Date: 2005-04-17
From: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)

To: somewhere (I'll fix this soon)
Miles today: 0.0

The big day. Woke up, "beep beep, beep beep, beep beep, bee". Ifumbled for my alarm to avoid waking the whole shelter, and Isucceeded in quieting the beast in only a few seconds, the only twoawake now were myself and Quinn.Sneaking around to pack up hiking gear and hurrying up are two verydifficult things to do at the same time. I somehow finished beforeQuinn. She told me to go ahead and take off, that she would catch up.And I ran, I ran so far away. I thought I was at Roan Mountain twicebefore I actually made it, to find Buzz packing up his tent at thebeginning of the actual ascent. Roan mountain is one tough mountain,it nearly killed me, but I sped over that thing as if my life dependedon making my miles today, and I had sorta convinced myself it did. Not that I really faced death if I didn't resupply, quite theopposite, but if I could convince at least part of my brain that Iabsolutely needed to make the 21.6 mile hike by 4:00, it might be alittle easier to convince my legs to keep going.So I hiked, and every time I crossed paths with a southbounder, almostall of which were either section hikers or tourists, I asked if theyhad seen a girl with pigtails or a pink bandana (Bubbletoes). At firstreport she was about 45 minutes away, then 30, then 20, then 10. Ihad it implanted in my head that I could catch her at overmountainshelter. I knew that overmountain was close, so I picked up the pace. As I neared the bottom of a hill I noticed a blue blazed trailheading off to my left, I picked up the pace. Wanting to save time Iask some tourists who were coming off of the blue blaze where theywere coming from, "Well, I'm from chapel hill"...exhausted andfrustrated, I interrupted, "uh, I meant trail-wise" the man quicklyreplied "oh, just the parking lot". "Is that all that's back there?"I squeeze out in between heavy breaths. "Yeah, just the parking lot".I press on, hurrying up the hill and hoping to make it to overmountainshelter. As every hill passes under me, I think to myself, "jeez,I've either got to hit the shelter or catch up to Bubbletoes soon". Finally roughly an hour past the blue-blaze I cave to curiosity, hurlmy sweat-soaked pack to the ground, plop down on top of it and rip thehandbook from the side pouch. Turns out, the blue blaze did lead toOvermountain shelter. Frustrated but undeterred, I continue up thetrail thinking that if I can't find Bubbletoes, I'll get to that roadcrossing by 4 and hopefully cross paths there.Fast forward to 3:00. By this point I know I'm close. Excitement andsheer exhaustion fuel me, and I'm jogging. I hit Apple House shelter,the occupants stare at the red faced idiot jogging up the trail. Among the starers is Michigan, who I've been leapfrogging for the pastfew weeks. Michigan informs me that he has not left the trail todayand that I must be AHEAD of Bubbletoes, et. al.Finally I take a break.Shortly after I decide to take the break,Captain Patagonia shows up, he's heard from the southbounders that I'mahead, and unfortunately I've blown my element of surprise. He takesoff, and I follow a few feet behind, it's only a short distance to theroad. We throw our packs down and chilled for a while. Red showed upnext.A giant red pickup truck soon showed up, carrying Bubbletoes'Grampa. My huge mile day had paid off. Soon Bubbletoes herself camea hikin' up the trail. We all piled into the truck and were justabout ready to leave a note for Quinn, my fellow ill-conceivedlong-miler, when she showed up. Success!, we were in the truck and onour way to check into the hostel and grab some food faster than youcould say hiker hunger.The "hostel" was really a bed and breakfast, and we ended up tentingon the lawn, which was the plan (it's a bit cheaper). So it was timeto grab some grub. Now, things seemed like they were going OK, butthe problem is we're in the south and it's Sunday, so that meanspretty much nothing is open. After several tries we end up at somelocal short order grill, man, did I miss town food.