Date: 2009-04-16
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Miles today: 0.0

Wahooo! we are still truckin! almost finished with NC and TN...only 11 more states after that to walk through! So after our week in Asheville/Chattanooga Andy was taking us to get dropped off on the trail at Davenport Gap...In the car we were talking about how we will be around a whole new group of hikers because we had been off the trail for 6-ish days....Logan says I bet we will see Dozer soon though...Andy drives away and a van comes driving down a random dirt road and there Dozer is screaming at us. HA. He informed us of a pig roast and band at the Standing Bear Hostel that night...Logan and i had planned on going about 15ish miles that day...we got less than a mile in and ended up at the hostel for the party...it was a blast...a reggae bluegrass band played and then we got the sweet tater boys up on the porch to do some pickin! The next few days we had a lot of up hill, hard climbs. We hit Max Patch(one of our fav. places we've been to before!) on a gorgeous day. It was a bit windy on the summit though...One of our fellow hikers tent got attacked by a bear right past the summit...SCARY! he was up at the fire cooking and came back and his tent,sleeping bag,pad, and shoes were torn to shreds! The next day we cruise into Hot Springs, NC. We roll into town and Gov't mule comes and tells us that there is a missing hiker report out for logan and I....we were so confused. Why would we have a missing hiker report?!* we thought he was joking....ran into the red elk and jay and they said they saw the missing hiker poster on the light post and then they said it was done in crayon...Turns out ole alan and seneca had been posted up at Elmers in hot springs for a few days and realized that logan i should be coming through soon. HA. Our first night we stayed at the campground in town. next day we did a slack pack six miles outside of hot springs back into town....we got sucked into town and ended up staying a few more days! We had been hiking with some section hikers, Jenn and JD. Our second night we ended up in their cabin with them! Turns out one of their buddies, Ryan, is a granite gear rep and knows my dad! small world! jenn and jd are talkin of a doing a thru-hike next year! wahooo.so the next day rolls around and logan and i for sure going to leave hot springs...but then we run into andy downs and there was a festival in town for hikers. soooo we stayed yet another night. it was a good day....swimmin in the french broad....ice cream eating competition for hikers (using no utensils and eating a pint as fast as you can) seneca, logan and i judged a chili cook off! We ended up meeting some ASU alumni that shared mutual friends with us! matt and sarah let us stay at there campsite that night...we were up around the fire for hours in town and then around the fire with miss janet at the campsite...we really did leave hot springs the next am...we hitched a ride to the top of the mtn. and started hiking up rich mtn. seneca and alan said they would catch up with us within the next few days! It was a long up hill day with little water...out of sams gap we hitched to a gas station for ice cream and candy bars! when we started to hike out of sams gap a dang dog followed us for a while up the trail...it was annoying but we finally got rid of it and found a perfect campsite for the night....we woke the next am to a deer walking around our tent and owls hooting all around us! We cruised for a couple more days, expecting anytime for alan and seneca to catch up...We were eating lunch at bald mtn shelter when they showed up! big bald was an amazing view! We had plans to stay at the next shelter and cruise into erwin, tn the next day...quickly things changed when we started talking about mexican food and cold beers...this was our longest day with a little bit of night hiking...we pulled about 23 miles. we got to town and ordered lots of pizza and drank a few cold beers! next thing i knew it was 2 in the am and alan and seneca were being "so american" and were heading back onto the trail for a 19mi slack pack....bad idea...but they lived. the next am logan and i headed up to iron mtn. gap to slack pack back to erwin. there were the boys laying/sleeping in the grass! haha. that night we were going to get our mexican food! we missed the shuttle into town so the boys sent me to the street to do the hitchhiking.. as soon as the car stops i yell and three boys run out...haha. the people were super great that drove us to town. their kids were hikers and also asu alumni...they ended picking up our entire tab! so nice! good thing we missed that shuttle to town!we stayed at uncle johnny's hostel...there were so many big agnes tents set up around the hostel and under the bridge in town...wahoo!miss. janet drove the us(seneca, alan, logan, george and corbin) up to the gap and we started hiking north...we got 1.3 miles in and found a great apple orchard and decided it was the perfect camp site for the night and thus we became the apple orchard gang! the next day we climbed Roan mtn. shhewww! three miles straight up hill. we stayed in the highest shelter on the AT that evening...we were debated whether to get picked up by mom and dad from elk park that next day or wait till we made it to hampton. we ended up cruisin into elk park for a ride...we ate lunch that day at the overmtn shelter...it's old red barn converted into a shelter! next was hump mtn. so beautiful even though it was fairly rainy and windy...corbin ran off for the first time right before the bald....we went back on the trail yelling for him and there he was just laying there...i think he may of chased a deer and then got tired and was just waiting for us. ha. after the balds we came across several cows/calves right in the middle of the trail. haha they wouldn't move and then started to chase us. i wish we could of had us all running on video tape i'm sure it was a site! we made it to elk park and mom came to get us! since then the four of us have done a good job of eating everything in their house! today we plan to head back to the trail but with a car for a few days...lots of slack packing to damascus...once we get to damascus we will be at mile marker 463!WAHOO...can't wait to see some of you at trail days....we will be there wednesday through sunday so come and play! once you get to damascus get on shady ave and look for my dad's RV. i should have my phone too...828 773 7592.love you all and hope you are all doing perfect!george,logan and corbin!