Date: 2014-04-14
From: pecks corner shelter

To: I-40 underpass
Miles today: 22.8
Weather: light rain

With the threat of bad weather moving in we planned on not planning how far we would go, only play by ear. After 20+ yesterday we had origially thought to go a short 13 mile day then a 10 to get to standing bear hostel to wash up and resupply. With fog overhead we started off down the trail hoping for the rain to hold off as long as it could. Over the hills and through the woods we made our way along down the trail when i noticed some debri off to the right. I stopped in my track and pulled out my guide book. This was wreckage of a plane that ran into the mountain. Captain took pictures and said he found the missing plane. There was not too much left, twisted up aluminum all wadded together. Scary to think about those last few seconds when they knew they were gonna crash. I hope it was over quick. We made it to cosby nob shelter by one o clock. That was our thirteen miles. We ate lunch with a young guy that was planning to take some time off the trail to rest his sore knee and drink plenty of beer! Sounds like just exactly what the doctor would order. Still not raining we moved on to stay at the laat shelter in the park. All downhill we made good time but it did start to rain. Not the rain that seems like a firetruck hose is blasting you and your boots fill with water but the kind of rain that just makes things wet. Thats fine with me if it would stay like that and it did until just before the shelter, thats when it stopped. Sweet. As we came up to the shelter it was obvious that the pile of youngsters inside were smoking medical marijuana. Seeing how niether captain phillips or i smoke we chatted with a couple guys outside for a bit. One of the guys said he had hoped to stay at the hostel only three miles down the trail but it was full. I thought in my little head, cell service? We can call people from here? That means accomodations can be made. That means we can get places. That means we can go to places with showers and food. I pulled out my guide book to see a shuttle service that would take us to a town called newport tn that has 'hotels, restaurants, and walmart'. Dam! Times are good. I made a call, told the nice lady we were two miles from I-40 and that we would be there in no more than 45 minutes. She would be there to meet us. Dam! Times are good. Now the only bad thing was that shortly after talking to this lady we came upon a huge dumptruck and a bulldozer on a dirt road. We stopped to chat with the guys for a quick second and i asked if i could drive the dumptruck. He said 'haaayyyll yea, yaaall can drahve it on up overn that ther heel if yaaall waanna'. Shit im pretty sure he was serious but we had to meet the shuttle so i would not be able to drive my first huge dumptruck. Dam, conflict of interest. We crossed back and forth over a very cool stream with lots of big rocks making for plenty of waterfalls. Finally out to the road we met up with the shuttle that took us to town we are staying at the motel 6 with the sagebrush saloon next door. A fine eatery with plenty of calories for hungry hikers. The funniest thing is that i am the translator between a fella from england that i can barely understand and heavily accented southern waitresses that i can hardly understand. Pretty funny. We stuffed our bellies, did laundry, showered (showered first), and put ourselves to bed. A good day overall and safely out of the bad weather coming.