Date: 2004-03-30
From: Max Patch Rd.

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: broken clouds

Jimmy and Maxie (Heather's aunt and uncle) met up with us this morning by the road to pick up our stuff for one more day of slacking. The brought us donuts, orange juice, and McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. Once again, thank you so much.    After packing up camp, we headed up Max Patch in the rain and fog. Max Patch is supposed to offer a spectacular 360 degree panorama of surrounding mountains. We got 360 degrees of white. All fogged out. It was still pretty cool to be hiking on the top of it in the fog though. Even though we didn't get a good view, we were able to appreciate hiking on trail over a rather large bald as opposed to being in the middle of a forest. We're almost always surrounded by trees, so any variation is welcome. I was even admiring the beauty of a concrete overpass that the trail went under a couple of days ago.    Shortly after entering the forest again, just after Max Patch, the trail we were on intersected with another trail. Looking to the left, we saw a white blaze and surmised that the AT must continue down there. But then I looked to the right and also saw a white blaze.    Uh oh. We had somehow gotten off the trail.    Now, most people would just hop back on and think nothing of it. But one of my goals states "Every White Blaze." I told Heather and Arwen (the only other two with me at the time) that they didn't have to, but I was going to go back up and hit the section I missed. Heather agreed and started walking up the trail.    "Oh COME ON guys!!" Arwen wasn't happy. "On a 20 mile DAY??"    He reluctantly followed, but was REALLY not happy about it.    "Just let me know when you want the retardation to end."    We had only missed maybe 100 yards. It wasn't a big deal. We found the spot where we had missed the AT and then continued to hike north from there.    "Just to let you guys know, if you pull that again, I'm taking the food and the dog and I'm leaving both of you." Maybe if it was sunny out, he'd have been in better spirits.    He was much better by the time we finally rolled into Hot Springs. You gotta love the rare occasion where the trail actually goes right through the town. We were also excited to find out just how many people were there. Burn, Xena (Joy), Bloody Cactus, Castro, Georgia (whom I hadn't seen since Day 3), Tailwind, and a whole lot more that I had never met before. K-Less, Willow, Sweet Cheeks, Satori, Shinobi, etc etc etc. It made for an amazing night at the local bar, the Paddler's Pub (right on the trail). I also met Baltimore Jack, a guy who has thru-hiked the trail 8 or 9 times in the past 10 years or something like that. I thanked him for this re-supply list that he has posted online, from which I had taken many notes.    I also heard some bad news from Burn today. Brother Nature is off the trail. This is one of the guys I had been in contact with online before leaving for the trail. Apparently he had hurt himself and was no longer hiking. I feel really bad about it; I"ll have to look him up next time I'm at a computer.    I can see why people tried warning me about towns before I left. They are black holes just suckin' in every hiker, making it almost impossible to leave.    I don't think I'll be making back to the trail tomorrow.