Date: 2016-04-16
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: US 19E, Roan Mountain
Miles today: 9.2

Day 36I awoke and quietly got ready in the loft as the University of Florida students snoozed nearby. On the other side of them was Lost Gear, an African-American, retired Marine who was doing a 3-day section hike with an eye toward a thru-hike with fellow Marines some day. He was out of water and didn't have a filter, so I hooked him up with some filtered water and enjoyed our brief conversation.I then climbed the incredibly scenic Little Hump and Hump Mountains. As I climbed, I started channeling my inner Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I imagined being Mitty (played by Ben Stiller) as he climbs the Himalayas in search of Sean O'Connell (played by Sean Penn), who is on a summit photographing a rare snow leopard. Halfway up Hump Mountain, I stopped for a selfie. I glanced at it and asked myself, "When did you join the Taliban?"Later on, I met a hiker named Chopper who got that name from having to be medically airlifted to a hospital while hiking. They told him he had drank plenty of water, but not enough electrolytes. He was a huge proponent of putting electrolyte tablets in your drinking water while hiking, and I've been doing so ever since. At mile 390.1, Doll Flats, I left North Carolina for the last time on my AT journey.After a 9.2 mile day, I arrived at US 19E (Roan Mountain) and hiked .3 miles west to the Mountain Harbour Bed and Breakfast/Hiker Hostel. Upon arrival at the hostel, Hightop and his dog were kind enough to share their pizza with me. Sharing the hostel with us were Bevo (from Austin, Texas), Not a Bear (has a black backpack that sometimes other hikers mistake for a bear), Ptarmigan (named after a Colorado hiking club...and a bird), Morning Lori (from Maine), and Cactus (from Dallas). Cactus got that name by falling on a prickly pear cactus while hiking in the hill country of Texas. The cactus needles stuck into him all over his rear end and thighs. In severe pain, he dropped his shorts and underwear and bent over so that a friend/fellow hiker could pull out the imbedded cactus needles. Unbeknownst to Cactus, once all the needles were gone, the "friend" continued pulling out his butt hairs for several minutes, as others looked on smiling. That's just wrong.At the hostel parking lot I ran into Lost Gear, the Marine I had shared a loft with. He offered me a ride into town, where I picked up some groceries at Redi Mart and had a filling steak supper and peanut butter milkshake dessert across the street at Bob's Dairyland. Needing a ride back to the hostel, I approached a young local guy filling up his pickup truck with gas and asked him for a ride. He agreed but said he'd need to clear out a spot for me. We walked to the passenger side and the seat was filled with what appeared to be his life possessions...pictures, glasses, clothes, thermos, lampshade, etc. I helped him move the stuff to the bed of his truck with his other possessions, and felt bad that he was going to this trouble for me. During our 5-minute drive, I learned that he and his girlfriend had just had a fight and that she had kicked him out, along with his stuff. He said, "it was all my fault," to which I thoughtlessly responded, "probably so."Fob