Date: 2017-10-20
From: Erwin, Tennessee

To: Erwin, Tennessee
Miles today: 11.1

One of the quirks of the trail is how you can not see someone for months and then they appear around the next corner. That's how it was today, when we encountered Boss and Sweets plugging their way up the hill out of Erwin. I hadn't seen them since, I think, the Wildcats at the northern end of the White Mountains, which was less than a month after leaving Katahdin.We might never have encountered them if we hadn't opted to take up Miss Janet's kind offer to let us slackpack today, which meant we were dropped at Spivey Gap and hiked northbound for the 11 mostly-downhill miles back to Erwin. They said they were aiming to finish on November 12, the day after us, which meant that we might never have seen them since they were hiking at almost exactly the same pace as us but a day behind.This was an unexpected benefit because the slackpack option was primarily to give Sweetblood an easier day while she recovered from the norovirus-like illness she'd been afflicted by a few days earlier. This was also why she spent much of today hiking in a false nose and glasses because, as Miss Janet put it, "nobody can be unhappy wearing a false nose and glasses because anyone walking towards you will smile at you when they see it".We'd been at Miss Janet's house that morning when we got word that Sweetblood, Sriracha and 2am had camped less than five miles out and would be in town by 10am. Once they'd been collected, there was some inevitable faffing around before we got to the trail but none of us were complaining.First we went to Pal's, the most awesome drive-thru diner I'd seen yet in the US -- and this is a country well known for its drive thrus and its diners. How awesome? It's across the road from a Bojangles but Sriracha and Sweetblood were happy for us to go to Pal's and not Bojangles. (Cue: sound of head exploding)There was further awesome faffing when Miss Janet drove the scenic back roads past farms owned by her extended family on the way up Spivey Pass, including to a hidden waterfall. And even once we reached the gap, there was another delay to take a photo. Miss Janet and I were talking about a mutual friend, PCT trail angel Terrie Anderson, who has the habit of mooning everyone as they pose for their photo outside their house in southern California. It seemed only right that we should get a photo of all of us mooning and send it to her. Once we finally got going, we ran into Teatime, who said he was supposed to have met his family in Erwin but they'd cancelled on him. This left him absolutely flat broke and after trying to find some kind of casual work in Erwin, he'd opted to hike to Hot Springs, the next town, and try his luck there. He really was absolutely broke, with barely enough food to make it. But he also explained that he was at that very moment stoned out of his gourd on pot. This was a recurring theme for supposedly broke hikers who exploited trail angels or skipped out without paying -- they always seemed to have money for pot.This in turn took us to No Business Knob shelter. Miss Janet had explained the origin of the name, which offered final conclusive proof that we are in the South: the land all around was owned by one extended clan and this mountain was used to distil moonshine and unless you were family, you had "no business" being there.The rest of the day involved a long descent back down to Erwin, which is where we met Boss and Sweets, who were hiking with Bangles, who I hadn't previously met. About an hour after that, we walked back to our rendezvous with Miss Janet.We'd dwardled because we only had 11 miles to do but Happy Feet had opted to slackpack from Sam's Gap, 24 miles out, and she showed how much she could throw down by arriving only 20 minutes after us. That girl is fast!There's only about five or six of us at Miss Janet's tonight, which makes for a less overwhelming atmosphere and allowed us to get to know her a little better. As befits someone who's been in the hiking community as long as she has, she has a LOT of stories that ranged from funny to sad to strange to disturbing -- and sometimes all those at the same time. We headed to the neighbouring town of Johnson City for an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet and also to find a bank where my ATM card would work. (Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank doesn't work everywhere -- who knew?!)And then we dropped in to Walmart once more so Sriracha and Sweetblood could resupply and discovered that Halloween costumes were now on sale. On the CDT in 2010, we'd finished on November 1 so five of us had hiked the final 60 miles in Halloween costumes and even managed to trick or treat for beer at a trailside farm.We're going to be on the trail for Halloween this year too... I think it has to happen!Life is good.AT fact of the day: Some of the Second Breakfast Club had opted to bail at Spivey Gap after 13 miles because of knee pain and not do the next 11 miles into town. I asked one of them if they were aiming to come back and do the missing miles later and he looked at me, paused meaningfully and said: "Those miles... they are with god now."