Date: 2003-05-04
From: No Business Knob Shelter

To: Erwin, TN (Holiday Inn)
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: broken clouds

Hardly slept a wink last night. Guess it was the anticipation of being in town the next day. Besides that, I decided to sleep in the shelter rather than set up a tent. I thought that would save me some time in the morning. Had another hiker show up and pile into the shelter as I was cleaning up from dinner. We both noticed that the mice were very "active" in this shelter and figured it was going to be an interesting night. I finally did doze off a bit, despite the mice running back and forth over my hands and face. After a while you sort of get used to it and besides, your need for sleep over rides your concern for the mice. Anyway, as soon as daylight hit I was up, packed and ready to go. Because of the added time I had spent on this leg of the trail, my food supply had dwindled down to 2 Snickers bars and a tea bag. Being somewhat in a hurry to start hiking I passed on the tea and just wolfed down a candy bar, washed down with a liter of water. That left me with 1 candy bar to use as a snack on the way down into town...and DOWN into town it was. With every step I thanked my lucky stars for the fact that I have healthy knees - because they really took a pounding on this section. Made unbelievably good time on the descent to the Nolichucky River. Covered the 6.3 mile stretch in a tad over 2 hours. Did I happen to mention being VERY MOTIVATED to hit the town of Erwin for a rest and to "dry out"? the past 5 1/2 days had been very wet. When it wasn't actually raining, the fog was often so thick that it may just as well have been raining. Bottom line is that after several days on the trail in that type of climate EVERYTHING you own is pretty damp. Moving right along...as I walked out onto the road from the trail I immediately scored a ride from a guy in a pick up truck. I had him drop me at the Post Office so that I could get my bearings in town. Got myself oriented and walked over to "Miss Janets Hiker Hostel". Found several hikers there who I knew but found out Jersey and Rumbler and Dirtnap were checked into the Holiday Inn. So, I gathered up my stuff and hitched a ride over to the hotel. Turned out that those guys had gotten a room with a jacuzzi tub - so guess what I did first? Ok, well maybe not first (I did take off my backpack), but within a few minutes I had my boots and socks off and had my feet and legs submerged in bubbling hot water - AHHHHH!!!Got settled into the room and decided to get some lunch and shop for groceries. Came back to the hotel and got somewhat organized. A little later went out into the hotel lobby and found that Miss Janet was parked outside in her van. She was waiting for hikers to shuttle into town. I spoke with her and found out that she was planning a "road trip" to Johnson City for a dinner and a movie - I told her I was "IN". I got the rest of the guys and we piled into Miss Janet's van. Forty-five minutes later I was sitting in "Ruby Tuesdays" with a 16 oz steak and 2 mugs of beer in front of me (they had a 2 for 1 deal going on the beer) (yeah right says the transcriber). I made light work out of this steak and polished off those beers in record time. After dinner we drove over to the theatre but all the good movies had already started. So we blew off the movie plans, made a Wal-Mart fun and headed back to Erwin. That was enough excitement in one day for this thru-hiker!! I crawled into the sack and called it a night. Oh yeah....and I forgot to mention that somewhere in all the days confusion I even managed to do my laundry and get a shower.