Date: 2014-05-09
From: Roan Mountain, TN

To: bitter end
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: overcast clouds

AT day 34 FridayBefore I write this journal entry I have to say hiking with a 35 pound backpack is hard. It's hard to go up and down mountains. It's hard to be dirty all the time. It's hard to deal with: blisters, throbbing feet and knees, no running water, no toilets, sleeping on the ground, walking through rain and mud, and relying on other people to get you to a store where you can get food. With that being said, I wouldn't trade places with anyone right now (ok maybe someone somewhere tropical- but you know what I mean), because even with all the crap we deal with we have very good luck and amazing friends! But please remember that what we are doing isn't easy before reading the rest of this journal or you will think hiking the AT is a piece of cake!Today we had the best breakfast I have ever eaten! The hostel we stayed at, Mountain Harbour, offers a breakfast up the main house where the B&B is. Imagine a beautiful B&B with antiques, fancy decorations, tablecloths, china and real silverware. Now picture a bunch of hikers sitting on said antiques and at tables with china! A slight contrast from the rock we are used to cooking on and the log we sit on to eat! That's how Mountain Harbour operates. They allow the stinky hikers to partake in their breakfast with the other guests. And it is awesome! They had everything including fresh fruit, biscuits, homemade apple butter and jam, homemade muffins, pergatory eggs, ham, sausage, pancakes with honey and pecans and breakfast quesadillas! Everything was fantastic! I mean seriously nothing was even mediocre! What a treat for hungry hikers!After breakfast we tried to decide what to do because of my messed up feet. I wasn't sure if walking on them was going to be a good idea but I didn't want to screw up our schedule. They seemed to be getting better being out of my boots. So I thought maybe taking a day off to let them air out would be a good thing. Jon and Kent had said they'd take a day off too, but I could tell that wasn't what they wanted to do. Plus, it was a beautiful day and I felt bad not hiking on such a good day (it ended up raining on us, but not too terribly). Jon decided to ask the owners if they did slack packing shuttles. Turns out they do! We decided to utilize that service so that we still got miles in, but without packs so my feet wouldn't hurt so bad. I had bought gauze. So I slathered petroleum jelly all over my feet, wrapped the gauze around my toes and ball of my foot, duct taped it on and sucked it up! The owner dropped us off about 14 miles north (trail miles) and we were to walk south back to the hostel. The next day they would bring us back to where we were dropped off and we continue on our way north. While we were hiking, it was pretty cool because we saw so many people going north! One such guy asked if we were expecting some friends. He had said there was a couple looking for me who were bringing me some sandals. What!?!? He said they were a mike or do back hiking south as well. We figured out that it had to be Me Blister and Singing Sister! Jon ran ahead to try to catch them. When we finally caught up with them I was speechless. Nancy (Singing Sister) had brought me a pair of Teeva Hiking Sandals to try out!!! They had seen my pathetic post about my feet hurting and drove all the way out to the trail and were hiking south to intercept us going north to give me sandals AND carry my pack!!! What they didn't count on was that we were hiking south that day. Thankfully they inquired about us and had turned around to head back to their car before getting all the way to the hostel! Needless to say, I was so thankful for their kindness. They had even brought us all root beer as a treat! So caring. They are truly some of the most quality people I know. While we were chatting, they invited us back to their house for dinner, showers and a bed for the night. They were planning on doing a hiker feed on Saturday so they could bring us back to the trail in the morning. How could we say no? Even though we still had about nine miles to go and they only had two or so back to the car, they said they'd wait for us! Amazing! We tried to hurry, but of course going south we kept seeing our friends and chatting. And since we didn't have heavy packs, we actually took a side trail (adding extra miles) to see a beautiful waterfall! It was so enjoyable. We really had a great time. Going south doesn't mean we got to go downhill the whole way, just FYI. We actually did have a three mile uphill section that would have been downhill had we gone the right direction. But I'm not complaining! The terrain overall wasn't hard. And we skirted a river for lots of it. It was really nice walking! Finally, we made it to the road crossing where Kent and Nancy were waiting for us. They drove us to the hostel so we could grab our stuff and we headed to their house. Nancy whipped us up some smoothies as a before dinner snack! They were delicious! She then made us spaghetti, meatballs, salad, corn in the cob and garlic bread! It was delicious! Two great meals in one day! We felt so lucky!Nancy found me a bucket to soak my feet in with hot water and hydrogen peroxide. They let us all take showers and even washed our clothes too. Kent Wilson had to run to the store so we all tagged along to grab a few things too. I loaded up on anything that could help any foot condition you can imagine. I really wanted to get some toe socks, but they didn't have any. I did get some synthetic socks, however, just to see if they'd air out more than my wool socks do. After a long and wonderful day, we all finally retired to our beds! Once again, we had a great day!