Date: 2011-04-13
From: Unaka Mountain campsite

To: Greasy Creek Hostel
Miles today: 11.9

Still foggy, cold and windy when I woke up. Packed up everything I possibly could before I had to change back to cold, wet clothes from the day before. Sleet accumulated on the bottom edge of the tent but not the ground. I have never been so glad to have to start the day with a big uphill, simply for the fact that it would get me warm. Didn't take too long to get warm once hiking though, and it ended up being quite pretty as I got up there, as freezing mist had accumulated in sheets of horizontal icicles on everything in the constant wind. Again, pictures will be forthcoming.....eventually.About 9:30 coming down the other side of Unaka Mt the sun began to make occasional appearances, and I arrived at the next shelter to find a big crowd of familiar faces, including Lego, Redwood, EnZed, Hi-5, Grandpa, Cascade and his dog Sierra. They had built a fire and were in the process of drying out what appeared to be about everything they owned. The fire was nice and warm, so I joined them, drying myself off in the process. I ended up spending a good two hours there. Apparently I was the only one making for the hostel today, everyone else seemed to have their eye on a shelter a few miles past it.I made good time down to the hostel at about 3:45, only to find the owner out and a note saying that she had gotten a ride to town to pick he car up from the shop, and that she would call the phone on the porch sometime. By now it was full sun, and I took the opportunity to hang a line for my sleeping bag in the sun, and dry my tent by setting it up and letting it air out, as well as catch up on planning the days ahead and petting the obese cat that was chilling on the porch too. It started to take long enough that I would have gone back to the trail and shelter, had I not had mail drops waiting inside. Through several calls and much tribulation with her vehicle, she finally arrived back around 7:00; fairly late in the hiker world. I picked up my packages from inside; one box I had forwarded from the NOC with extra food, and a package from home. The combined quantity of food was again immense, consisting of nearly 8 days of food for the section, for which I had requested 5 and would probably take 4. I ended up leaving a pile of good stuff in the hike box, something akin to 2 full meals, tuna pouches, peanut butter, and 9 assorted snack/energy bars. Some hiker will be happy after me. I'll have to talk to Jen again about what a day's food is. I suspect that it is not her fault at all, because I left a list with guidelines for sending stuff, and I made up arbitrary numbers for calories and meals because I had no idea what I would actually need on the trail. As I sorted through the pile, CeeCee (the owner) gave me a bottle of Guinness as an apology for making me wait. She was incredibly nice but very talkative, near unstoppable. After the simple quiet and routine of the trail, I actually felt disoriented at the barrage of stimuli, and when she asked me if I wanted to make my mac and cheese in the microwave it took me a few minutes to agree because I just wanted to cook it on my stove in my pot, and I had no idea how to do it in the microwave. I simply couldn't change gears in my mind and figure out that it would be exactly the same in a microwave as on my stove, boil water, add food, let sit. The change was so sudden, I wanted to go to the bunk and just lay down. CeeCee talked through dinner, but I couldn't tell you a thing she said, I was still not processing it.Made it back to my bunk, and enjoyed the quiet for a bit while writing this before going to sleep.