Date: 2023-02-26
From: Hot Springs NC

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 69.8

¢You can go the distance, we¢ll find out in the long run¢ The Long Run - The Eagles - 1979On the morning of February 20, after having a good breakfast, with Bob, Dave, and NoDak; I began my hike up out of Hot Springs heading north. It was a pretty steep hike, but there were lots of views along the way. I hiked about 11.3 miles that day with just under 4000 feet of elevation gain. That night, I sheltered at Spring Mountain shelter with NoDak and Merlin and Merlin¢s dog Wade Wilson. Water wasn¢t very hard to get at that shelter and it was a pretty decent night except the next morning a mouse had chewed one of my ropes in two. The next morning, February 21, I continued north, and only went 8.6 miles before I reached Little Laurel shelter. I had done about 2500 feet in elevation gain. Sometime during the day, I was passed by a young NOBO by the name of Topo. He was a very swift hiker. I was ready to stop for the day when I reached the shelter. Merlin and Wade Wilson were long gone and NoDak decided to push on for another couple of miles. So I had the shelter that night to myself. The shelter had bear hang cables, so I wasn¢t worried about my food and all through the night I did not experience any evidence of mice.On February 22, I hiked 14 miles to Flint mountain shelter with about 3000 feet in elevation gain. It was a long day; but it was a very rewarding day. There is a section of the trail that is very rocky and exposed ridge line that literally constitutes the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina. It was a difficult patch to hike, but it was very interesting, walking along, knowing that my left foot was in Tennessee, and my right foot was in North Carolina, and the views were simply amazing. After I made it through that section, I came to Jerry cabin shelter, and stopped for a while and had a break and some lunch. Once I got back on the trail and hiked several more miles, I passed the Shelton Civil War graves. When I made it to the shelter, that evening, NoDak was already there. I did not have a lot of daylight to spare before it turned dark. NoDak had gathered some firewood because he had arrived earlier, so we were able to enjoy a campfire. Just a few minutes before dark, another swift, moving Nobo hiker came in and sheltered with us. He had not adopted a trail name yet. His name is Ian. He said some people had suggested his trail name should be ranger, and he was still contemplating accepting that as a trail name. The shelter had hang cables, and there was no evidence of mice.February 23 was an 11.2 mile day with approximately 3000 feet of elevation gain. NoDak and I had decided we wanted to get off the trail for a night so we agreed to split the cost of a shuttle so once we got to Sam¢s Gap, Steve from Unicoi shuttles took us to Uncle Johnny¢s hostel in Erwin, Tennessee. There were not a lot of remarkable views on this day of hiking. On the trip to town, we discussed the possibility of doing some slack packing to help us make it to Erwin the following couple of days, but without us trying to slack pack the whole distance from Sam¢s Gap to Erwin. We came up with the idea that Steve would drop us back off the following morning at Sam¢s Gap and carry our packs over to Spivey Gap and meet us there at 2:30 PM. So we stayed at uncle Johnny¢s hostel that night, and Steve picked us up the following morning at 6:30 AM. But that night at the hostel, we got to see Merlin and Wade Wilson, and also Charlie Brown and snoopy. We also ran into Topo that evening. We had made it to the hostel in time to catch their free shuttle into town where I was able to enjoy a Pal¢s burger.On February 24, Steve dropped us back off at Sam¢s gap at about 7 AM. We did in fact slack pack to Spivey Gap. This day took us across Big Bald Mountain, which was probably one of the most spectacular views I have seen from the trail so far except for Clingman¢s Dome. I ran into another NOBO hiker by the name of Cayenne. He seemed to be about my age, but since he started in Springer Mountain a little over a month ago and is already an experienced hiker, he is doing 20 plus miles per day. After receiving my pack from Steve at Spivey gap I continued another 5 miles to no business knob shelter. I had hiked 18.3 miles that day with approximately 4500 feet of elevation gain. Of course, approximately 13 miles of that was slack packing. That night, I shared the shelter with NoDak, Cayenne, and another NOBO hiker by the name of Arnold. The shelter did not have a privy or hang cables. There was no evidence of mice that night.On February 25, we hiked 6.2 miles back into uncle Johnny¢s hostel. It was about 850 feet of elevation gain. We got on the trail at about 5:50 AM so it was still dark and we had to use headlamps for the first little while. Cayenne did a quick resupply and kept going. NoDak and I took the rest of the day off along with Arnold. We ran into Ian who was just getting ready to head out even though it was raining really hard at the time. He is a hearty soul. We got Steve to run us into town and I had another burger from Pal¢s. Merlin was still at the hostel along with Wade Wilson. Merlin had decided to take a couple of zero days not for his benefit but for Wade¢s. He takes care of and watches over that dog better than many parents I have seen. I really like Merlin and think he is a very good man. If you are not used to tattoos and body piercings, which I am not, it could be disconcerting when you first meet Merlin, but he is a great guy and is always willing to help another hiker. I think he has hiked over 9000 miles in his lifetime. Wade Wilson is a good dog and they make a good team.At the time of this writing, it is February 26. I have decided to take a zero day to give my wife a chance to come and visit me one more time. I plan to get back on the trail tomorrow, February 27. I just met another NOBO through hiker by the name of Prepper. He seems like a really nice guy and I¢m sure I will be running into him more along the way.