Date: 2007-04-14
From: Kincora Hiker's Hostel

To: Braemer Castle
Miles today: 8.9

Heh, that crafty Widowmaker connived me out of a zero day. I was all for staying at Kincora this morning - it has a homey feel, Bob is a great guy, good bunks..."But no one you know is gonna be here man," said Widowmaker."Yeah, but I really need to rest my feet.""We'll just go 9 miles to Hampton, TN and rest at the Braemer Castle." White Crow had told us it was one of his favorite places. $10 gets you a bunk, $15 a private room with linens.I did want to make miles between Kincora and Damascus."Just do it, man. You don't want to be stuck here all day. Take a zero in a town, where there will at least be things to do."He had a point. So screw my feet, I did it. Now Baltimore Jack had written in his resupply article on whiteblaze.net that the 50 miles between Kincora and Damascus was "easy." I don't know if that was meant to be a cruel joke, or was just wrong, because after Laurel Fork Falls, the trail climbs from 2400' to 3700' in 2 miles. It's called Pond Flats, and it was the hardest fucking mountain - it never ended. I arrived at the summit, completely beat, and was very glad when the trial began descending.But then it began climbing again! This time it was even steeper - the trail went right up the side of the mountain - forget about switchbacks or any sort of graded trail - it was sheer vertical drop. I was so tired at the end of that climb I kinda just sat down and, well, I didn't do anything - too tired to even think straight.Luckily the other side was all downhill, and it was graded and easy, but I was glad to have arrived at the highway. I stuck out my thumb at a parking lot, and waited for someone to pick me up.No one picked me up. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. Shit, I'm not walking the 2 miles into Hampton. C'mon, somebody pick me up!Finally, a guy came running down the trail to the parking lot where he had a car parked."Where you headed?""Hampton.""Hop in!"Awesome. The guy, whose name was Marty, hiked the PCT a while back, so he understood thru-hikers, and was happy to give me a ride. As we were driving down the highway, I saw Widowmaker walking along the side. We picked him up - he had zoomed on ahead of me as we were ascending Pond Flats. Marty drove us to the Braemer Castle, owned and operated by Sutton Brown, who also owns the general store across the street, good for long-term resupply.Widowmaker and I got private rooms, and then Marty drove us to Pizza Plus, and we each had a medium pie with garlic bread and cheese. Incredible. Sorta. Okay, the food actually kinda sucked, but whatever. We couldn't finish the food, I then bought food at the general store, at an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (over 1000 calories), watched a ventriloquist comic on Comedy Central, took an amazing shower that couldn't be beat, and now I'm in bed scribbling down to-days' journal entry and waiting for my laundry to dry... which should be about right now.Hope to make it to Damascus in 2 days - Marty says at least 15 miles of it is just ridgeline. I trust him over Baltimore Jack.Earlier to-night while myself, three other thru-hikers without trail names named Ben and Amanda and Patrick, were watching TV, and Widowmaker took off his shoes. Holy crap did the room smell. We were all laughing so hard it was so bad - Widowmaker left to wash his feet.And the smell worsened, and lingered for 10 minutes. The other hikers had to stick their heads out the window. It was pretty incredible. Widowmaker finally came back, his feet smelling of flowery soap, and then the odor went away quite quickly. Behold the power of feet!