Date: 2009-04-27
From: Erwin, TN Uncle Johnny's Nolichucky Hostel

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 123.1
Weather: clear sky

Hello!!! Sorry it has taken so long to write, but a lot has happened in the past few weeks. So first of all, the sun finally came out! For real! Actually it started over a week ago as we went over my favorite part of the trail to date. We hiked over Roan Mountain and then over the Highlands of North Carolina/Tennessee. These are balds, big mountaintops that are basically fields. They are partly natural, partly maintained, but incredible. The trail follows the ridge and you can see the path meandering ahead for miles and miles and see forever in every direction. It's pretty amazing.Now for the bad part, I hurt my ankle coming over Roan Mountain. As you may or may not know I'm hiking in New Balance trail runners, so I don't have great ankle support from my shoes. I slipped and collapsed on my ankle. I hiked the rest of that day without too much trouble (though I kept rolling my ankle... eek!) and didn't realize what had happened until I got to the shelter. That's when I noticed that my ankle was swollen and black and blue... BUT, the shelter was awesome so that distracted me. Overmountain Shelter is its name, and it's an old red barn converted to a shelter. It was left standing when the Forest Service bought the land as a corridor for the trail a long time ago, and now is a really cool shelter overlooking a beautiful valley.So the next day we hiked 10 miles to 19E and got picked up by Miss Scarlett and Newt's wonderful parents who drove us to Boone, NC for the night! We stayed at one of Newt's college friends houses and barbecued and ate lots and lots of food. And watched a movie, which was strangely stimulating... Boone is a cool town. SO, next I got a ride up to Kincora hostel and I spent four days there resting my ankle, icing it and making sure I didn't do any real damage. Eventually the swelling went down and it didn't hurt to walk on, but I went to the doctor just to make sure. I'd heard too many stories of thru-hikers walking on broken bones for a week before realizing it... Clearly the xray was negative so I took off! Hiked the few days to Damascus and here I am.Damascus is a funny town. The trail goes down main street. There's a free hostel run by the Methodist church, so thats where I stayed last night. Did I mention theres a lot of churches in Damascus? It's so hot I might just stay here another day.So walking is going really well. I was behind my friends from Kincora to here. It was really nice to walk almost alone for a few days and not feel the pressures of the group on where to stay and stuff. I met some new people and have been really enjoying just living the trail. I'm not here to walk to maine, but to walk the legnth of the path and see where it takes me. I'm here to see what I can see and find what I can find.I'm walking for the freedom! To walk when I feel like walking and camp when I feel like camping. There's a lot to discover on the trail and every day is new. It's hard to walk sometimes, but its still exciting. I don't think of it as a long adventure, its just what we do. I dunno. Let's keep walking north...