Date: 2015-05-02
From: Road to Erwin/Uncly Johnnys

To: Red Fork Road
Miles today: 0.0

We went about 13.8 today- not adding the mileage above because it is messed up. A hotel lobby full of hikers eating waffles and donuts and drinking coffee was the scene this morning. We had a 9:15 shuttle back to the trailhead. We could have opted for the 7:00 am shuttle, but none of us were feeling that ambitious. At 9:40 sharp, the shuttle pulled up. It was Uncle Johnny himself, a bonafide trail-ebrity. Uncle Johnny is a hostel owner and has hiked many thousands of miles himself, back in the day. He is a big man, long grey hair and beard. He waited patiently as hikers juggled backpacks and squeezed into the van. I got to ride shotgun. We passed by the great Nolichucky River. Uncle Johnny told us that the raft guides say the translation means "river of death", but a closer translation is "river with its own mind". I looked at the giant churning beast and decided that both translations were probably true. We arrived at Uncle Johnnys hostel and gear store. It sits right at the trailhead. They had a hook scale to weigh packs and I had just offloaded a bunch of stuff so I was anxious to see if I was finally below 30 pounds. We heaved my pack into the hook(it took two of us) and the scale said 37.5 pounds. What!!!! I thought back to Neels Gap when I last weighed the pack. It was a floor scale and I had a hard time getting the whole pack on it. It only went up to 50 pounds so I couldn't do the weigh me then me with the pack thing. I have offloaded a lot since then, so I guess I have been hauling more than a 40 pound pack this whole way. That explains a lot. Like how slow I am, like how when people pick up my pack they say holy cow girl- what you got in there? Good question. When I send my winter stuff home I'll weigh in much less!The trail started on a bridge that went over the Nolichucky. I said Hi trail. I'm back. The trail said I don't care. We crossed a railroad track and then the trail went up into the woods. It was a pretty climb, not steep, for most of the day. I got off on a wrong trail for a little while but found my way back pretty quickly. A couple of annoyed hikers had followed me then passed me on the wrong trail so they went even further before they realized it was a bogus trail. I saw lots of big fat slimy slugs today. The flowers were pretty and I saw some new kinds of plants I had not noticed before. The trail is a study in every possible shade of green, balanced with some brown and splashed with the bright colors of the flowers.When I reached Indian Grave Gap, I saw a guy packing up his truck. He had been giving hikers oranges, brownies, water. He was all out. D.No and C.Shell were there, they had split the last brownie. We sat there chatting for a few minutes after the trail angel left and another guy pulled up. He got out to put on his 4 wheel drive. His name was Rob. He was headed up the gravel mountain road. He looked at us and asked we wanted a beer. Um- yeah! He said he was headed up to beauty spot, a bald up ahead to sit with his dog Booger and hand out beers and fruit. We thanked him and drank our beers then we shot up the mountain to see if we could get another at Beauty Spot. Our climb came out of the woods and up on to a gorgeous bald with views all around. It was about a 3 and a half mile climb, and when we finally got there, Rob and Booger were still there. We snagged 3 more beers and some grapes and sat talking with him, Sweet Time( more about her soon!) and a couple of other people. Sweet Time was wearing a necktie, a souvenir from Miss Janet, another trail-ebrity. Booger the dog was in high alert when Rob grabbed the last beer for himself. Apparently, Booger loves beer. He won't beg it from anyone else, but when Rob gets a beer Booger gets some too. Rob held his hand out and poured beer in it and Booger lapped it up. We hiked out, contemplating going up Unaka Mountain. It was still early, about 5, but we found a really pretty campsite and decided to stay. A southbound hiker stopped and chatted with us and told us about a friendly pig on the other side of Unaka, so we were going to look for her the next day. We pitched our tents, made a really nice fire and chatted about children and grandchildren and other fun stuff till dark. Nice day.