Erwin TN

4/30 & 5/1 Day 39 & 40

• Miles hiked: 14.8 & 0

• Shelter: Super 8 hotel room in Erwin TN

Another nice start to beautiful day. We had our sights set on Erwin, TN. We have been putting in 12+ miles a day for the past few days and putting our bodies through the ringer. We knew we needed a break.


After a few miles we caught sight of the Nolichucky River and you would have though we hit the jackpot. We were so excited. Little did we know... it was a long long way down.


I happened across this fella. It never fails... I'm always in front when we come across a snake.

We hit the downhill hard. All of my joints were hurting. Upon reaching the road, we immediately waved our thumbs and caught a hitch to Bojangles. Two spicy chicken club sandwich combos (with sweet tea, of course) made almost everything better.


We then walked to the hotel and started our chores, shower/laundry/resupply planning. Once the chores were completed, we caught another hitch to the Mexican restaurant two miles away (yes we were still hungry).

After eating, I went to stand and my left leg seemed fine but my right knee cap was not in the right place. It wouldn't bend. After a second or two I worked it out but it was very disconcerting. We caught a hitch back to the hotel and iced the knee immediately and decided on a zero the next day. After some googling, we have assumed it is runners knee. I watched some videos and taped it up with KT tape before we left.
 
In our time in Erwin, one thing that really lifted our spirits was a few packages we received. Becca, Tami and Kirby put together a package perfect for a thru hiker. Thank you very much for your generosity and love! And Adam sent Russ a loaner ultra lightweight fishing rod for the trip.


While in town we indulged in some local fare, Dr. Enuf. It's a soda drink from Johnson City TN that is basically carbonated sugar water. No flavoring, no gimmicks, just straight sugar in a glass bottle.

We also had some Pals cheeseburgers and frenchie fries. We are not going hungry.

Since Hot Springs Russ' new fangled shoes were giving him a hard time. His feet hurt and his Achilles was tight every day. He sent them home and picked up a new pair of Topos. The same shoes he started with. He is satisfied with this decision. A friend local to the post office helped him package them up.

Russ has new shoes again!

We rested and we enjoyed Erwin. The people were so nice, especially the hitches we received and we are so thankful for them. But we were more than happy to hit the trail again!

NC / TN

We have been going back and forth from North Carolina to Tennessee for weeks now. The trail mostly follows the state line. Some days we don't even know what state we are in. 
4/28/17 Day 37

• Miles hiked: 12.9
• Shelter: tent at Lick Rock Gap mile 312.9

One of the best things about being a hiker is that you get to be outside for every single one of the beautiful days. (Glass half full right? You also get to be outside for the not so beautiful ones too.)


We had a great lazy hiker day. We hikes at a slow pace. We weren't in any hurry. We came across a camper where Osesus (trail name meaning useful) gave us a beer and an ice cream sandwich.

It was glorious. We laid around, rested and soaked up the sun. We then we headed up and over the next mountain.

As we crossed the next dirt road we saw a sign for pizza and drinks. Of course we followed the sign. What we came upon was a constructed shed with bunks and a covered picnic area. The owner wasn't there but the sign said help yourself and we will be back. So we did. Helped ourselves to drinks and snacks. The owner arrived and was very nice but something was a bit off.
He grilled us some frozen pizzas and we drank at a good price. The environment of this place was very... um... rural. Everyone from the neighboring homes (which we couldn't see from our vantage point) drove up on 4 wheelers and seemed to be dealing something... one guy brought ramps (like onions) and another came up asking about ginseng. It was a very peculiar place. But the pizza was delicious and so were the drinks so after we rested for a bit, we headed up the mountain. We found a beautiful spot between two peaks and settled in for the night.
Trail

View out the front


View out the back

It was a good day.
Day 38 4/29/17

• Miles:15.9
• Shelter: tentsite at mile 328.1 

It was a very long but rewarding day. The miles didn't seem get us, it was the terrain.
The weather was in our favor today. Another sunny beautiful day.

We went up and down, up and down. Big Flat, Rice Gap, and High Rock. All that means up and down.  We crossed I-26 at Sam's Gap and headed back up.

Through meadows and the forest floor covered in wild flowers.

