Date: 2007-04-10
From: Nolichucky River

To: Deep Gap (another one... sigh)
Miles today: 12.1

It feels good to be back on the trail again. Granted, I never actually left it - hell, I didn't even take a zero day - but slackpacking, as much of a thrill as it was, is just not the same as slinging a 25+ pound behemoth on your back and trudging off into the woods for a few days.I took my time getting out of Erwin to-day - hence the rather low mileage. To-morrow, well, I'm looking at the guidebook here and I have some pretty crazy climbs ahead of me - when I reach Roan High Bluff I have to climb 800 feet in less than a mile - yowzah.On top of that, it's supposed to rain to-morrow too - thunder and lightning and all that. What would be ideal for me, and probably unlikely - is to reach the Stan Murray Shelter - 24 miles away. But I'm kinda crazy - I may be able to pull it off, even if it means hiking at night - actually, it would definitely mean hiking at night.At any rate, the events that transpired to-day are as follows - I woke up rather early and chatted with the trail angel Redneck (remember, he gave me coffee the other day) and a hiker who came in last night named Fidel - yeah, he has the Castro beard - pretty rad. Sometime later Miss Janet came in and began making breffiskst - biscuits with tomato and sausage, gravies, eggs, orange juice - amazing food. I had like 4 helpings. Still underweight though.Twiglet and I finished tilling the dirt pile in the backyard as part of our work-for-stay after breffikst - after all that sprinkler work, digging is pretty much second nature to me now. After that I finished uploading my pictures to trailjournals - hogging the computer for over an hour in the process. But there are over a hundred photos on the site now.By the time I finished with this, most of the other hikers had left - either to go slackpacking or move on. Twiglet left with most of them while I was still on the computer, so when Miss Janet came back I showed her our work - she was satisfied, but asked me to fix it here and there, which I did, and then she shuttled me to the trailhead at the Nolichucky. We said our good-byes - a bittersweet affair for me - anyone who turns the bottom story of their small home into a hostel for dirty, smelly, hairy, inebriated hiker trash (Redneck's license plate reads HKR TRSH) is a saint in my book. All the hostels I've been to thus far are really great, unique places - but Miss Janet's is simply the best - love is flowing from beneath the floorboards. I've met very few people as generous as she.To-day I began hiking with a guy a little other than myself named Moonpie, and after waiting for one of those 100+ car freight trains to cross the AT, we hiked a little further together, but soon separated as Moonpie wanted to smoke a bowl and hike slow.I'm camped out at Deep Gap (the nth one) 12 miles away with Smiley, who is of course a great guy, Twiglet, Hoosier (can you guess where he's from?) Hemlock and Moonpie just rolled in a second ago - it's 8:45 and I've been here 2 hours. Meh, HYOH.I have a big day ahead of me, maybe I'll catch up to Footpump and Widowmaker - they're part of my hiker family, who went on to the shelter 5 miles ahead. If not, no worries.Barry Manilow apparently got a job in Hot Springs working at Elmer's for a while , so it may be a while until I see him again - but he's a pretty nutso hiker, so I wouldn't put it past him to be able to catch up with all of us. I still want the bear-ton for at least and hour though - Widowmaker still has it. Need sleep - G'night!Quote of the Day:Twiglet: "Hoosier, where are you from?"Hoosier: "I'm from Indiana."Twiglet: "Why is your name Hoosier?"Hoosier: "Because I'm from Indiana."Twiglet: "Oh, okay!"