Tennessee and North Carolina

Within a week or so, I should be getting into Virginia.  For the past few weeks, the trail has been weaving between North Carolina and Tennessee so we never really know where we're at.  Damascus, VA is coming up though.  It marks the forth and longest state.  I'll also be hitting the 500 mile mark shortly after getting into VA.  So, I have a pretty exciting two weeks coming up.

Stryder left to go back to Georgia right after the Smokies.  Before he left though, we did some trail magic.  We built a fire close to Standing Bear Hostel and spent the day cooking.  I made 16 calzones over the day.  Stryder made fried zoo-zoos.  They're these cinnamon rolls wrapped around Snickers, fried in oil, and covered with icing.  Good stuff.

I booked it into Hot Springs because I was trying to ditch a swarm of annoying dudes.  I didn't realize that getting hit on all the time could be such a pain in the ass.  Three miles from Hot Springs, my friend Slopes (not one of the annoying people) caught up to me.  We went into town, got some bunks in the hostel, and went in search of food.  We ran into Tyvek who had just got a jar of apple pie moonshine, then we walked down towards to bar.  It was my friend Tarzahn's last night before he went off the trail, so that pretty much decided my plans for the evening.  A big group of us hung out at the bar until closing time.  When Tarzahn was going to bed, he yelled back at me, "I'll see you up the trail!"

The next day it took a while to get out of Hot Springs.  Once we did get on the trail, it took about 6 hours to hike 8 miles.  I got to a camp spot in the dark with my friends Cheese Water and Sir Towelly.  It was Pace's birthday, so I made calzones for her and everybody else.  Watermelon made cake-in-an-orange on the fire as well.  It was a pretty sweet evening.

It took a few more days to get to Erwin, Tennessee.  I pulled a 21 mile day into town.  I don't normally like to hike that much, but it was raining and I was cold.  I went to Uncle Johnny's hostel and got a spot in a cabin.  The next day, Cheese Water and Sir Towelly talked me into doing a slack pack.  Basically, the hostel drives you ahead with small bookbags and you hike back.  Unfortunately, a guy named Just Jim fell and hurt his ankle on the slack pack.  We were luckily with a couple called Sun Kissed and Jesse.  She's a nurse and he's a Wilderness First Responder.  So, the took care of his ankle and hiked him back to the road crossing to be picked up by the hostel.

My parents came into town for the weekend to visit me.  They replaced my broken headlamp and spork for me.  On Saturday, we went to a road crossing to do trail magic for everybody.  We had stuff for Troyer's trail bologna and swiss cheese sandwiches for everybody.  Dad made beans and we had tons of cookies, snacks, pop, and beer.  The hikers loved it.  Everybody that hiked by spent several hours hanging out.  We had started the day with about 5 cases of beer, but those were all gone by the time we packed up.  Our bottle of wine was drank too.

On to Virginia!

Smokey Mountains

My trip through the Smokies has been pretty interesting.  I camped out with Stryder and two other guys called Detour and Slopes one night.  Well apparently you're only allowed to sleep in shelters in the Smokies.  A ranger came along in the morning and slapped us all with $75 fines each.  That was pretty lame.

Other than that, the Smokies have been really beautiful.  We hit the 200 mile mark and reached the highest point on the trail in the same day.  Clingman's Dome is the highest point.  It's a cool tower that has a 360 degree view over the entire park.  It's also a tourist attraction, and us hikers are quite the spectacle.  I think people really get a kick out of talking to us and checking out our gear.

The weather has been COLD.  It's the worst at night and in the mornings.  I've been sleeping with all my clothes on in my 30 degree bag, and I still wake up cold at night.  It's been hard to get started in the morning.  We've also had a few bad thunder storms that have just soaked e everything.  I don't want to complain though because I know I'll be missing the chilly weather when its hot this summer.

There's about three rotations of hikers leaving in the morning.  There's the old guys that get started at 6:30 or 7 am. There's the people that leave at the most reasonable times, 8:30 or 9.  Then there's the group I'm part of: we don't hit the trail until 10 to 11.  We generally stop in the middle of the day, get distracted, and take a 2 or 3 hour break.  We've been rolling into camp only a little before dark.  We still do the same miles as everyone else.  It's just that a lot of people get to camp around 3 pm.

I ran into some awesome trail magic today.  This couple made all the hikers grilled cheese and they had brownies, fruit, chips, and pop.  Then they gave a bunch of hikers rides into town.  They said they do this every Saturday and Sunday.  They were really nice people.

My next town is Hot Springs, and its not for 70 more miles so who knows when I'll get there.

Starting the Smokies

So, I'm sitting in some fancy lobby of this Lodge at Fontana Dam, the start of the Smokies.  I sort of randomly ended up here.  Stryder and I were trying to hitch into town for our resupply, and this is where we got dropped off.  Turns out, they had a buffet breakfast, so I hit that up.  Then another hiker bought me a very strong screwdriver.  There are a few other very hungover hikers here, and nobody has made very much progress toward getting to the trail yet.

Yesterday I did an 18 mile day because we really wanted to stay at the Fontana Hilton.  It's a huge, really nice shelter with a 24 person capacity.  There were free showers, restrooms, and lots of benches.  You never get that at shelters, so it was worth the hike. 

I stayed at the NOC a few nights ago.  They had bunks in the cabins for hikers to sleep on.  I spent way to much money at the outfitter because I needed a new pack cover.  Mine was too small.  Pack covers are normally $25, but I had to pay $45.  I guess the prices are higher because its the peak of the season and the outfitter was right on the trail. 

Coming out of the NOC was an 8 mile uphill, which sucked.  But I have a 9 mile uphill to look forward to today.  It's hard to get into the Smokies, but once you're up there, apparently its all ridge walks with awesome views.  Ridge walking just kind of means you're high up in the mountains and you hover up there.  You don't have to go all the way up and down every mountain.

So, I've been getting these awful T-shirt tan lines, and I wanted to get a tank top so it wouldn't be so bad.  Stryder found an abandoned tank top at a shelter for me.  It's the right size, but its cotton and it kind of smells bad.  But I guess beggars can't be choosers.  It'll do for now.