Date: 2019-04-28
From: Route 19E

To: Tentsite at mile 412.7
Miles today: 17.5

I'm up at 6:15 in the Mountain Harbour bunkroom loft. What a comfortable bed! The sun is definitely rising earlier. I grab a shower and head up to the main house for their famous breakfast. Our hosts do not disappoint. The spread is amazing, and all homemade. Pancakes, biscuits and gravy, eggs with veggies, ham and sausage, fried potatoes with bacon, some kind of egg soufflee, red velvet cake, strawberry pastry, fruit, and more that I don't recall. I pile my plate high and get seconds. There are twenty diners between those in the bunkhouse, tenters, and regular B&B guests.I chat with a section hiker named Watson who has stayed here each year since 2012. Also a hiker named Gypsy with a pointed graying beard, his parents gave him the nickname for running off as a kid for days at a time. He's thruhiked twice, and now spend most of his time hiking, mostly on the Florida, Pinhoti, and Appalachian trails.A clutch of youth group leaders come in. I mistake them for boy scout leaders, but their church has moved to a group called Trail Life which is much the same. They have 25 boys on a high adventure hiking trip and are here to mobilize the shuttles to go pick them up. Don't tell the boys about the buffet breakfast though!I head out to the trail with the sun shining. Very different from the fierce storm I left in a week ago. Shortly up trail I find a gray-haired thruhiker named Mosey. She's ending her thruhike today because she missed her family and 16 grandkids too much. But she wants to hit the 400 mile mark first, so she's hiking with her husband and young grandson on this last leg. "I'm thruhiking!" her grandson exclaims when I ask what he's doing. "I did a lot of training!"I pass Peregrine and his girlfriend Baby Bear while climbing a green meadow with a beautiful view back to the Roan Highlands. I met them over breakfast this morning. The weather is relatively cool and partly sunny, great for hiking. The trail is easy with minimal climbs and goes through a mix of meadows and woods, even alongside a creek for awhile.I meet a young girl named Ninja from Colorado after crossing a grassy ridge with views both to Roan and to the mountains in the north. She's hiking with Puck Carrier, who I met back around NOC. He's from Boston, retired from food processing, a hockey fan and casual player, with 13 and 19 year old daughters. I hike with them the rest of the morning as we take in the beauty of Jones Falls, and later take hiker showers in Mountaineer Falls. Which was quite refreshing, as the sun poked out at just the right time.They introduce me later to Genius, a hiker from upper Ontario. I don't know if he's a genius, but he sure talks enough to say something smart once in a while.Puck and I come across Sweetwater, who I stayed with at Mountain Harbour. He's slackpacking south thanks to a lift from his hiking partner the Colonel who is taking the day off to tour the area with his visiting wife. Sweetwater runs a charity called Sweetwater Outreach. He works with villages in Kenya and Tanzania to fix wells that well-meaning groups installed years ago but no longer work due to lack of local know-how. The villagers have to take responsibility by forming a committee with majority women (who are the primary water users), raising five dollars for the replacement O-rings that are usually the only fix needed, and getting trained on how to maintain the well. Education is the key according to Sweetwater. Infrastructure isn't enough. Amazing guy. Says it all came together after asking God what to do with the rest of his life after thirty years in construction engineering.At the Mountaineer Falls shelter I relax and snack while admiring the three story sleeping platforms. Then Puck walks in with a concerned look on his face. He tells me a guy is headed this way who had an altercation with Ninja last week. His demeanor says to be on my guard.A shirtless, very disheveled, young guy with long dirty blonde hair comes in. He calls himself Sovereign, but also throws out a bunch of alternate names. He immediately makes things awkward by mumbling things to himself, demanding that we answer his questions and refusing in advance to answer any we may have. He has a pit bull with him with a sign saying "service dog" and tells us not to pet her. He calls her Pickles, but then later Felicia. When I ask if one is a trail name he says she has 74 names and a thousand multiple personalities. He proceeds to scribble odd pictures all over people's notes on the shelter's grafitti board, and insists we sign into the shelter log. He demands our names so he can log that we didn't sign it. He then proceeds to sweep the dirt floor in front of the shelter, and pick up trash like a plastic bottle and throw it into the fire ring to be burnt. He makes a few side comments about conspiracies and spying, then offers some tidbits on his sketchy past in Boston when Puck starts talking Patriots football with him.He seems mentally disturbed and off his meds. Last week he was actually arrested back near Sam's Gap for