Date: 2009-05-04
From: Roan High Knob Shelter

To: Carver's Gap 
Miles today: 1.5

Yesterday's journal entry makes it sound as if I (Berry) was at death's door. But how quickly the tables turned.... Right before Bark journaled last night he decided against cooking dinner and went for peanut butter and crackers- the same thing we had eaten earlier for lunch. I had already laid down and was trying to get warm while avoiding the smell of the P.B., even the sounds of him eating made my stomach churn a little.Bark finally got everything put away and was so sweet to rub my back, when all of a sudden he says to me, "I don't feel so good either." That was the last comment he made before rushing out of the shelter to take care of some serious diarrhea. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of a very long night for the both of us. At over 6,200 feet the shelter is in a prime location to receive some pretty fierce storm activity, which is exactly what happened. This would not have been such a big deal if poor Bark could have stayed in his sleeping bag instead of running out into the rain every half hour to either vomit or "take care of business". By the wee hours of the morning he had nothing left but dry heaves. In between these episodes he would come back to his sleeping bag shivering and shaking. At this point, my stomach was still aching, but now I was more concerned about Bark. Before he had ever gotten sick that night, we had decided to hike the 1.5 miles to Carver's Gap and find a way into town if I was still feeling bad. That decision was quickly affirmed as the night went on. The storm finally passed, but neither one of us could sleep. We laid awake trying to figure out what could have made us both sick- we were first worried it was our water, but we always filter our water and after taking a few sips though the night we decided it was the peanut butter. At daybreak we were both tired and depleated, but a mile and a half down hill did not seem too daunting. So we packed up all of stuff pretty quickly, avoided breakfast and headed for Carver's Gap. We were hoping to catch a ride from one of the local hostel owners who we were expecting to drop off a group of slackpackers this morning. Well, no such luck- in fact we only saw about 3 cars total in the 3 hours we were there. After seeing the first car drive by we quickly remembered our friend Morning Glory, who lives about an hour away, and pulled out our cell phone. There were several failed attemps - no cell service! We stopped trying and waited for a little while to see if anyone else would drive by. About 9:30am Bark and I were sitting on a large rock by the roadside watching the clouds roll down the mountainside and thats about the time we knew that we could only depend on the Lord to get us out of this situation. Bark prayed and asked the Lord to help us find a ride into town. When he finished praying I went back across the street to where our backpacks and pulled out the phone one more time. This time when I attempted to message Morning Glory, it worked! Praise God for His providential ways- we were so thankful. Not only did our message send, but Morning Glory replied and said he would be there by 11am. What a faithful friend- we have been so blessed by he and his wife's generosity. So, true to his word we saw Morning Glory come around the corner at about 10:50am. He helped us load up our packs in his car and then we headed out towards Johnson City, TN. He and his wife have once again aided us tremendously by offering a place to stay and some help in feeling better. It is late afternoon now and Bark and I have been taking it easy all day- a few saltines here and there and some gatorade have helped a lot. Not sure yet what tomorrow holds, back on the trail or a little more rest, we'll have to wait and see. Bark definitely got the brunt of the foul peanut butter, so he is still taking things pretty slow. I am feeling much better after the rest and hopefully tomorrow will be a whole new day!