Date: 2017-05-23
From: Sarver Hollow Shelter

To: Four Pines Hostel
Miles today: 22.8
Weather: light rain

The rain started just as we woke up this morning, what better motivation to go hiking for the day? The covered porch came in handy and allowed us to get ready out of the rain before heading out into the morning. The rain was very light, enough to wet all the rocks and plants but not enough to soak us. From several rocky outcrops I could see the fog lifting, literally... from view to view it would be higher above the valley below.Though the terrain started smoothly, soon the ridge narrowed and the trail led us across the tops of several rocky outcrops, slick from the morning drizzle. Hiking alone, I ended up falling once, sliding down the rock a bit, unharmed and undamaged. I may seriously have to think about getting different shoes for the whites... these just don't have very much traction.I crossed the Eastern Continental Divide which seperates the water which eventually finds its way to get Atlantic from that which flows to the Gulf of Mexico and I entered into the Atlantic watershed. The trail descended across the side of an exposed ridge which yielded some views of the surrounding mountains towering in every direction as swirls of fog drifted between them.Lookout and I took a quick break at a shelter, the last cover we'd have for the rest of the day before continuing on. I listened to a couple of podcasts and one of them was sponsored by a smoothie company whose advertisments every 15min just made me want a smoothie... cruel torture if you ask me.This section of trail would be beautiful on a clear day, hiking along and between the mountains as we were. I caught Lookout again at a river, the last water we'd have today, and stayed for a few minutes to eat a quick lunch before we tackled the last hill of the day. The 4mi uphill seemed to stretch on forever and the trail got rockier as we ascended, a couple spots requiring a bit of scrambling to navigate. The last section of the ascent was marked with a solitary view, but after passing 4 clearings that all looked like they would be great vistas (all blank white canvases of fog), we gave up guessing which was the labeled view.We finally reached the top, marveled at the fact that according to the signs the ascent from the river to dragon's tooth was 4mi but the descent from dragon's tooth to the river was 5.4mi, and headed out on the short side trail to the tooth. Reaching the vista we found it, as expected, completely fogged in. The slabs of rock jutting into the air were impressive in their own right though, and we climbed halfway up (deciding any further would be too risky with the wet rock) and sat for a few minutes until the wind started to rob us of too much warmth.Just after dragon's tooth we ran into another landmark in our hike, 700 miles! The AT north of dragon's tooth contains some steep sections across several rock faces which were a bit treacherous with the wet conditions. We had been lucky all morning, the rain had never materialized into anything more than a sprinkle, but it still made for slow going. We used our first ladders of the trail, rebar driven into the rock face to form rungs, but the smooth metal was even more slick than the rocks.We laughed as we passed a sign warning the ascending hikers that the next section of trail was 'strenuous' and hiked down to the road. From there we followed the green pine tree blazes on the road to the hostel which was a 3-bay garage dedicated to hikers. Inside were a bunch of couches, a couple beds, a couple recliners, some cots, a fridge, stove, bathroom and shower, and wood stove. Anywhere flat was fair game, so Lookout and I both claimed a couch and took advantage of the shower. One of the other hikers(?) seemed to know what was going on and had the keys to the minivan and ran us down to the gas station to pick up food. I got a BBQ sandwich, a pint of ice cream, and some chocolate milk which we took back to eat. Still hungry I asked TrailName (yes, that's his trail name) to get me some cheese sticks and gave him money for them. The owner of the hostel also gave us a huge bowl of homemade hiker bars... Granola, chocolate, nuts, etc. They went very well with ice cream while they were still warm.As you can see, I had a pretty tough night... Laying on the couch with my feet up, eating, and catching up with the rest of the world on my phone.