Date: 2005-04-08
From: No Business Shelter

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: light rain

Up early for a change. Had everything packed up before setting foot outside my tent. No rain. Everything dry. Had a few pieces of debris laying around and pack was open. Cue the rain. Rain fell. I hurriedly stuffed things in the pack and tried to break the tent down before things got too wet. Total ambush. Just when it was all dry too, but oh well. Destination Erwin, TN for the usual town chores - laundry, shower, groceries, food. Ate breakfast in the shelter and headed out. As soon as I did, as luck would have it, the rain quit. Foiled again. Short hike down to the road where Miss Janet happened to be dropping off some hikers. Got a ride into Erwin and Miss Janet's house. For the uninformed, Miss Janet runs a hostel out of her house. I'd heard plenty about her all around and about the trail, not one thing bad. She crammed me and about 5 other hikers and packs and one wet dog into her pickup. Miss Janet wasn't sure whether or not there would be room at her place, but said to just come to the house anyway, take a shower, dry out, do laundry and wait and see how many folks left that day. Sounded fine to me. She dropped us all off and ferried some of the others (just in for the afternoon) around town. I had a leisurely day of eating lunch, catching a lift to the Food Lion with a thru hiker from last year just passing through to say hey to Miss Janet, laundering, showering, and catching a brief glimpse of my email. Miss Janet then ferried some folks, including me, to Johnson City to the outfitter. There, mind you, it was still up in the air as to whether or not I was going to be a paying customer at that point. Miss Janet goes out of her way to help out the hikers, no doubt. If there were such a thing as a trail saint, she'd be cannonized. Hung out with the dozen or so hikers around the place including one of the most intense people I've ever met- Bramble. He's on trailjournals as well, check it out. If it resembles the man at all, it should be interesting. We had a little jam session on his guitar in the local diner round dinner time. Most amusing for us and the half dozen other hikers there in our little corner, probably not as much for the few others there, but we did get a smile or two out of them. On a side note, I've run into 4 people with the backpacker guitars in the last 2 days. Mine sits at my parents' house. I was happy to get some play time in, but there definitely was some rust build-up in the fingers over the past month. I did manage to score a bunk, so it made life a little easier. Miss Janet: "Goodnight children!" Bunkroom full of kids: "Goodnight Mom!" Lights out.We will conclude today's entry with some reflections on the past month of travels. Weather. Wasn't expecting so cold for so long. Surprise. Looking back, I would definitely make some different choices as far as gear is concerned. Those who have been following along might have a couple ideas, but I won't rehash here. All said, I still wouldn't change my start date. Just enough people to begin with, but not a zoo. As time has gone by, I have passed people and have been passed. More so the latter, but I now seem to be in a larger cloud of hikers. I suppose this is the nature of things and won't get too worked up over it. Speaking of zoos, I've seen far fewer creatures than I expected. Maybe I just don't get out early enough, but I've seen nothing but the little gray birds with white beaks flying about. Seen some robins, some squirrels - even red ones and mice. Thought I'd at least have seen a turkey by now. Oh wait, I did see a deer in the Smokies, but no bear. Been in a dang bear sanctuary even. Maybe it's just that no self-respecting bear would be out in weather like this.People. About like I expected. Just like a big box of crayone, there's all types and flavors out here. Pretty refreshing, actually. Trail name. Okay, so I gave it a shot. I considered naming myself before I left, but nothing really shivered me timbers. So, it's a trail name I says, let the trail name me. Figured I'd do something ridiculous worthy of much ribbing or say something dumb and then it would be done with. Well, I did both, but no one was looking. So, out went that. I suppose something having to do with the pain and suffering of the poison oak/ivy/nasty might have been in the works somewhere, as word traveled up the trail of my ability to change color (bright red), but I don't think anyone had the heart to try calling me rashie, oakie, ivy, poisoned, or anything like that. One dude called me oakie once, but I looked at him real mean-like and it wasn't revisited...but I digress. So, guess what? My friends, they all call me Porter. It's my name, it works for me. It's how I've been introducing myself since day one. It's how I'm known, and how I most likely will be known in these here parts. Let's face it, I'm just not into the trail name game. It's fun for some folks, like a nickname or an alias, and that's just fine. It's just not my style. Big deal for some. Apparently for some folks, you're not a thru-hiker without a trail name and I think that's sad, but so be it. My friends from home and my friends on the trail will all know me by the same name. Nothing wrong with that, eh. Besides, I doubt there are many people out here going by Porter anyway, so there won't be much confusion. I'm just keepin' it easy for everybody. Sometimes when I introduce myself, people will ask, "Is that your real name or your trail name?" My answer: "yes". Sometimes I get strange looks...But before you confuse me with some kind of trail revolutionary - like a little Vladimir Lenin in Gore-Tex or something, I will mention that the trail-nameless crowd is a pretty good sized one. I'm just, as they say, keepin' it real.