threatening Ninja with a shovel (kept at some shelters for digging cat holes). But she didn't want to press charges and get publicity so he was released. He didn't seem to recognize her today, thankfully. We're hoping he plans to stay for the night so we can hike ahead, but soon he decides to hike on, taking a fishing pole someone left in the shelter as his trophy. We are left with the conundrum of how to avoid seeing this guy again. Puck, Genius, Ninja, and I agree to stick together, and we certainly aren't leaving Ninja by herself. Gina and Belch hike in and get the story. A young married couple from New Jersey, they started March 6 but had to step off for three weeks due to shin splints. Some trail angels in Asheville who read their blog offered to put them up the whole time and slack packed them for several days as they recovered. They even sent them new shoes once they were back on the trail! Amazing kindness. I remember meeting the couple when they were slacking southbound near Sam's Gap south of Erwin. They saw Sovereign this morning at route 19E and heard about his arrest through relatives who read a news clipping.Baby Bear and Peregrine from Mountain Harbour hike in and join us. We all plan to stay together and tent in the same place tonight. Safety in numbers. Sovereign's erratic behavior has put everyone on edge. There are plenty of eccentrics and freethinkers on trail but this guy is a different order of magnitude. Puck calls the sheriff's office, not to report a crime but to update them on the odd behavior and create a record of where he was in case it's important later. Groove and Sweet Tooth hike in and join our group, which is still trying to figure out a plan. Groove and Sweet Tooth (who was at Mountain Harbour last night) were both hiking with Ladypoles and the other Misfits when I first encountered them after the NOC at Sassafras Gap shelter. The tramily has since broken up. The Scottish guy Four went back to Scotland, Caveman left the trail due to his Achilles heel, and Ladypoles and Three (a British guy I believe) are lagging back in Erwin.I decide to hike out. It's been two hours since Sovereign left and it's almost 4. Our plan is to go to a tentsite eight miles out, but before the next shelter where we think Sovereign will end up. Belch and Gina follow and the others should be coming soon. I had mentioned an upcoming hostel to Sovereign, who seemed very interested, so he may get off trail there if we're lucky.Shortly after starting out I run across No Rush, a curly-haired muscled young guy, and two girls Rocky and Bullwinkle. They heard the story from Peregrine, who had situated himself at the shelter trail intersection to warn passers-by, and are trepidacious about encountering Sovereign. They're taking a break to give him plenty of time to get ahead. I offer to take point and move on. By this time I feel like we may be giving the guy more credit than he deserves. In any case, I'm not going to live in fear of him.Two Swiss hikers are camped near a footbridge. They thruhiked last year and are redoing one of their favorite sections while visiting friends in US. They've chosen a lovely spot at the confluence of a stream and the creek that the footbridge crosses. The man reports they saw Sovereign (they met him a few days ago) and his dog heading north looking for a hostel.At Forest Service road 293 Gina and Belch catch up with me. It's a clear shot to the town of Roan Mountain from here - three miles downhill, less if we get service to call a hostel for pickup. They have milkshakes in town at Bob's Dairyland. Tempting. Verrrry tempting. We go back and forth for a little. After all we're trying to avoid Whackadoo, as Belch refers to Sovereign, up ahead. But eventually I acknowledge the inevitable and hike on and they follow. Tomorrow we'll pass close to Hampton and can walk into town for lunch.I reach a tentsite where Beast and Gumby have set up. I met Beast back before Hot Springs, and he's since been hiking with Puck and Ninja. He's lost 42 pounds since starting the trail. They saw Sovereign go by heading to the next shelter, having failed to find the hostel. He told them he had no food or water. And even more oddly, he had two dogs this time, a husky as well as the pit bull. Where the husky came from no one knows.I finally reach another tentsite a mile past Hard Core Falls. Belch and Gina, and later Groove and Sweet Tooth join me. Belch and I make a little fire as we cook noodles. When I ask over the campfire what brought them to the trail, they talk about thruhiking the Long Trail in Vermont a couple years ago as a great experience and how Belch has long talked of hiking the AT in the future. But the real reason they are here now is the tragedy that befell their family near the end of their Long Trail hike. I won't go into details out of respect for their privacy, but thruhiking is a way to step out of the painful reminders in their day-to-day lives. It is also hopefully a catharsis that allows them to process what they've been through. Everyone has a reason for being out here. I'm grateful they shared theirs with me.