So I ended up not leaving Hot Springs until about 3:30 pm. It was sunny and humid and somewhere around 75 degrees, which normally I would be all over (sometimes I swear I'm cold blooded), but when I still only have winter gear and clothing, this combination leads to pure misery. The climb out of Hot Springs also happened to be basically vertical, so that was even more fun while wearing wool leggings and long sleeves. Kylie and her friend Andrea, who was joining her for a few days, had left town a couple of hours before me, but I was determined to catch up to them for the night, so I totally booked it up the mountain that afternoon. I managed to make it to where they were about 8 miles in, and shortly thereafter we decided to stop for the night. This was right around a pretty cool lookout tower--and by pretty cool, I mean the views were nice. The tower itself was super sketch, which is apparently a theme for most towers along the AT.
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| Wait, what? |
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| Nice views, though. |
Thursday, April 9--mile 296.1
Kylie, Andrea and I decided to make this day a leisurely one. We took lots of breaks while hiking, with an especially long lunch break in the sun. On our way down to a gap where a road ran through, we talked about how nice it would be if there was trail magic down there (yeah, we're getting spoiled) and how we could go for a nice cold soda. Well, whaddya know, we get down there and a nice couple was providing just that! The woman's brother was hiking this year, and she and her husband decided to come see him for a few days and provide some trail magic while they were in the area. The three of us were downing our Cokes, when none other but James comes flying into the gap. What had taken us the over course of a full day to hike, he had completed since leaving Hot Springs that morning. I'm not even sure why this surprises us anymore--he is a hiking machine. That night, I ended up going a couple of miles past where the rest of my group stopped because I felt like getting a big climb out of the way while my legs were still warm rather than beginning my day with such a difficult portion. I ended up camping with some other familiar faces (no one I think I've mentioned in this blog before, though), including Freebie and Doc, so that was nice.
Wednesday, April 10--mile 313.8
Not every day can be sunshine and rainbows, and this day was certainly not. The day started off pretty chilly and rainy, which never fails to bum me out a bit. It was also my first day hiking the majority of it alone, so that pushed me further into my little mental slump. As tends to happen on any long term trip for me, the homesickness kind of comes and goes, but this day in particular I was really missing Norman and my people there, and it was really difficult for me to focus on the trail and not on how I would rather be warm and dry in Oklahoma with my friends. It was, from a mental standpoint, my worst day on the trail to date. I am fully aware that not every day on the trail is going to be an adventure, so it's not like I'm going to up and quit on days like this, but it doesn't mean they're not difficult. As much as I love this journey, it is incredibly challenging, and I'm not going to pretend like every day is full of fun. There's a reason why only a quarter of people who begin their hikes at Springer make it all the way to Katahdin. The AT is challenging in every mental and physical way possible, but it's pushing through the days like this that will make the summit of Katahdin all the more rewarding.
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| Even the bad days have pretty views. |
Saturday, April 11--mile 318.4
If you've been paying attention to the mileage here, you'll notice that this day did not include very much hiking. This is because I woke up not feeling well, and of course walking around with a ton of weight on my back didn't make things any better. I ended up hiking for a couple of miles before, well, having to drop my pack and run off trail to puke. And as much fun as that sounds, it got even better when I got to put my pack back on and keep walking! Needless to say, I did not want to continue on very far with my day. Luckily for me, Kylie was taking a zero in nearby Johnson City, Tennessee with her friend Rachel. This incredibly kind lady drove the 40 minutes out to the nearest place where the trail crossed the road that day, picked me up and took me back to her apartment. Sams Gap, the road crossing where I was waiting, also contained a nice man named Paul who was doling out some trail magic for the day. He had a full stove out there and was cooking eggs and hashbrowns, and he also had oranges and homemade pistachio muffins. I was so upset that I was sick, because this was the most gourmet trail magic I've seen to date and everything would have been so delicious! James and Wookie were able to fully partake, though. We got back to Rachel and her husband Gerrad's apartment and because she is an absolute angel, she put my clothes in the laundry while I got showered up. Post-shower, Kylie and I laid around and watched old episodes of Game of Thrones in preparation for the new season. I began feeling better over the course of the day, which was a huge relief because that meant that whatever I had was not norovirus, one of my biggest fears on the trail. I was even feeling well enough by the evening to partake in some dinner at Tupelo Honey Cafe, basically my favorite restaurant in the world. If I were to get sick any day, this was the most perfectly timed day for it to happen. Sitting around instead of hiking and sleeping in a real bed at night did wonders, and I was feeling all better and ready to hit the trail again the next morning!
