Date: 2012-05-17
From: Standing Bear Farm Hostel

To: Standing Bear Farm Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Day 22: This is a "zero day" for us, much like the one we took 10 days ago in Franklin, NC. Time to rest the body and stoke the "engine" by eating something other than freeze dried food. This zero day was different than our one in Franklin because we are "captive" at the hostel. They are out in the wilds of eastern Tennessee with no town very close. So they provide a "General Store" that is stocked with an ecclectic selection of food. You start a tab when you arrive and an honor system for documenting what you remove from the "store".This hostel is just what you would imagine for the backcountry of Tennessee. It's "rustic" with a pit toilet and semi-outdoor showers, but there is electricity, running water and a full kitchen for food prep. The laundry facilities are two washbasins, one with a washboard and the other with a crank wringer...and a gas drier. Cathy said she now appreciates how much work doing laundry used to be...and she didn't even have to hang the clothes on a clothesline!!The cabin we are staying in straddles a creek so we can hear the gurgling of the water as it flows under the floorboard beneath our bed. The cabin also has a covered porch that straddles the creek.We awoke at 7am and eventually wandered over to the kitchen area for some coffee and conversation with the owner and the 3 other hikers staying here. We are fortunate that we are at the end of the hiker season. The owner said that during peak time all the beds were full each night and the nearby field had a dozen tents...he said they have had more than 1500 hikers stay with them this year!Spider finally got around to cooking breakfast at 8:30am: eggs, bacon and hashbrowns....Mmm. We spent a lot of our day relaxing and reading on our cabin porch. Then went looking for cell service. Most of you have noticed that not much was posted on this website for the past week. That's because the Smokies are pretty much a cellpone "deadzone"...so needless to say, Spider had a backlog of Journal updates to send. Rumor had it that if we followed a trail above the hostel we could get cell service...Nope!! Another rumor was that if we followed the road to the hostel down "a ways" we could get cell service...that worked!! Spider sent his updates and we each called our mothers.Now with the important things done we went back to lounging...until it was time to eat again!!This was also a day to evaluate how our bodies are holding up. So far we still have no blisters on our feet but both of us have toe that is red from irritation. Walking in wet boots for 3 days was not good for our feet!! We have pretty much stopped taking "Vitamin I" because our muscles have adapted to the "abuse" we put them through each day. Likewise the areas on our shoulders and hips where our packs rest have "toughened up". The old bug bites have healed and the new ones are itching!! All-in-all we seem to be ready to tackle the longer mileage days we will have to do to reach our 400 mile goal by the end of this month.After a dinner of a modified Joe's Special and beer, we returned to our cabin (fortunately no other hikers have shown up and opted to stay in the cabin). We did some preliminary packing, so we can hit the trail again bright and early tomorrow. It was clear and 80 degrees today.