Date: 2008-04-23
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Elk River Tentsite
Miles today: 15.0

Today was a fantastic day! We hit the trail around 8:30 in the morning and started hiking with Canuck, Shiloh, and Me, who were all at the shelter with us last night. The trail was absolutely gorgeous! We hiked up two beautiful balds-- Hump Mountain and Little Hump Mountain-- and over rolling hills unlike anything we've seen before. We stopped and took a lunch break on some rocks overlooking a valley and about an hour later we came to a major road-- 19E. We couldn't see anything from where the trail was, but we knew that there were towns close by in each direction. Although we had all just eaten lunch, our guidebooks told us that there was a Subway a few miles down the road, which sounded very appealing. Shiloh had the great idea that rather than all 5 of us trying to hitch a ride into town, we send only 2 people, to pick up some subs and bring them back for everybody. Since I was the only girl in the group, and people are much more likely to pick up hitchhikers when there is a guy and a girl together, Eric and I were chosen for the job. I recently realized that I never really describe the people we've been spending time with, so I'll try to start giving a little bit more detail. Canuck (25 years old, from Canada), Shiloh (50s?, from Maine/and I think more recently Atlanta), and Me (60s?, retired botany professor from Clemson) all sat on the side of the trail to wait, while Eric and I attempted to hitch into Roan Mountain, Tennessee. It took a good 25 minutes, but just as we were starting to get discouraged and thinking about giving up, a friendly old man named Ray pulled up in his pickup truck and told us to jump in the back. We were so excited! He dropped us off at the Subway and asked if we needed a ride back up to the trail again when we were done. He was just running an errand at the grocery store and would come back for us in about 20 minutes. Perfect!Subway happened to be having a special-- any footling sub for $5.00. So we gave them everybody's orders, and walked away with 5 footling subs, 5 bags of chips, and 6 cookies. Oh, and the Subway was connected to a convenience store/gas station, so we were even able to bring back bottles of soda and juice! Ray picked us back up, as promised, and dropped us back off at the trail, where our friends were waiting. We sat down in a big circle right on the side of the trail, chowed down on our Subway feast, and felt like we were eating like kings. It was delicious!Our Subway adventure set us back about an hour and a half, but was well worth it. Rather than going 8 more miles to the next shelter, though, a campsite 6 miles away sounded much more appealing (especially after eating so much), so we altered our final destination.On the way, we started hearing a helicopter flying around us very close by. It turned out to be a forest service helicopter carrying a large bucket underneath it. It kept flying in one direction, picking up water, and flying the other way to dump it. There must have been a forest fire, or perhaps some controlled burns, which we know they've been doing in the area. We could se a little smoke off in the distance, but we couldn't see any flames. It was far away from where we were, luckily, so we were never in danger.Shortly after seeing the helicopter, and while still on our way to the tentsite for the night, we came to a side trail to Jones Falls. Eric, whose last name is Jones, was naturally very excited by this, so we all walked the tenth of a mile or so down the trail to see the falls. And they were gorgeous! It was the largest waterfall we've seen so far, falling down over huge rocks. We all stopped and gave ourselves mini towel-baths in the pools of water that were collecting. Canuck and Shiloh rinsed some clothes out and Eric soaked his feet. It was a perfect ending to our day. From there we hiked about 2 more miles down the mountain, where the trail meets and winds along the Elk River. Now we're at a beautiful tentsite right on the river. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow-- about 18 miles in all. It should be relatively easy hiking, as the terrain is mostly flat. Our goal is to make it to Kincora Hostel by tomorrow night, where we will shower, do laundry, and re-supply. It is more or less on the trail, and should provide good motivation for us to hike some big miles. We're planning on getting up at 6:30 for an early start, so I'd better be off to bed; it's already after 10! Goodnight!