 1802.2  

Hot Springs, Cold Weather

Day 27

We left the shelter early so we could be one of the first to arrive in Hot Springs, our first town that the trail itself actually runs right through, and secure a place to stay. The Hostel at Laughing Heart was the very first business coming off the mountain and we quickly found Chuck Norris, who allowed us to use the three-person bunkroom as a private room. All the other private rooms were few and there was only a few spots left in the large bunkroom. It was good that we were the first ones to get there in the morning. Hot Springs had a total population of 637 and it was less than one mile from one edge of town to the other. Still, Main Street was full of all the quaint little shops thru-hikers enjoy. After showering we went to the Hiker's Ridge Ministry for some free snacks and were told there to go to the Take Out for lunch. That was a very small store and restaurant and we both got lunches that were too big for us to finish. We spent several hours at the local library updating our blogs on actual computers. We resupplied most of our food at the local outfitter, where the scale also told me that I had lost ten pounds since beginning our thru-hike. The outfitter had these delicious high-calorie bars that are tons tastier than Clif Bars. They were called B!g Sur Bars and we hope we can find them other places along the way too. We bought some more food at Dollar General, but every place we went was completely sold out of bagels so we got crackers instead. We went back to the hostel to drop off our groceries and hung out with other hikers for some time. A lot of them we keep running into and have gotten to know them a little bit. There's J-Walk, Willy Wonka, Silver Stag, and Fromage. The Pope and Muriel showed up, who we hadn't seen since one of our first days on the Trail, so we went to a local diner with them for dinner. As we were finishing up our meals the waitress came over with four portions of extra cobbler she gave to us for free. As with most of the young thru-hikers, the Pope and Muriel are on a strict budget and since Nepsis and I have saved a lot of money we decided to pay for their dinner, despite their protests. As one of my good friends once told me, "The Lord blesses so that others might be blessed through you." That night, it took me a long time to fall asleep. For half an hour I really felt like I was on the verge of throwing up and I don't know why. Maybe I ate too much, but I'd like to think that my body is very strong and fought a tough battle against something bad in my system, and after thirty minutes was ultimately victorious.

Miles hiked today: 3.2 mi. Total AT miles: 273.9 Total AT miles left to hike: 1911.4

Day 28

We woke up to rain patter on our windows so we were in no hurry to leave. We ate leftovers from lunch and J-walk started to whip up breakfast in the kitchen where several of us hikers had congregated. He made eggs and pancakes with trail mix in it, which he gave freely to us. Afterward, he was known as Chef J-Walk. After we packed up we went back to the outfitter because we had forgot to buy denatured alcohol for our stove. Nepsis also bought shorts. We then headed over to the Hiker's Ridge Ministry where I used a computer to catch up on blogging. It felt good to finally be caught up. It was still raining so we decided to go to Iron Horse Restaurant for lunch and to wait out the rain. After we finished we waited as long as we dared, but finally left at 13:30 even though it was still cold and rainy. The first section of our ascent was rocky, and the rain would at times transform into snow for a few seconds at a time. We hiked higher and higher up Rich Mountain and before we knew it the rain turned to snow for good and snow covered the ground. I felt like Gandalf hiking over the Misty Mountains, with my staff (hiking pole) and snow stuck in my beard (not as long as his' yet). We pressed on and arrived at the Spring Mountain Shelter shortly before dark. The shelter was full and tents were set up everywhere. Some hikers hadn't hiked at all that day and just stayed huddled in their tents. We set up our own tent and fell asleep completely bundled in all our warm clothes.

Miles hiked today: 11 Total AT miles: 284.9 Total AT miles left to hike: 1900.4

Day 29

We didn't leave our tent early, but eventually ventured out into the cold to get hiking. A few miles in we started up the long ascent of Camp Creek Bald. It was slow going and very tiring. It took us most of the day and although we had planned to go much further we set up camp at Jones Meadow.

Miles hiked today: 10.7 Total AT miles: 295.6 Total AT miles left to hike: 1889.7

Day 30

A few miles into our hike we started climbing through the Firescald which were massive, medium-sized, and small rocks we had to maneuver over for a mile and a half. It was a great change of pace. We actually had to use our hands to climb over and squeeze through some of the rock formations and at the top there was impressive views. It was a little bit of actual mountain climbing rather than hiking up a mountain path. Just beyond this we passed our 300-mile mark. After that we climbed up Big Butt Mountain which had two large rocks at the top that were positioned in such a way that they looked like a big butt. A few miles further was on old memorial    for the Shelton Laurel Massacre where a Confederate Lieutenant-Colonel executed thirteen civilians he suspected on Unionism, including three boys. We moved on, trying to cover as much ground as we could since we didn't go as far as planned the day previous and ended up camping near the Big Flat.

Miles hiked today: 17.2 Total AT miles: 312.8 Total AT miles left to hike: 1873.1

Day 31

After a few miles we came upon Sam's Gap where we had planned to resupply at a small store 3.3 miles away. We almost had enough food, but we needed some more snacks. Fortunately, when we got there a small group of hikers huddled near an RV, enjoying trail magic! They had biscuits with gravy, coffee, bananas, apples, and powerade. When Nepsis mentioned that we didn't have enough food, they climbed back into their RV and came out with some trail food. The young woman had been a thru-hiker, but hurt her leg three weeks back and had to get off. We were glad they were kind enough to give us whatever we wanted because the entire time we were there only one car, a student driver, passed us. It would have been nearly impossible to hitch a ride to the store. After the trail magic we started hiking up Big Bald and were soon joined by Forrester Gump, the only thruhiker we've met who knew what my trail name meant. He had studied theology in his younger days and now worked in forestry. He was very intelligent and it was good to converse with someone who was hiking for some of the same reasons as us. It seems that a lot of thruhikers are out here to have fun, an excuse to not work perhaps, and don't enjoy the walking so much the beer in town and the marijuana in their packs. Others just seem to like the challenge and are just pushing themselves through the hiking, using it as another adventure to accomplish or another challenge to overcome. Still, I think there is something more, that perhaps we don't always understand ourselves, that is driving us all out here to walk over 2,000 miles in a few months. Big Bald had another giant field on top, but wasn't nearly as pretty as Max Patch. We continued on to Spivey Gap where we set up our tent for the night. This day marked our first month of hiking the AT! A sixth of the way to the end milage-wise is 364.2 so we missed that mark by a mere 34.2 miles. Considering we started out slower and several large sections in our future will be mostly flat, I think we are well on our way to finishing before the average six months. That being said, we are in no big hurry to rush through this thing.

Miles hiked today: 18 Total AT miles: 330.8 Total AT miles left to hike: 1854.5