Date: 2022-05-09
From: Four Mile Campsite

To: Blackburn AT Center
Miles today: 8.4

I guess I should say, the reason St. Mike is hiking with me is because he's concerned about my back. I was having back pain when I hiked last year, and guess what, it still hurts. I've been through many months of twice a week chiropractic treatments (with no relief), six weeks of physical therapy (with some relief) and I'm now having osteopathic manipulations. Not helping yet, but I remain optimistic. Anyway, Mike is a sweetie and didn't want me to go alone because he was worried about me. So good for me, I have a hiking partner!  It was cold last night, 35 degrees according to Laurie. I slept very poorly. It always takes me a while to acclimate to sleeping in the woods. I bet I'll sleep better tonight!  The elevation profile in my guidebook looks suspiciously easy. No huge ups or downs. I don't trust it. Nothing on the AT is ever that easy!  One big difference I've noticed between the trail here and the trail further south is the lack of water here. In Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee there is water everywhere. Little creeks and streams all over! Here it's dry, there's a long distance between water sources, so you have to plan ahead. We left the campsite with precious little water, and none on the trail that we could see for five miles! That's a very long time at our slow pace, so when we came to a road crossing at Keys Gap two miles in, we knew we'd better find some water. So I stayed at the gap minding both packs and Mike walked the 0.2 miles to a gas station. He came back with water, and also a Mello Yello and a Reese's cup!  We saddled up and took off. The packs felt extremely heavy with all the water and the five days of food we're carrying. I usually carry no more than four. It has also occurred to me that I'm really not in hiking shape. I mean, I never am, really, but now I'm also older. My back doesn't hurt though! Yay, me! Three miles past Keys Gap we stopped at a shelter to eat lunch. The David Lesser Shelter is very nice, with a separate picnic shelter with a big porch swing. The simplest things can make hikers happy. We tried to eat the heaviest items in our food bags to reduce weight.  Our goal for the day was the Blackburn AT Center. It's not a hostel, basically a glorified shelter, but it's enclosed on all sides, with a door, a front porch, and a wood stove. There's a live-in caretaker on site. We met him at Keys Gap where he was doing trail maintenance. He promised us homemade brownies when we got to Blackburn. As the trail got harder and we got tireder it was visions of brownies that kept me going! It was so hard! My pack was heavy, and the trail was not flat, not even close to it, and the weather was warm enough that I was sweating profusely. I just ran out of gas. When we got to the sign for Blackburn, I was just done.  My guidebook says Blackburn is 0.2 miles off the trail. This is clearly not the case, as it's much further than that, down a very long, steep, treacherous set of rock "stairs". At the bottom there's a camping area and a privy, but no sign of a hiker cabin. No, that's down another set of equally long, equally treacherous steps. But eventually we found the cabin, and the setting is absolutely beautiful. There's one other hiker here, a doctor from Illinois. After a cool water wash-up, a meal, and the promised brownie, I felt much better. Mike is holding up very well, but we're both realizing that this is harder than we imagined. You'd think I'd know better by now!