Eventually we reached the largest climb of the day up the Big Bald Mountain. It was 80° and after all the climbing we did that day the last 1000 ft were tough but the pay off was worth it!

Bunch of tired but happy hikers!

We even received trail magic in the form of beers from a CLEMSON TIGER FAN. We gave him the trail name of Tiger. He and his family live in Seneca SC and own a mountain home in the Wolf Laurel community. He comes and treats the hikers quite frequently and we thanked him for that.

After all that we headed down the mountain exhausted and looking for a place to camp. It took a while, kind of like looking for a parking spot in a field at a festival or something. Is it big enough? Is it flat? We finally settled in a spot 3 miles further than we wanted. We were exhausted but happy to be there.
We believe Jelly Bean and Papa Bean came in late and camped with us but they were still in their tents when we left so there is no real way of knowing who was in those tents.

Back on the trail

Leaving Hot Springs was hard in so many ways. We had a great time and the climb out of town was much like the others... very difficult.

Day 35     4/26/17

• Miles hiked: 10.7
  
• Shelter: tent near Spring Mountain shelter mile 284.4
  
• High Point: the SUN and breakfast
  
• Low Point: the heat and heavy pack

We were so sad to leave Hot Springs this morning but the weather is NICE so it's not that hard.

Russ got some fancy new shoes in town after blowing out his previous pair so now he's ready to hit the trail. 

We had another nice breakfast to get us started. 

We hiked over the French Broad River and up into the mountains. 

Bye Hot Springs 👋🏼

Soon after starting up the mountain we came across a beautiful pond. Russ was itching to fish. 

We hit some beautiful open fields. 

It was a beautiful day. 

Day 36  4/27/17

• Miles hiked: 16
  
• Shelter: tent at Jerrys Cabin Shelter
  
• High point: cool section of trail, called firescald knob at mile 297
  
• Low Point: raining taking down the tent and rain putting up the tent

Yesterday was sunny but today started in rain. I don't know if I would rather be hot, sweaty and humid or wet, cold and slippery. It's a lot like trying to decide whether you prefer to hike uphill or downhill. Uphill hurts your back and the downhill hurts your knees. Indecision like this is rampant on the trail. Like whether or not to take the rain gear off or leave it on. We usually let the weather decide for us.

We hiked in the wind this morning with gray skies and nothing much to see. This afternoon we reached a very cool part of the trail, around mile 297. The trail gave us two options. The weather was just foggy and cool so we decided to take the dangerous route. 😏

It was fun but a little disappointing because there would have been some great views. The hike was challenging and a little technical. I would like to come back and do it again. Apparently a guy named Howard McDonald helped build and design this part of the trail. There was a memorial to him on a rock described as Howards Rock and we appreciated the rock and trail.

Not much to see here but the blazes took us over the ridges on bolders. 

Passed 300 miles today. 😎

Hot Springs!

Day 33 & 34 4/24-25/17

• Miles traveled 3.2 & 0
• Shelter Creekside Cabin in Hot Springs
• High point luxurious bed & tramily photo
• Low point: just the elevation 😂😉

The rain finally stopped overnight. We packed up and booked it into Hot Springs for breakfast.
It was so worth it at the Smokey Mountain Diner.

At the advice of a few other hikers we settled at the Magnolia Mountain Inn. We lucked out at the Creekside Cabin for an evening at the hiker rate.
The Inn, which is also a Bed and Breakfast. (And a beautiful place for weddings we hear. 😊)
Our cute little cabin on the river, bottom floor.



We heard the river from the cabin and watched rafters from the bench at the window and on the porch. It was very relaxing. Breakfast at the Inn was also included and it was amazing.


Needless to say we ate well.

Hot Springs was like being at home in a town where we knew a lot of other people. We ate and absorbed half the internet. We found some friends for dinner and went back to their place for drinks. We took a Hot Springs tramily (trail family) photo. From left to right.
Raggedy, Junior, Redeye, Knox, Lil Veggie, Rabbit, Duckfart, Hannah, Wipeout, Hot Sauce, Ziploc, & Auntie

Good times.

