Date: 2021-08-29
From: Unofficial Campsite on Unaka Mountain 

To: No Business Shelter 
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: clear sky

I forgot to mention a few days back that when I arrived at Mountain Harbor Hostel, the innkeeper informed me that she did not have enough guests booked to make their famous breakfast the next day. I feigned a stoic resignation while quietly dying inside and then she said that she was just joking and that four young hikers had been there that morning and asked her to play a joke on us and say ¢no breakfast¢.   So congrats Polaroid, Goldbond, Lois and Clark: you¢re ploy worked on me!It got cold just after sundown last night as the wind picked up at 5000 feet. But around 11:30 the wind completely died off and it was soooo quiet up there. No tree frogs, no crickets, no flies, no bugs at all, no traffic sounds, no planes. It was creepy silent. At one point I looked off into the woods and saw a yellow light bobbing up and down. I stared and wondered for a few minutes if it was g one of those soul-stealing Native American ghosts that a ¢friend¢ (Daron) told me about - stalking through the woods in search of my liver. But being that the light never moved at all, I figured that it was a far off light on another ridge. So I went back to sleep - but I woke up and checked every once in a while. Can¢t be too sure. I lit out ahead of Quiksilver at 7 am with the goal in my head of reaching Erwin, Tn - some 14 miles up trail - by noon. A few miles in I hiked through some formed pasture to a place called The Beauty Spot. It is mostly clear of trees and gives commanding views to the mountains and valleys surrounding it. Seeing the fog fill the valleys like a cotton sea was very pretty on this sunny morning. I stopped for 10 minutes to soak it all in. The hike down into Erwin wasn¢t a straight descent, there were lots of little roller coaster hills to bob up and over before getting to the creek that I followed for the last few miles into town. I crossed the bridge over the Nolichucky river and crossed the street to Uncle Johnies Hostel at 11:58.Uncle Johnies is another hostel known as a ¢trail icon¢ and though I didn¢t tour it to attest to it¢s state of cleanliness, I can tell you the staff was extremely hospitable and let me sit in the shade out front, charge my phone, and eat some food. I did buy two Gatorade¢s, a Coke, a Klondike bar, and a new bear bag hanging kit in the 90 minutes I was there. So I was a customer! Quiksilver arrived about 12:45 and then I got back on trail at 1:30 for the long climb out of Erwin. I told myself I was going to take it easy for the afternoon as it was near 90 degrees with high humidity. But I rarely listen to my rational self, and went ahead and hiked the 6.3 uphill miles by 4 pm. I did meet three section hikers who were headed past me going down to Irwin. The last of which was weirded out that she had hiked over 7 hours and hadn¢t seen anyone until she saw me. (And getting a look at me, undoubtedly became even more weirded out).So another 20 miler in the books with either two or three ahead by Wednesday. It looks like (Tropical Storm by then) Ida¢s path is just on the Tennessee-North Carolina border and is arriving Tuesday evening. We¢re monitoring the storm and plan to be under a roof in Hot Springs come Wednesday night. Tomorrow promises to be another hot and muggy day as we¢ve got 2000 feet of elevation gain ahead of us over Big Bald 11 miles out. Hope y¢all had a pleasant weekend!