Date: 2013-04-16
From: Spivey Gap/US19W

To: Erwin, Super 8 Motel
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: clear sky

Spivey Gap/US91W, 7:20 a.m., to Erwin, 2:00 p.m. Yesterday on Big Bald we saw a young female hiker just flying down a section of trail. She had an odd gait -- feet flying out to the sides, arms and hiking poles flailing -- kind of looked like a pinwheel. We also ran across a hiker who was stopped before Jerry Cabin Shelter by forest service workers. They were doing a prescribed burn and stopped everyone on both sides of the burn because they burned right up to the edge of the trail. They did provide water for stopped hikers. When it was dark, after the burn and the forest service workers left, this hiker went to the Jerry Cabin Shelter, which he could see from where he had been stopped. About 10 p.m., he saw two headlamps and though he had been caught by the forest service and was in trouble. Turns out it was two southbound slack packers who had also been stopped by the burn. The slack packers had almost no food, no sleeping gear, some water, no cold weather gear. They were trying to get to their exit point 10 miles away at night by headlamp. This is not a smart or safe thing to do but it was the only thing they could do. I would have hoped that the forest service people would have helped them, but maybe they were not aware of the problem. Anyhow, the hiker in the shelter helped them stay, shared food, water, clothing, and sleeping bag liner to get them through the night. It was cold but not too bad even though it rained all night. The shelter had a fireplace and they gathered wood and had a fire going most of the night.Tina is going home tomorrow. She has only gotten through the past week with multiple doses of ibuprofen. Her feet are going bad. You cannot damage yourself doing this. Actually you can but it is stupid. It hit about 79 degrees today. Hot for hiking. At night, it has been in the upper 40s.When we got into Erwin, we went to Uncle Johnnies to see if we could get a shuttle into town. He tried to get us to stay there, but we were already set for the Super 8 Motel and Tina's husband was on his way (a 10-hour drive) to meet her there. He did charge us $5 each for the shuttle then called out "beer run" to the hikers staying there. We went to the "Friendly" restaurant in Unicoi. Parts of the meal were quite good, parts were not. In the afternoon, after my first shower in six days, I went to a Walgreen's about a half mile away and bought a pint of strawberry Hagen Daz. YUM-YUM!Zero day tomorrow. Laundry, eat, post office, eat, resupply food, eat. Tried to rent a car for the day, but there are no car rentals in town. I'm going to try to reduce my base pack weight (all gear excluding food and water) from 18 pounds to 16 pounds. Hard core. If you don't use it almost every day, you don't need it.When we arrived at the Super 8 Motel, we were checking in when when a man joined us as the desk. I warned him that we were pretty nasty smelling hikers. He asked if we were norovirus people (we were not). He told us that he was a hiker who had come off the trail with noro and had been in the hotel for three days. He had another bout of diarrhea this morning. Is he still contagious? He was going home for a few days to recover more. He hoped to be back on the trial in a few days. His hiking partner, female, was also leaving. She did not plan on returning to the trail and did not want him to return. Even more interesting, the hiker had been interviewed by a public health officer who was just leaving.The virus is quite contagious and has been fairly rampant. How do you clean the shelters and privies contaminated with viral vomit and feces? How long does the virus survive under these circumstances?It is clear that you can pick it up from a shelter or from a person and it not to show up in you for one to two days. I have to admit (again) that I am worried about this. I have seen evidence of "problems" in several shelters and privies. It is clear that "hiker clean" is not cutting it out there.