Date: 2005-04-22
From: No Business Knob Shelter

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: overcast clouds

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one hiking cadre to dissolve the epistemological bands which connect it to another and thereby to prove once and for all which cadre can, in fact, go lighter and easier, the following central philosophical questions are indubitably raised:1) How do you like THIS smell, PACKSNIFFERS?2) Little Orphan Andy - who left you on our doorstep - WF?3) Cuppa - (paybacks-a-bitch, isn't it?) - Joe4) Scholar - did you read the book where you saw THIS one coming?5) Free - not as much fun as the time we spent WATCHING you SLEEP, was it?6) BOTTLE ,BOTTE, who's got the bottle? It could be anywhere - your sleeping bag - your food bag - your pack - or possibly your boots. Breathe deep, PAKSNIFERS and start looking.The wages of sin are death. The Few, the Pround, and the Easy.-- This is the message I awoke to this morning. A note stuck to a log, with Linux's knife. A log which had put by my tent in the middle of the night. GLGE had done the same to us as we had to them the other night! I was laughing as I headed to Free's tent. I told her it was time to get up and I said we have elevated to DEFCON 2. Her response was "Oh no!..The game is on!" I walked up to the shelter and told Andy and the rest of he people there. Ranger was there and she knew all about it but she wanted to stay out of the fray. We immediately dubbed her the mediator should peace negotiations be required. We got packed and headed out. Ranger, Stilts, and Poet joined us in the walk to Erwin. We were going to keep any discussions of future action quiet till we could do it on our own. By the way, we believe they still have the bottle because we didn't find it yet. Stilts pulled ahead and the rest of cruised down the mountain into Erwin. There are some great views as we walked down. There is a railroad bridge that crosses the Nolichucky River as well as other views. We got down to the road and walked over to Uncle Johnny's Hostel which is the first place you come to. Stilts was there and he said, "Did you se them"?Us, "Who"?Him, "The Go Easy group".Us, "What? We didn't pass anyone"!Him, "They're up there. I passed them. They must have hidden when they heard you were coming. I told them the Nolichucky was going to run red tonight. They said but with whose blood". We cracked up at that one. We stood there deciding where to stay. Erwin is filling up because it is supposed to snow tomorrow night. Miss Janet's was full as well as Uncle Johnny's. Poet, Stilts, and the three of us decided to get a room at the Holiday Inn Express. We left a message for Sxholar as to where we would be. As we were getting ready to leave the GLGE crew walked onto the road. We sent Ranger ahead to tell them, Truce in Town and No Fueding over Food! They came walkng over and all of us had a good laugh over what had transpired. Both groups knew it wasn't finished but we also knew it was all in good fun. Pacman, Break, Linux, Gypsy, and Touk also were going to get a room at the Holiday Inn so we all headed over. We checked in and then headed to town. We wanted to talk to Miss Janet so we headed over to her place. I got a surprise there! Burn was on the porch. We laughed and talked awhile. Amazing how I am running into those that hiked last year. Before we actually got to her place we hit the pizza buffet. We did some serious damage to the pizza, especiallly when 13 hungry hikers come walking in! After we left Miss Janet's we headed back to the motel where we just relaxed for most of the day. We weren't planning on leaving till Sunday so we weren't in a hurry to get the town chores done. Enough for now.