Date: 2005-03-30
From: Tri Corner Knob

To: Clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 144.7
Weather: broken clouds

I feel so lonely right now - my lack of journal can be attributed to a week of flying down the trail to meet my boyfriend (we did our first 20 miler!) and a week of totally and completely enjoying my boyfriend's company. But today he left - hence my return to journaling and my loneliness. The week with Dan was the best and most uncharacteristic of my whole life so far. I temporarily abandoned my purist principles while he was here, but only because I love Dan more than the trail and it was more important to spend as much time as possible with the love of my life hiking another great love in my life. In the end I'll have hiked every mile of the Appalachian Trail and I'll have had the time of my life doing it and that's all that matters.Let's see if I can remember the shining moments ... Mountain Moma's was great - a true fringe cultural experience. If you enjoy wine tastings or fine hotels, you want to proceed there with caution, but Heidi and I loved it. She had grilled cheese, chocolate bars, a great shower, telephone, personally signed head shots of Dolly Parton, and every brand of cigarette you can imagine - just what every thru-hiker needs. It really was great. Our 21 mile day immediately afterwards, however, was not. It was so unpleasant that all I want to say about it is that I haven't been so wet at any other point on my hike and we almost got blown off Max Patch. We met the 3 Musketeers that day (Maruchan, PigPen & Sureshot) as well as 2 interesting section hikers (Rummy and Wedgie) one of which talked - no, conversated and yelled - in his sleep.Hot Springs was great - I don't think Elmer appreciated my non-thru-hiker boyfriend too much, but I'm thankful he let him stay there so we could experience his beautiful home and delicious cuisine - best vegetarian food I've ever had and I've had a lot. His home is pretty much my dream home, library and garden made reality. Paddler's Pub was also very cool - great food and great beer. We had the best crowd, too - Corduroy, 3 Musketeers, Train, Palladin, Dan, Heidi, Mark (Dundee) and 4 Cheese as well as the famed Baltimore Jack, who was full of advice and ideas. Dan was a little overwhelmed I think - by my new life, but he was also incredibly supportive. He didn't, however, appreciate the large male/female ratio under which Heidi and I have been hiking (he quickly came to realize how ill suited the trail atmosphere is for romance - body odor, stinky feet, bodily functions, and grime are hardly attractive or sexy). The hot springs weren't much more than hot tubs without the "hot" water - felt more like a bath tub actually, but I'm glad for the experience. Our last night we put on a fine performance in Elmer's music room - even though none of us could play an instrument. We each wore crazy hats from Elmer's hat collection and made jokes to compensate.We kind of got ourselves into a screwy shuttle situation for Dan's trip with us, but we made the most of it and had a great time. Heidi and Dan got along really well, which made the trip even better - we laughed all week long. Daniel also got his very own trail name - Flossin', which has one of those only funny if you were there stories behind it, but has to do with his pink hiking shirt and highwaters. Erwin was lots of fun but hectic - Eric and Ellen, thanks again for offering help - I wish so much that I could have met you. Miss Janet is the coolest lady I've ever met in my life - her house felt more like home than any place so far on the trail and even though I never actually stayed with her am thankful for her warmth and encouragement (I'll see you at Trail Days, Miss Janet!) I ate to the point of illness and drank a couple of beers in town, which made for rough hiking north of Erwin, but it was worth it.I highly recommend Erwin Burrito - they have actual picture proof that the town REALLY DID hang an elephant a century ago.I had to hike away from Dan at Iron Mountain Gap and hiked for a whole mile just bawling - it sucked even worse cause there was this cute hippie chick section hiker that just HAPPENED to need a ride in the direction Dan was going and of COURSE I told him to take her and then walked the next 6 miles alternately crying and then picturing them riding off in the sunset together ... YES, I'm more secure in my relationship than that, but it was a rough day, okay? And now I'm sitting at a beautiful shelter watching a beautiful sunset and thinking about this last great week and wishing that Dan was here beside me walking to Maine, too. Hands down the hardest aspect of my trip so far was saying goodbye to Dan this afternoon and feeling the huge contrast between how great this hike has been and how much better it was while he was here.