We took a zero miler the next day and did our normal town chores (laundry, shower and resupply) and updated the blog. It was nice and relaxing after 7 days in the Smokies and beyond.

Name Game

After we got married, it took me over two years to confidently sign my last name with a cursive V. When you live with a name for 27 years and then it changes, your going to need some practice saying, spelling and even remembering the new you.
Well we are at it again. NEW NAMES!

Introducing Ziploc! (And his beard)


Ziploc actually received his name early on. We had been on the trail for 3 or 4 days and we were preparing dinner. We do a lot of freezer bag cooking on the trail.
http://www.trailcooking.com/trail-cooking-101/freezer-bag-cooking-101/
I was in need of a Ziploc bag for dinner and asked Russ, in front of the group, for a bag. He sent me to his backpack for one and I found over 20. I yelled across the group that he had been hiding them from me. Everyone laughed and a fellow hiker, Kate, suggested his trail name be Ziploc and he accepted! I am still struggling with call-in him Ziploc but I'm getting better at it by the day.

Meet Hot Sauce! (Apparently since I take most the photos, I rarely take any of myself. ☹️)

 It's probably not much of a surprise to many of you who know me. I carry, use, and consume a lot of hot sauce. Eating my grits (with hot sauce) early in the morning in the Smokies two hiker friends, Lil Veg and Auntie, suggested the name. I was excited and accepted the name. Since accepting the name, I have received tons of hot donations. My favorite so far is a bag of dried diced jalapenos from Logjam. I add them to my boiling water for grits, ramen and mashed potatoes. 😊 It's delicious!!
Now we are making a conscious effort to remember, answer, and call each other by our new names. It's been so much fun!

Much love from Ziploc and Hot Sauce

Life After the Smokies

Day 31 4/22/17  Over a month on the trail

• Miles traveled: 10
• Shelter: tent at Brown Gap
• High point: getting camp set up before the storms
• Low Point: storms

It was a pretty uneventful day. We got out of the hostel and headed up the trail. It was a bit of a climb out but it's expected at this point. Everywhere you need to go is UP.
We did hike over Snowbird Mountain and got a great view back to the Smokies and we headed north.

Ups and downs, cloudy weather with rain on and off. We hiked until we found a place to set up camp before the rain comes through.

Day 32  4/25/17

• Miles traveled: 20.1
• Shelter: tent near Deer Spring Shelter in a very large puddle
• High point: getting to Max Patch
• Low Point: literally this huge puddle we are sleeping in

What a day. It rained all night long last night. You begin to think "surely the sky can't hold any more rain" and then it continues. It's mentally exhausting.
When we left Brown Spring Gap this morning.. in the rain... with a very wet tent... we did not know how many miles we were going to hike. We knew it was going to rain most of the day and we knew Hot Springs was over 25 miles away. 😐
We hiked like it was our job (pretty much is anyways). We hiked in the rain, through high creeks, and down the muddiest trail we have seen. Russ even slipped and bent his hiking pole.

Eventually we reached Max Patch, a NC bald with supposedly 360 views in which we have been looking forward to since the beginning of our trip. It was a complete white out with a torrential downpour. Sideways wind and rain coming from all directions and pretty darn cold gusts coming across the bald. We knew as soon as we got up there that we needed to get down fast. We hiked as fast as could to the safety of the forest but not without picking up some rain soaked trail magic left at the bald for crazy thru-hikers like us.

Russ at the top with the trail magic.

The geological marker at the top.

We made it back to the less windy but just as wet forest. We knew we had to keep moving because we lose too much body heat when we stop. Rain gear isn't really there to keep you dry, it's there to keep you warm. If you stop moving the cold from the rain immediately sets in.
And that's what brought us 20 miles. The impact of the 20 miles on our bodies brought exhaustion. We are a little over 4 miles from Hot Springs and it's pouring. It was getting late and we didn't have any plans set up for Hot Springs so we decided to set up the wet tent in the rain. Luckily for us, we found a flat spot for our tent. It instantly turned into a puddle and is well on its way to becoming a pond. ☹️ We are mostly dry and are hoping our air mattresses will float enough that we can remain dry until the morning when we can reach Hot Springs.
The thing about rain is... It can't last forever. Eventually we will be dry again, right?