Date: 2009-04-06
From: Uncle Johnny's Hostel

To: Applesauce
Miles today: 101.9

It's been an interesting past couple of days.First off, I turned 21! My birthday was quite nice. I got up in the morning and hiked a few miles up the trail to a road, where there was a sign directing any thru-hikers looking for some trail magic to a house 350 yards away. When I got there, a man opened the door and greeted me with a hearty "Welcome home!" The angels were a couple named Fal and Hurricane who had thru-hiked a while back and did their trail magic as a ministry of sorts. They fed me full of belgian waffles, stew, and ice cream sundays (at 10am), and then gave me a book on Christianity by Ravi Zacharias which I have been making my way through since.After that, I hiked a bit further along a beautiful ridgeline with incredible views and ended my day by a campfire at a nice shelter. All in all, and excellent day, and one which I spent completely sober. (Although I started the next morning with beer and oatmeal for breakfast. :-) )The only other notable occurance of the past couple of days consumed pretty much the entirety of yesterday. I woke up in the morning and my stomach felt a bit off. I tried to eat some breakfast but about halfway through it I vomited. Immediately this worried me, since I have a really weak stomach that once upset, doesn't usually calm down without first putting up a fight. Thankfully, I was only a 6 mile, mostly downhill hike outside of Erwin, TN and because I didn't want to be stuck in the middle of the woods with a stomach flu, I decided to push on and hike into town.The hike that followed that decision was one of the worst I have had to date. I threw up again before I left, and then kept vomiting periodically as I hiked. I was exhausted and dehydrated because I had not been able to keep any food or water down the entire day. This led to my having to take breaks frequently, but whenever I would break my pace and put my pack down, I would start vomiting again. Eventually it got to the point where there was nothing left to bring up, and I would be struck with fits of dry heaving that would leave me clutching nearby trees for support.Eventually, I made it into Erwin and to Uncle Johnny's hostel, where I promptly threw up on the front lawn. I decided to wait an hour or two just to see if it would pass after I stopped hiking, but after a few more fits of vomiting, I decided to go to the hospital. Thankfully, Johnny was very nice and took me there right away, where I spent the next 4 hours being pumped full of fluids and anti-nausea meds. After that, I felt much better and returned to the hostel, where I have been resting and eating lots of applesauce since.My stomach feels well enough to head out on the trail tomorrow, however the area is currently in the middle of a snowstorm with is supposed to drop about 6 inches at 2500 feet and over a foot at 6000 feet. So depending on how the weather looks tomorrow, I might shack up here for another day and enjoy the wood stove and the movie collection or I might go out and have fun snow-hiking.No matter what, and despite yesterday's events, I feel nothing but incredibly lucky to be out here living the dream.Onward and upward,