Date: 2013-04-27
From: Meadow Campsite

To: Kincora Hostel
Miles today: 12.6

Day Fifty - Campsite by meadow to Kincora Hostel I awoke to the sounds of Bard Owls talking to one another saying "who cooks for you, who cooks for you". It made me want hot food! When I got up it was cold, freezing cold. There was ice crystals where the condensation on my tarp should have been but I was happy that it was a sunny morning and that it would be warmer soon. I was starting to feel foolish for telling Hobo how uneasy I felt about the campsite but then he told me about the horrible nightmare he had last night and I felt justified. As we hiked away I felt happy to be able to hike this trail but within minutes we were going up and I felt like I had hiked enough up for awhile. Seriously, although it is hard work climbing mountains all day it is much more of a mental battle to do this than a physical one. We use a guide book that shows us the elevation gains but doesn't show the little stuff so quite often I've looked at the guide and have it in my head what the day will be like but then as I hike it ends up being different. It is so hard to psych yourself into going up when you think you should be going down. If finding water and making sure I had enough food weren't a priority I would just stop looking at the guide but it has valuable info that I need on a daily basis. After I got past a few little ups and got it in my head that there was a giant up coming later today things got better. We stopped for a morning break at an amazing campsite. It was alongside a river that had a swing hanging from a tree just over the water. It was supposed to be a fifteen minute break but quickly turned into forty minutes. Next we hiked to Laurel Fork Falls and through the Gorge and it was awesome! There were rock scrambles and rock steps that made it more difficult but it was so beautiful that it was worth it. The extra time and effort spent getting there did tire me out though and the big up was next. Hobo lost his balance when he was stepping over a tree that had fallen across the trail and totally turtled (when you fall backwards on your pack and can't move)! It was hilarious and of course I took a picture! We started up in the heat of the day and the sun was beating down on us. The switchbacks made things more bearable but it still took forever to get up and I had to stop several times. We even added extra breaks in besides our pack off breaks and pee breaks and lunch breaks, we added a google "who cooks for you" break to find out what type of owl we had heard earlier. It's amazing how many types of breaks a person needs when they are climbing a mountain. I felt like the trail was messing with me because we would get in sight of the top above us but then the trail would curve around to a higher mountain and continue up. I thought it would never end and almost ran out of water before the top. Finally we made it and stopped at a spring for more water. The sun that had been beating down on us the whole way up disappeared behind clouds making the way down even easier. Sometimes the trail down is just as hard as the way up but not today! It was a perfect trail and we raced down to the bottom. It still seemed like a long way down and when I commented on it Hobo laughed and said that he wished he had recorded my comments on the way up so he could play them back to me now and remind me of how far it really was. I just laughed! He was right! We decided that we wanted real food so when we got to a highway crossing we hitch hiked into town. This is the first time I've had to thumb a ride to get somewhere every other time someone has offered or a shuttle has been waiting. It didn't take long before a pickup truck pulled over and the driver said we could get in the back. That's when I noticed all the Appalachian Trail stickers, turns out he and his wife (Footloose &Fancy Free 05) had started to hike the trail in 2005 and are finishing it up two hundred miles at a time during their holidays each year. Thanks for the ride Footloose! The town is so small that there aren't any restaurants or even any diners so we had to go to McDonald's but we aren't complaining! I even bought extra to hike out with me. It was almost time for us to hitch a ride back to the trail when I heard someone call my name, it was Dreamer. I asked him how he got here and he said that he was with Bob Peoples. Awesome, another trail legend that I wanted to meet but thought that because we had already passed his hostel I had misses out. Bob is legendary for maintaining his section of the trail, he organizes 100 volunteers (hikers he signs up at trail days) and has trail maintenance projects pre planned for them to work on. He is the one responsible for making the mountains easier to climb with all the switchbacks he has added and he is also one of the reasons the trail gets longer and longer with each year. Needless to say I was happy to walk over to his vehicle and thank him for all his work and for making Roan Mountain an enjoyable hike. Right away he offered to give us a ride and offered us a place to stay for the night at Kincora Hostel (Kincora is Celtic for kinship of the heart). I told him that I would love to but that I have a dog (many hostels don't allow dogs), he offered to put me in a separate bunk house so that the dog could stay with me. How awesome is that! So instead of just a hot meal, I am clean, my clothes are clean and we have a ride right to the trailhead in the morning (and I'm pretty sure he will make a stop for breakfast for us)!Confessions of a Thruhiker:"I waited the whole time we were out there to get to a real toilet."Trouble"The best things in life are not things." Taken from a sticker on "the Bounce Box"