Date: 2016-05-08
From: U.S. 19E

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: clear sky

Some of the hikers I met at the Hostel: Crispy, Cash-Money, Wok-man, Sundial, Breeze, another Huckleberry, Capital, Soda Pop, Pony-boy. 3 reasons for stopping at Mtn Harbour Hostel: I had a mail drop to pick up; I'd heard so much about the breakfast buffet; and I wanted to go to church. The first 2 worked out well -- I didn't get too much to carry, & there was an amazing assortment of food (including lemon pie!); the 3d was very disappointing.   When I tried to find out about churches, it was a little discouraging. The nearest Lutheran churches are12-15 miles in either direction. In Elk Park, there are mostly Christian churches [Disciples], In Roan Mtn, they are Baptist. Unless I wanted to pay a shuttle fee, I'd have to hitch in either direction. The woman who gave me the most information was going to a Catholic church 18 miles away -- I should have asked to go with her. Instead, I took her advice & walked across the highway a quarter mile or so to a Baptist church. I didn't expect any liturgy, but I did expect some good singing & Bible exposition. I got none of the above. (I think even most Baptists would have been disappointed).I was prepared for no celebration of Pentecost, and I knew there would be something about Mother's Day, but it turned out that was it: TOTAL! ¢ Opening & closing prayers, a couple of sentimental solos & poem-readings about mothers, a "sermon" that started with a reading from 2 Timothy, about Timothy's having received the faith thru his mother & grandmother, moved directly without any application to the preacher's identification of traits of mothers tied to the alphabet [C is for Chaffeur, taking the kids all the places they need to go; X is for Xray tech, perceiving what's going on inside family members, &c., &c.], & leading into the presentation of flowers to all mothers present. Nothing spiritually edifying & scarcely any focus on God.I wasn't on the Trail till 1:45, after finding more trail magic, this time from someone else in a truck at the trailhead. Also a flyer about another hostel which maybe I should have checked out -- trouble with all that kind of stuff is it's aimed at NOBOs, not SOBOs.After that long climb yesterday out of the Elk River Valley and only a little descent to the road, I was surprised to be going up, up, up so much right off today; but I do have to get up to a 6000-footer for tomorrow; so I guess I'm making progress. Not so many blazes in the section, but I guess you can't really get lost. Seems like I remember this section being on the other side of the mountain, with lots of obstacles for me too cut. I didn't see anything like that. Well, I finally did find a bit of short section with the mountain on the other side and possibly a place or two that I might have cut, not a long section at that. Interesting that when you cut something that's blocking the trail, within a year there's often practically no sign of it. It took 2-1/3 hours to get to Doll Flats, 3 miles uphill the whole way, but since it was steeper than yesterday,I could feel I was making real progress. After the flats, there was even a little bit a rock step climbing. I kept on hoping I could do it faster once I got up on top. One of the fun things about hiking is looking up at a particular high mountain or ridge and thinking I'll be up there in a few minutes or an hour.On top of Hump Mountain, high point for the day, in exactly 4 hours for 5.4 miles. I did about 1/3 hour of trail work in the orchard area near Little Hump Mtn.I I arrived at Overmountain Shelter [named for troops who came over the Mtn. from Tennessee to fight in the Revolutionary War] a little before 8:00, time to meet other hikers & fix some food. Met on Trail: Plenty of slack-packers. Also at least one with a full pack going for 25 miles to Dennis Cove Road. Alexander, Slim,Lunch-Box, Kyle, Johnny B Good, Texas Hippie, Thumper, Turbo, Sam Wise II, Frog & Leap, Gemini & Flow (both barefoot), Spaceman, Bacon-Tear plus another, J.T., Pickle, Hazelnut, Moses, Viking & Precious (mom & daughter on mothers day!), D3, Google, Wilco, Buck 30, At Shelter: Cheese & 2-step (Wausau), Stone Bridge, Cranberry (Switz), Ontario, Cool Hand, Music Box, Skorlax, Big Sky, Game Warden, Yard Sale, & a couple more.