Date: 2018-04-18
From: Carvers Gap

To: US 19E
Miles today: 14.8

DAY 43Finally leaving Erwin (for the second time), our shuttle arrived promptly at 8:00 am. We headed back to Carvers Gap with Jo & Two. It was a clear and sunny day when we arrived, but a little cool to start. Headed up over Round, and Jane Bald enjoying the views every step of the way. Still a little remaining snow, but for the most part it was clear but still wet and muddy in places.As we neared the top we stripped down as we heated up. We put sunscreen on our faces as we would be exposed pretty much all day. After two days off we were a little sluggish climbing up to almost 6,000 feet.We made it into the Overmountain shelter for lunch with Kingsman, Papa Dale and Tabasco. They also returned to the trail at Carvers Gap this morning. Enjoyed an extended lunch in the sun enjoying the view, but then had to make the climb up the balds. It was so warm after lunch that we were down to shorts/skirt and tee shirts. The Humps were beautiful, but the climb took its toll in the heat. Taylor and Katherine caught up to us as we were taking a break from the heat at the top and joined us for a bit. Soon we headed back down the trail heading for the road as we wanted to go into the Smoky Mountain Bakery for pizza tonight. Unfortunately, after a tough downhill which really bothered Mary's knees we came to the Tennessee/North Carolina border and thought we had only .7 miles to go (based on the AWOL Guide). Really, we had on the order of 3 more miles to go. The guidebook we have is inaccurate somewhere in this section of the trail.We struggled to make the final miles to the road, and rather than hitch we opted to go to Mountain Harbour Hostel which was just .3 miles down the road where we hoped we could get a ride to the bakery. We asked about getting a ride, but we were told that since there was just the two people working we wouldn't be able to get a ride but could probably get a quick ride by hitchhiking. So, since we were bound and determined to have pizza (Alan still remembers how good the pizza was back in 2011) we decided to try to hitchhike. It took a while, but just as we were about to give up a car pulled over. It was a pretty beat up car, with a broken windshield, but the two guys who just got off work were willing to drive us to the bakery. After enjoying amazing pizza, and grabbing a couple red velvet cream filled cookies, we headed back to the road to try to get a hitch back to the hostel. The road didn't have any shoulder, so we decided we better cross over to the Dollar General and try to find a ride. After asking several people "Are you heading back toward the hostel", and being told no only to watch them go that way, a woman who originally said no rolled down the window once her husband was back in the minivan and said "get in". They were very nice, and live basically right across from the hostel and drove us back. We offered to give them some money, but they said no.Back at the hostel we set up our tent and enjoyed a hot shower. We put our food bags in the building for the night (along with the leftover slices of pizza we will enjoy for lunch tomorrow) and headed to bed. Papa Dale, Kingsman, and Tabasco are staying at the hostel. Jo and Two are tenting here as are some other hikers we have not met.