Date: 2011-06-03
From: Nolichucky Hostel

To: Nolichucky River Valley Campsite
Miles today: 1.3

Catch the morning Sarge shuttle to some grungy place for breakfast, 1 humongous biscuit with sausage gravy, an egg and home fries. Still not able to connect with Bear Bait and Speed Demon, so go back to the hostel to wait for lunch and figure out what mystery man is up to, he just sits around all day listening to music on his, wonder why he got off the trail so quickly if he meant to do the whole thing?It's the same AYCE pizza for lunch, already tasting not so hot so try to eat more salad and needle Sarge about who lives in the town, he claims it's all poor southern whites, I see a few fancy bits of machinery getting around, including a Porsche at the repair shop and the odd 'vette cruisin around.The repair shop is actually pretty good, they mostly do clothes and shoes I think, but have done a great job on Ryans pack, must be used to hikers coming in. We're parked on the street nearby and it's already hot, Sarge's truck is also not air conditioned so we all hop out to escape the heat, it's OK when moving, a bit overcooked when stopped. It's the local train this afternoon, Sarge heads us over to pay his mortgage and there's a bagel shop next door, NY style, not really fresh, make a nice accompaniment to coffee in the morning.Bear Bait and Speed Demon show up with Speed Demon's dad and fiancee, he's a cut little guy younger than me, and fiancee is gorgeous Asian chica, maybe Filipana. We decide to go tubing, it's getting a little late to spend a long time on the river, Sarge will shuttle us at both ends, the exit point seems a little hazy, off we go anyway and make our way slowly down the river, supposed to be 5 miles in two and a half hours. There's a big chunk of concrete in the middle of the river, an old pylon or something, so we stop and the women claim it as their own and I name it "Isla Mujeres". Some cool rapids on the way, even though it's still officially spring the water isn't cold at all, we bounce our butts down the rocks to a cave where there's a freaky orange clay, the young folks paint themselves all over with it, they look jaundiced as all get out! There are some people sunbathing on the river bank and they stare in disbelief. Through some more rapids and we spy a beach with some people camping/fishing, it seems too early to get outa the water though, we ask them where we are and they tell us there's an outfitter close by, so out we get carrying the tubes and walk under the interstate and across a field, the outfitter is closed (or maybe not yet open), so we walk up the road a bit and find a body shop, the guy is very friendly and calls Sarge to come pick us up, he seems in a hurry, he won't let us sit in the front because we might dirty the seats (of his old beat up Chevy) and takes off before we can really get the tubes and all of us in the back properly, and ones blows off and goes rolling into a field.We get back late so order subs for dinner and Sarge picks them up for us. I have to pack up some of my stuff to give to James the shuttle guy, have a bag of clean clothes for the bus trip home, they aren't really dry so hoping they don't go mouldy, and James remembers the bag. The four of us night hike out across the bridge and the RR tracks, not sure where we'll camp for the night, the "work for stay" hiker at the hostel told us of many campsites after the bridge, a bit hard to see at night and there's a campground nearby as well, we don't wanna go in there, it's private. The AT goes up and down a little, somewhat rocky, then Jelly Bean steps over a root and then about 18" down to rock embedded in the trail, she hits it on the side and her right ankle twists sharply to the side and down she goes, cries out in pain as it twists. We get her pack off and she sits to rest for a bit, doesn't look too bad yet, we go ahead slowly looking for a campsite and find a nice one close by, plenty of wood around so I get a nice fire going, red wine and Captain Morgan all round, especially for Jelly Bean to ease the pain.