Sunday, April 12--mile 336.7
Kylie and I made this another nice and leisurely day. The weather was really nice, so we took every opportunity to frolic in meadows and take breaks around nice views that we could. We went up and over this huge bald (aptly named Big Bald) with incredible views all around and ate lunch up there. We were taking another break down the trail at a parking lot off the side of a road and two former thru-hikers drove up and insisted that we each take several of these bars that they had with them. They reiterated that the bars were all organic and non-GMO, and they just wanted to make sure that we weren't going to run out of food before we got to Erwin because they knew how hiker hunger worked. They were so nice, and the bars were delicious! We rolled into the shelter area fairly late (around 7:30 or so), and made quick dinners before tenting and crashing for the night.
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| Big Bald--not very creative, but accurate |
Monday, April 13--mile 342.9
Kylie and I did an easy 6ish miles into town this morning. We caught a hitch from the trail into Erwin from a lady who actually turned around and went out of her way to take us back there. I think it was because we had Sullivan with us--many more people have soft spots for dogs than for smelly hikers. We ended up picking up Sherbs along the way. She saw him thumbing it and asked us if she should pick him up, too. Kylie said "yes!!" and in he came, too. We got dropped off at the post office so I could pick up a package that my dear friend Angela had sent me. This was a very welcome treat, filled with delicious homemade cookies and a sweet little note. Touches of home like that really help get me through some days! Thanks, Ange :) Kylie and I then walked over to the Bojangles and got some breakfast. Fast food suddenly tastes super gourmet after eating trail food for so long. Rachel came to Erwin and picked us up AGAIN and took us back to her apartment. We showered and proceeded to watch about seven episodes of Parks & Rec. It was a fantastic afternoon. We all went to Mellow Mushroom that evening and ate a ton of delicious pizza before heading back home to watch the new episode of Game of Thrones with the knowledge that James might hate us a little bit for this.
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| Sidewalk eatin' |
Tuesday, April 14--mile 355.2
This was an incredibly physically grueling day. It was super hot and rained all day long, and since our bodies aren't quite used to that kind of weather yet, we were way more tired than usual. I was also getting pissed off throughout the day because my glasses kept fogging up and getting rained on, and for some reason this is one of the more frustrating things to keep happening to me on the trail. There are many pros to wearing glasses instead of contacts on the trail, but I may have to ditch them before long due to the annoyance of not being able to see anytime it's humid outside. It was just a physically tough day though; mentally it was all good, which is really what counts on the AT. We ran into some trail magic in one of the gaps--a man named Brother Tom had oranges and brownies and banana bread and SWEET TEA! It was glorious. He apparently does trail magic every year for weeks at a time, and he hasn't even hiked the AT before! Such an awesome dude. We made it to a campsite that night where another trail fam that we know had also stopped and set up. This group includes Bloomer, Yellow, Translator, Freebie, and Doc, and a couple of other soloers were there for the night, too. It was a legitimate tent city up in there. We were all so close together that full conversations continued on even after we all got into our tents for the night. There was even a good chorus of Bohemian Rhapsody floating around from tent to tent at one point. It was really entertaining and a good way to unwind at the end of a tough day.
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| Tent city |
Wednesday, April 15--mile 369.1
Looking back at my journal entry for this day, it is obvious that I did not enjoy the day very much because I only wrote about three sentences that night. It was cold and rainy, two of my least favorite things, all day. I felt mentally fine for most of the day, but I was seriously physically miserable. We had the option to go to a hostel for the night, but we decided to tough it out and tent at a shelter instead. And that's all she wrote.
