Date: 2018-03-26
From: Carvers Gap

To: US-19E
Miles today: 14.8

Today was the first day I¢ve done any hiking since leaving the trail with tendinitis four weeks ago. I was able to slackpack with PT, and we both agreed it was the best day we have had on the AT. To catch you up a little, since leaving the trail, I returned to Colorado for a week then drove back to Tennessee with Peaches and our dog Moxie. We are likely going to be based here in Tennessee for the foreseeable future. When I arrived in Kingsport, I reached out to PT to see where he was. It so happens that he has been battling, wait for it...tendinitis. He had been hiking with Lotus for a few weeks, but when his ankle started bothering him he took several zeroes and Lotus continued on north. PT was staying at Greasy Creek Hostel, so last Tuesday I picked him up and took him to my in-laws where he enjoyed a home cooked Italian meal. Bad weather was settling in over the area last week with heavy snowfall predicted for the Roan Highlands, which was next up for PT on his way north. He decided to wait the storm out at the hostel. On Friday morning I went back to the hostel and picked up most of PT¢s gear along with the gear of two other hikers so they could slackpack over Roan Mountain to Carvers Gap. When they got to Carvers Gap, PT¢s companions decided to hike on while PT elected to be conservative and stop for the day. So I shuttled PT down from the gap to the city of Roan Mountain Tennessee. Our first stop was Bob¢s Dairyland, a hiker friendly sandwich shop where you don¢t get cheated on portion size. Dave, the owner of Doe River Hostel where PT was headed for the night, stopped by and told us that he owned a bar on the other side of town and that people in the community had been pre-paying for beers for thru-hikers. Guess where stop two was. After receiving our complimentary beers, getting our names on the board and having our pictures taken, we then needed to have one for PT¢s wife. We didn¢t have any choice - she asked us to do it. Then we needed to have one for Peaches. She didn¢t ask us to do it, but we still had no choice. After we had gotten our drink on, I shuttled PT and PBS, whom I met on my 2nd to last day on the trail, to the hostel. On Saturday, Dave shuttled PT 14 miles north and he slackpacked back to 19E. PT then took a zero on Sunday. This was done to set PT up for a slackpack on Monday when the weather was clear across the remainder of the Roan Highlands. This portion of the trail crosses several ¢balds¢ which are mountains with no trees on top, so you get unobstructed 360 degree views. I decided to Join PT and stress test my leg. One challenge I faced was that I took my hiking clothes to Colorado and left them there. So I had cotton and cotton blend clothes to wear, a big no-no in the back country. It was 23 degrees with a howling wind at Carvers Gap when we started, putting the wind chill near or below zero. I of course wore shorts. That won¢t surprise my Wisconsin friends. My legs never get cold when I hike, so it was no big deal. I had a long sleeve shirt and a fleece lined hoodie. PT loaned me mittens he wasn¢t wearing and I ended up being toasty all day. It was cold enough that I didn¢t sweat, so wearing the cotton clothing wasn¢t a problem either. We passed over several balds over 5,000 feet in elevation that had amazing views. The trail conditions included frozen mud, incredibly wet and slippery mud, polished ice, rough ice, ice machine ice, (fallen off trees) water, rocks, roots, and some pretty nice trail too. Another day at the office on the AT. After making it back to 19E, we called Dave who picked us up five minutes later and drove us to his bar where I had parked my truck in the morning. We again did our three beers and then headed to Bob¢s Dairyland for dinner with Hickory, a thru hiker we ran into when we passed the Stan Murray Shelter mid-morning. Hickory made it to 19E a couple minutes after we did. After dinner I ran the boys back to the hostel. PT is moving on tomorrow and will be in Virginia later this week. I¢m still undecided on my Trail future. My leg didn¢t give me any trouble today so I¢m thinking of doing some more day hikes using Kingsport as my base and filling in more pieces of the trail. If I keep at that, I may do a legit restart sometime in the future. That¢s not in the cards right now, and I¢m completely fine with that. I still have until January 22nd of 2019 to complete the entire trail to make this a true thru hike.