Thursday, May 6, 2010

Day 23: Alive

Woke up early from a non-bear dream, but rolled around till the sun came up over the hill. Bear bag intact. All limbs intact. No sign of bears at all. Just another day in the forest!

I was hiking by 8, and looking forward to a less-than-20-mile day. Nice walk, nice morning. Snacked a bunch and made good time.



Came across a guy walking slowly on the trail in one gap. As I got closer, I realized he was in all cammo and his extra tall hiking staff was actually a rifle slung over his shoulder. Good morning! from afar - don't want to startle the guy with the gun!!

The hunter: "Have you heard any [insert specific bird name that sounds like "Wharling Garbles"]??"

"Don't think so. What do they sound like?"

"Garble garble garble..." (makes the name seem more appropriate)

I hadn't heard any of those sounds from birds... none I had noted anyways. Onwards I went. Eventually I got to the No Business Shelter and had a snack. The local guy I had met earlier ("Bodacious") caught up and snacked with me. He's thru hiked a few times, so we chatted all things AT.


Soon enough, I was on my way. Heading mostly downhill to Erwin. There was a phone ringing in the woods... I picked it up... it was a hot shower calling... and it was for me.

Got to Erwin by 3 and took care of business. (side note: standing in the store, waiting to sign in to Uncle Johnny's Nolichucky Hostel, I was standing with my feet crossed over each other real closely-like... (giggling at the thought while typing this out...) somehow I managed to get the lace from one boot caught on the hook of the other boot, and so my feet were stuck together. As I tried to move one (ha!) the other did the same, and I ended up toppling over onto a box in the little store area. What a work of art I am... Hard to recover from that one. I couldn't stop (can't stop) laughing at what I must've looked like... Geez... Should be a sizeable bruise on my left thigh, but no injuries.)

Aaaaanyways... There was a guy named Gene whose wife is on the trail ("Sweet T" - I think I mentioned her at one point...?) and he offered to take a few of us into town. Great! Stopped at the Dollar General, the IGA, and a few other places before heading back.

Guess who was there when I got back... Brian and Xan! They'd done a THIRTY MILER yesterday, hiking into the night and camping cowboy-style (just a skeeping bag) on Big Bald. Impressive, boys! Apparently, some other guys had hauled up two cases of beer to the top and shared with them while a faint meteor shower played out overhead until 1am. Must've been magical... So they crept in, hurting and dirty and unluckily finding no cheap rooms still available here. After picking up their packages and exchanging quick stories with me, they took off to hitch into town. Maybe a cheap hotel room to ease their aches... Oh, and the all-you-can-eat buffet at KFC (I've never HEARD of such a thing!!?!). I hope they're having a nice night... tho they're probably already sleeping.



Remarkably, no cell phone reception at the hostel, but free wireless. Adam and Robert are staying the night at the Kincora hostel in Hampton. They'll get a short ride over here tomorrow morning (makes all the walking seem SO inefficient!), and we will take off on the trail for four days to get back there. I'll zero in Hampton, and that will be nice. Hopefully, Xan and Brian will catch us (of course they will) on the trail, and we will have a night or two as a big ole group. Brian has a friend meeting up with him on Monday, I think... And Mick caught up with them in Hot Springs, so maybe he'll be back in the blog again soon!

Looking forward to hearing stories from DC and maybe a few interesting current events... I feel so out of the loop!

(14.9)


-- Posted from the trail...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Greetings from Atlanta, Carrie. Xan's mom here. Just want you to know how much we appreciate your blog. You are a wonderful story teller and your pics make us see the sojourn much more vividly. Thanks for adopting Xan and Flan into your journey. We appreciate you!

Annell

Anonymous said...

yo, Carr! i love your blog. it is the highlight of my day (or my every other day or whenever you can do it!). i agree with annell, you are quite the story teller. i am so excited for you and can't wait to meet up. are you on track with your schedule?
Erin

Anonymous said...

I agree with Erin. This is so the highlight of my day. I aspire to one day be like you!

Alecia