Date: 2012-05-04
From: Bald Mountain Shelter

To: Erwin, TN at Uncle Johnny's Hostel
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: light rain

Today's goal was Erwin, TN for a resupply.  I had enough food to scrap together a "meal" just in case but it wasn't too far, I planned to get up early, and I really wanted better food.  My last resupply was essentially out of a gas station mini mart and enough was enough.  Real food, please.  My meals of late have consisted of pop tarts for breakfast, a couple snickers, a pay day, an almond joy, some ritz crackers, a package of six oreos, a slim jim, some pretzels, and other garbage for lunch, and bleached pasta with cheese sauce for dinner.  Some of these towns are pretty small and has me dreaming about walking down to Philz for a Philharmonic with soy and honey plus a scone from Nabolom, skipping back for a few donuts and a cappuccino on the back porch of Dynamo.  Next stop would be across the street to grab a sandwich at Pal's for a roadtrip down to Firestone in SLO for a tri-tip sandwich outside, and ending up in socal and letting Masa decide what I am having for dinner.  Ok, dream world aside, I was making it to town for a prepared meal and knew that Uncle Johnny had a 6pm dinner shuttle I couldn't miss.  I was on the trail by 8am and the cloudy morning suddenly turned into a thick mist.  My cork trekking poles were soaked and everything was pretty clammy.  The blowing wind was driving big drips of water off of the leaves and I decided to put on the Packa to be safe.  The mist slowly thinned as a descended a few thousand feet and looking back from High Rocks, the peak was totally socked in looking mighty nasty.  I found a functional banana chair up on the top of High Rocks and took a quick snack break, reclining in hiker luxury, while watching the weather swallow up all the tallest peaks on the horizon.  I moved on and hiked all afternoon in solitude until I came to a road crossing and found Red Fury, Bare Boots, and another hiker attempting a slack-hitch.  They wanted their bags to go to town for the last eleven miles while they hiked in.  Bare Boots was going to be the bag chaperone and I joked with them that I would probably see them tomorrow.  We had this whole conversation while standing in the middle of the road.  Ten people a day probably come through here and I thought their odds were pretty slim.  I headed back into the forest for a bunch of up and them even more down to the Nolichucky River.  A few hours later, I hear a hoot behind me and see Red and her hiker friend running down the trail.  As they skip pass, Red says, "See you tomorrow," mocking my original statement.  The hours melt away and I start to hear the river, the cars, dogs barking, lawn mowers, and all sorts of other town-related noises.  But there are easily two more miles to go and I am teased by the relative distances.  This must have been what it was like for folks incarcerated on Alcatraz.  Only I was moving.  I had several conversations, well, really they were motivational speeches that turned into plea bargains, with my feet.  So much pain.  Nobody ever talks about it anymore because you know everybody else hurts just as bad a you.  Complaining doesn't do a bit of good out here.  And I am thankful that my feet are in such good shape.  I don't have any blisters, sores, rashes, burns, or ingrown nails and you see people with all of this stuff.  All the time.  I am certainly beating the hell out of them in a daily basis but they spring back (I credit the hammock) and are good for another 15 miles before they get angry again.  I checked into the hostel, got a shower, and finally met Shine.  He has another ukulele out here but his signature in the log books has a very realistic 5-string depicted, drone tuner and resonator included.  Turns out his uke is tuned DGBD similiar to a banjo, but which is almost a baritone uke too.  Funny.  I went to dinner with Sackajewea, Chatty Cathy, Sandstorm, and two other hikers whose names escape me.  Two giant burritos, a quesadilla, and two liters of sweet tea filled the hole.  I resupplied at this crappy little store similar to a kmart in scope but a dollar store quality.  Three and a half more days of garbage food until the next town.  Sigh.  I would love some dehydrated peas, carrots, mushrooms, and some fresh fruit.  An avocado and a cantaloupe would make my day right now.  I did my laundry and somehow lost a sock.  I felt like the count was a little off when I put everything in the washer but didn't realize it until I transferred over to the dryer.  I found the missing sock out on the railing of the washroom and somebody must have felt that the owner would see it there.  Red Fury pointed me in the right direction after I had searched around with my back-up headlamp and had asked around.  She looked like she was about to do the next load and I asked if my dirty sock could join their laundry party.  I was stoked when she said yes, but really, what kind of person would say no to a request like that?  On my way out to the fire to socialize with the party kids for a bit, I ran into Seminole.  He was pretty far behind me and I asked him how he got here.  He told me that he had done a 36.9-mile day.  Nobody on staff was around to give him anything so I gave him the tour.  He needed a place to set up his hammock but the property was small and there were few trees.  Plus, there were tents everywhere and you needed to have gotten there early to even have a chance at a spot for a hammock.  I offered him a bunk in my room (there were four, and I had rented them all for me) as long as he got a shower.  We talked a bit afterward and found out our interests overlap.  I may have even talked him into moving to Tahoe next winter.  The drunken hikers were running amock outside and it was nice to have a considerate, thoughtful, sober bunkmate to chat with.  The rain unexpectedly started falling around 3:30am and I felt bad for everybody camping outside since there were very few rainflys up when I first went to sleep.  I was met with wild squeals as I went out to grab my shoes from the porch and imagined how much grace I would retain in that same situation before dozing off for the night.