Day 21-22 4-19/20 13-miles
Walnut-Hot Springs, NC
We hiked in for a zero day on the 19th and made it to the hostel by 2:15pm. The best part was on the way in we met a guy named Tator. He was alone and section hiking, so he asked if we could take a pic of him. We exchanged taking pics and started talking. As we walked into town he said that he wanted to take us to dinner, his treat. ARE YOU KIDDIN' ME?!?! Of course! We got to the hostel took showers and washed our clothes so we would smell like clean people again. He took us to a place called iron horse station. I had some trout with fresh veggies and Dawn got a big chicken burger. The food was incredible! After that we went back to the hostel he was staying at and I played around on a guitar that was laying around. It was an awesome night. The next day was something we've long been waiting for, a day of no hiking. We started off by going to breakfast with all our friends at the Skokie mt dinner just down the road. Then we settled in for an easy day of relaxing. We were able to purchase some insoles for our boots and a new fuel canister for the stove. On the way back to the hostel we bought dinner items so we wouldn't have to leave again. I spent the better part of the afternoon sitting on the porch and I did manage to climb a tree with my friend Robin Hood(that's hi trail name.)
Day 23 11-miles 04-22-14
Hot Springs NC-Spring mt shelter
Today was a slow start. I observed that the city of Hot Springs, though small, has figured out how to keep you in their town. Free coffee. Every place you go has it, and once you get some it's no polite to just run off. That said, we didn't make it out of town until after noon. We did however eat an awesome breakfast that my beautiful wife cooked. I did however find out that as I was leaving town my pack weighed 34lbs! That ridiculous. My only answer is that we are eating so much that I'm packing more food. I did however figure out that when I send home my winter stuff I'll be able to shed about 3.5-4lbs, which made me feel better. The hike to our camp site was relatively easy with a couple rain showers and one decent hill. We did get to have some free food from a trail angel. We prayed with her before we left and thanked her for her generosity. Now we are laying down in our tent about to sleep. One of the positives of thru hiking is sleeping. You generally go to bed with the sun and wake with it. Meaning you get almost 10-11 hours of sleep a night. Pretty awesome if you know what my previous sleep schedule was.
Day 24 20-miles 04-23-14
Spring mt-Flint Ridge Shelter
Today was a long day. We didn't break camp until 9:30am and there was a ton of hills to be climbed. Last night was definitely the most interesting night. Around midnight a fellow hiker a couple tents over started screaming for help. It was really frantic and the calls kept getting more and more desperate. Everybody woke up and as I was putting on my shoes to help Dawn asked her what was wrong. She said that there was fire every where. I figured maybe she was cooking in her tent (which we've all done out here) and that her stove had fallen over. As I'm getting ready to unzip the tent I here a guy who had already gotten there say everything was ok. Come to find out she was just having a bad dream. This morning I got up around 7 to go get our food bags and she was already leaving camp. Dawn and I both felt so bad for her. But one good thing about the hiking crowd is that we're pretty accepting and forgiving. Nobody I talked to held it against her. I hope we get the chance to let her know it's not a big deal. That event took up most of our conversations for the day. We finally made it into camp at 7 and got to sit around a nice fire and make lunch. By that time we were both so tired we slept in the shelter instead of tenting.
Day 25 18-Miles 04-24-14
Flint Ridge-Big Bald Mt
We got out of camp much quicker this morning leaving at 8:30 instead of 9:30. Two miles out of camped we crossed a road and got some awesome fresh fruit from a guy named Ron, his wife is hiking the trail. Then right as we were about to leaving a black jeep comes flying up! Two guys jump out and all but throw more food at us, this time it was a bag of, still hot, Hardee's sausage biscuits. Score for Dawn and I!! We kept hiking 8 miles, crossed another road and BOOM two more trail angels with food. That's right!! Free food 4 times in one day. That is also on top of all our other meals. We made it to our camp spot around 5:00pm and realized we had already passed our water source. At that point we found in the book one that was supposed to be closed further down the trail. That was a pipe dream. We hiked back to the other side of Big Bald Mt and got some water making it back just into for the best sunset I've seen all trail. It's been a great day.
Day 26 19-miles 04-25-14
Big Bald mt-a hotel room in Erwin TN
This morning we woke up to our tent being almost blown off the MT. I learned a lesson about how geography affects wind speed. We had camped in the worst possible spot on the mt to catch the most possible wind. It took only 25 mins to pack all our stuff and get moving. At this point we hadn't eaten breakfast yet so we stopped at the closest shelter. We found out that our day was going to be a couple miles longer than we originally thought. With that knowledge our hike got a little dull knowing we had an extra hour tacked on. But at lunch things took a turn for a substantially better situation. One of our trail friends offered us the last spot in a room at the nicest hotel in town. For $20 we both got showers, laundry, a hot tube, and a temperature controlled room to sleep in. Our original plan was to pay $10 to tent, but then we would have to pay for all the stuff we got for $20. What an awesome deal! We also got a package from my parents and brother. They sent us a battery pack to keep our phones charged, a bunch of snacks, and an awesome new shirt for me. For dinner we got a shuttle to a Mexican place on the other side of town. The down side of that was that they couldn't take us back because it would be too late. That meant we would have to hitch hike. Before we walked in the restaurant we saw a bunch a local kids hanging out in the parking lot, it was a large gathering of 40-50 kids and at least 10 vehicles. When we finished eating they were still chilling out there. It took nothing more than my beautiful wife to ask for a ride. BOOM we had a ride! I would say over all it turned out to be an awesome day.
Our ride back to the hotel
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