Thursday, April 16--mile 384.6
I distinctly remember this being my worst morning on the trail. I woke up cold and wet and super grumpy. I sat in my tent for a good 30 minutes just staring at the walls before managing to make myself start moving. Getting out of your sleeping bag when you're freezing and all of your clothes are wet is one of the hardest things in the world for me. I actually have two sets of clothing: one for camp and one for hiking, and you're supposed to always keep your camp clothes dry so you don't risk hypothermia at night. This means that you're supposed to put back on your wet clothes from the previous day each morning before you start hiking. This morning, I sat in my tent for a long while trying to will myself to put my wet clothes back on before I decided that I just couldn't do it. I knew I was never going to get out of my tent if I couldn't put on dry clothes, so I told myself that it was just going to have to be worth the risk of all of my clothes being wet that night and left my camp clothes on for the day. Luckily it didn't end up actually raining on us, but we were in the cloud all day, so we stayed very damp. The sun briefly came out and warmed my hands and my spirits. We made it to Overmountain Shelter for the night and actually stayed inside. It's an old barn that someone donated and had converted into a shelter for the AT! It was huge--there were about 20 of us staying in there and it wasn't cramped at all. It was so nice not having to set up my sopping wet tent for the night, too. And the barn was beautiful!
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| Home for a night |
Friday, April 17--mile 403.4
Now this was a good day. It was much warmer than it had been upon waking up, most of the fog had lifted by the time we got going in the morning, and there were only a few times during the day where we reentered the cloud. We went up and over a couple of very pretty mountains in the morning. After these, we crossed the NC/TN border for the last time! The AT weaves in and out of the two states for many miles, so leaving North Carolina for good was a very exciting moment. We ended up hitching a ride from another dog sympathizer into Roan Mountain, TN for lunch at a local establishment called Bob's Dairyland. Freebie, Doc, Translator, Obi-wan, and Yellow did the same, and we all ate delicious barbecue lunches before heading back onto the trail. Just as a note: NEVER DO THIS. Eating a shit ton of fried food and then walking 8.5 more miles is never a good idea. We were all miserable hiking up the mountain that afternoon. Translator passed us when we stopped to get water at a spring and declared that he had the meat sweats--the most disgusting term I've ever heard, but so accurate. Despite the food comas, we took a short side trail to a bitchin' waterfall, and we passed mile 400! We found a campsite past the full shelter by a stream and set up for the night. It was a long, tiring, and very fun day. We all even stayed up until almost 9:30 hanging out before getting into our tents for the night--being up that late means you know the company was good...we're all usually asleep before the sun goes down.
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| One of the humps of Hump Mountain |
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| Truth. |
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| Byeee, North Carolina! |
Saturday, April 18--mile 418.5
This was a pretty uneventful day. The day before going into town always feels pretty mediocre, though, since non-trail food and real beds are on the brain. Kylie and I stopped for lunch at a pretty rock outcropping and that was basically the most memorable part of the hike. We made it to the road into Hampton later that afternoon, and Rachel came and picked us up AGAIN and took us to her apartment where there was homemade chicken stir fry waiting for us! SHE'S AN ANGEL, PEOPLE.
Sunday, April 19--still mile 418.5
Today was my first full zero day since being injured and stuck in Clemson. We went to Olive Garden for lunch and stuffed ourselves with pasta and unlimited breadsticks...carbs, please! We resupplied and plan on spending the rest of the day doing our chores and chilling out before heading back out first thing tomorrow morning. We're getting excited because we'll be in Virginia on Wednesday, and the 500 mile marker is just a couple of days after that! It's feeling real now, y'all!
So overall, things are still going great! The AT is full of ups and downs, but overall this is still an amazing experience and I wouldn't rather be doing anything else! Well, that's all for now, folks; talk to ya from Virginia!
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| Smiles & miles |
