Date: 2013-04-21
From: Whistling Gap

To: Erwin TN
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: overcast clouds

My night at Whistling Gap was nice ¢ chilly but with a clear starry sky visible from inside the tarp ¢ but it ended when I arose about 6:00 AM on Sunday, April 21 2013. I didn¢t know it at the time, but that was to be my last night camping on the Appalachian Trail this year.        I hit the trail about 7:50 AM, winding my way through the Whistling Gap tenters to fetch a couple of liters of water. Wonder Woman greeted me warmly as I passed her and Clark Kent¢s hammock. In an hour, as I was ascending, the pleasant Aquaman passed by, and in another hour (9:40 AM) I reached Spivey Gap. As I finished the climb out of it, around 10:30 AM, I noticed a small flat stone, about a foot high and 8¢ wide, at the base of a trailside tree. It looked like a tiny gravestone! That idea had apparently occurred to someone else too, for on it was written, with a Sharpie, ¢Here lies Norovirus.¢        As I crossed a dirt road at 10:50, I formulated an ETA at No Business Knob Shelter of 1:00 PM. By then, on the trail 3 hours, I¢d seen only two other hikers: Aquaman, and another who¢d passed me. Around noon, two young women (traveling separately) passed; I passed one of them as she worked on her pack. I didn¢t see either of them again ¢ wonder where they went!        No Business Knob Shelter arrived at 12:45 PM ¢ time for lunch! Mozyin had stayed 4/10, Backtrack passed through 4/16, and Chicago and Hikerboy were in earlier today. The register made for sobering reading: Norovirus hit hard here ¢ there were several references to non-stop vomiting. I pulled out at 1:15, leaving a note in the register that I was abandoning my AT hike at Erwin.        At 2:15 I snapped a photo, through the trees, of what might be Erwin, but I had a way to go yet! It was a frustrating 3 hours ¢ I¢d ascend to a rock outcropping with pines, sure that was the final ascent before the drop down to Erwin and encouraged by the subsequent descent... only to trudge up another ascent with a piney rock outcropping at the top. Another descent... but another ascent to rocks and pines! I felt as if I was on a treadmill! Finally a fast-moving young man passed, assuring me that the final descent was imminent. At 4:30 I snapped a shot of a railroad bridge over the Nolichucky River, and at 5:02 PM, after a long but wide and smooth switchback trail, I emerged on River Road near Uncle Johnny¢s.        A couple of hours earlier I¢d been able to make cell-phone contact with the Holiday Inn Express, and reserved two nights there. Now to find it... despite study of my map, I began a climb up Unaka Springs Road. After a few minutes it didn¢t seem right, so I telephoned Holiday Inn Express ¢ River Road runs along the river... duh! A quick descent had me back to Uncle Johnny¢s by 5:20, and a wonderful gentleman in a pickup truck soon gave me a ride, the mile or so, to the hotel. He asked if I was aware that the Holiday cost $80 a night ¢ he¢d done the AT, end to end, a few years earlier and said he reckoned his total cost had been about $12,000.        My room was nice, but the hotel had no restaurant (that¢s why it¢s called ¢Express¢) so it was delivery pizza or whatever the little convenience store next door had. I chose the latter and it wasn¢t very satisfactory. I had almost firmly decided to pull out, so I called a shuttle service and was quoted something like $90 to the Asheville Airport. As I returned from a second trip to the convenience store, however, I meet Moonshiner in front of the hotel! I hadn¢t seen him since we tented near each other by the Walnut Mountain Shelter. When I told him of my fairly strong inclination to drop out, he said he was taking a short break himself; he and his wife were driving to Florida tomorrow to spend a little time with relatives, and would be going right past Asheville. He invited me to ride along with them, and said it would be fine to let them know early tomorrow morning.