Date: 2006-04-15
From: Erwin, TN

To: Erwin, TN
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: 0

Cell poor at hostel, okay on hill above hostel.What a beautiful day today is, it¢s warm and the sun is shining. We are washing all of our clothes and gear that needs washing. We had a nice breakfast at a local diner this morning, and Die Hard bought food supplies at a local grocery store.We worked hard to get here, and we have another hard hike to leave here. We are keeping up with a few groups that are a lot younger than us, too. They reach a destination by noon, we come in around dinner time - it¢s still the same miles done.We hear we have one more major mountain in NC, Roan Mountain. They say the rest are small mountains and nothing major to worry about. We have 121 miles to reach Virginia. Oh yeah, I¢m probably confusing you with Tennessee and North Carolina. We¢re pretty much hiking the state boundary line, so it¢s hard to say which one we¢re in. Once we hit Virginia we¢ll be in one state only (VA) for approx 525 miles. I think we may hit a little boundary line walking with West Virgnia just before Harpers Ferry. I¢ll try to be accurate then.I just looked at what day it is, and realized I¢m starting my second month on the trail. Wow! 31 days and 338 miles - each day is a new adventure.No song for today - they usually come to me as I¢m hiking. However, the thought for today is that tomorrow is Easter Sunday and I understand that Passover is also being celebrated. May everyone have a nice holiday.For Die Hard and me, we¢re heading out early tomorrow morning. More miles to hike if we want to reach our destination.Old GoatSue's Note: Old Goat had to go about 200 ft up the AT from Uncle Johnny's Hostel to get cell reception so we could talk today. We had a wonderful, long conversation. Because he was standing on the AT, different thru hikers passed as we were talking. "Handlebar" stopped and said hello - asked Old Goat what his trail name is and jotted it down in a small notebook. (The next day - he did mention Old Goat in his Journal.) Handlebar said Old Goat doesn't look old enough to be an Old Goat...they traded ages - Old Goat's not far behind Handlebar.Old Goat told me he thought he lost a pair of socks a while ago. When they came up missing it was right after a skunk had come near the shelter, so Old Goat thought maybe the skunk fell in love with how bad they smelled and took them. The next time Old Goat washed his clothes, one of the socks appeared. The next time after that that he washed his clothes, the second appeared! He figures they probably took a hike on their own and decided they liked being with him better. (I LOVE Old Goat's sense of humor!!)I really miss Old Goat and want to see him, so we talked about my possibly visiting Old Goat when he zeros in Damascus, VA. It looks like he may get there by about Tuesday, 4/24, and looking at what I have going on at work, I could drive down Tuesday and spend Wednesday with him. It's a long drive from here...over 11 hours...but worth every minute if I can have some time with him. So we started planning. He started giving me a list of things to bring down with me and we discussed the possibility of my hiking with him a day or two. I hope it works out!ADMIN NOTE: Hi All! Sorry for the delay in posting his messages. Today I posted 4/7 - 4/15 for those who want to read his new ones. I am trying to update the start page of his log to the first of newest entries each time I add new entries, so if you bookmark and load http://www.trailjournals.com/chipsadventure you should be able to easily read the newest entries.I should be able to load his first photo batch on Thursday, come back then for those. Until then enjoy reading!!