Week 7: Lies, a Marathon, and My Dad

“One always sees the soul through words” - Virginia Woolf

Day 43: Bed and Breakfast pt. 2

Saturday, April 20th

25.1 miles today

395.9 total miles

When we woke up at five and it was still raining we went back to sleep. When we got up again sometime later it was still raining but less than earlier. I hastily put my sleeping bag and other things away and realized all the clothes I left out to dry were now soaked from the humidity. So I put on my damp clothes and made breakfast. Others came and went and BiBo who slept in the shelter with us decided to just pack up instead of waiting for the storm to clear.

As per usual everyone got up and left before us even tho it was just past 9. I put on my music expecting to drew the couple thousand feet climb to roan mountain. Honestly, the climb wasn’t as bad as I was expecting and we all powered through it. There were no views though, we were surrounded by mist and fog and clouds. Spence and I met up with Joey and several other hikers taking a lunch break at the highest shelter on the AT. IMOM, DC, Bonk, Ziggy, DK and Molly. The water source was unfortunately down hill and it wasn’t close. It was a cool shelter, the only one with a door and a ladder up to a second floor. We also passed an old hotel site on the top of the mountain.

As I hiked down back to the trail I ran into the group of guys (Nick, Brian and Nathan) and told them it really wasn’t worth going up to the shelter if they wanted water. The hike down was nice and gradual and after a couple miles I saw a sign for trail magic!

This was by far the best trail magic we’ve received. Seawolf, peach, strider, and papa had eggs, bacon, pancakes, cookies, chips, sodas, beer, mimosas and more. It was great! We stayed there for about an hour just eating everything we were offered. They were all thru hikers as well so they knew what we were craving. That food really helped us get through the rest of the day.

Immediately after we had three bales to climb up and over, passed the next shelter and ended up at the old over mountain shelter site. It was here I said we should just go a couple miles to the next tent site. After another few hundred feet and good views we got to the tent site but it wasn’t very good. So we climbed over hump mountain and had probably the best views on trail. I wish we had time to stay there and watch the sunset. It was even better than the big bald views and I thought that was one of the best views so far.

A few miles later we got to the doll flats tent site and it was packed. Like 20+ tents and kids playing football. It was like tent city and I didn’t care I was ready to sleep but the guys weren’t thrilled about the situation. With only 3 miles left to get into town, a joking comment by Joey about staying at the bed and breakfast turned into reality after a couple phone calls.

We crossed the NC border one last time as we left my home state for good. I pretended to shed a single tear on camera as I crossed the border and we kept hiking. We got a brief glimpse of pink skies before we had to grab our headlamps cross a road and go over one last hill before heading to the B&B.

Of course there were more steps to get up to the entrance but this place is super nice. Very old building but everything is super clean and well thought out. The owner offered us some home baked sweets to devour before we went to bed.

Day 44: Visit from Dad

Sunday, April 21st

0 miles today

395.9 total miles

I tried to get as much sleep as I could after posting last weeks blog and writing about the day. 26 miles will really make you tired. There is word that this bed and breakfast has the best breakfast on the trail and boy did it deliver. Hands down the best breakfast I’ve ever had. Everything homemade from scratch and the made just enough for everyone to be satiated with little to no left overs. The highlight for me was the tomato pie and the homemade French toast with pecan  syrup. I wish we could have it again but we weren’t staying there tonight. After I ate as much as I could muster before it would start coming back out I laid out on the couch to rest a bit. We put our clothes in the wash and put on the office to just relax while we waited.

It wasn’t long before my dad came through the door and I got to introduce him to Joey snd Spence. It was really after 40 some days, sometimes you don’t realize how much you miss em’ til you see them again. It’s like when I’d go away for a semester or summer and feel like a whole new person, it’s only been a month and a half but I feel like I’ve grown so much more in a shorter amount of time.

After the laundry was done and our things were packed in the car we decided to have a quick lunch at the food truck. I had one bite of my raspberry chipotle chicken sandwich and it put that best dam chicken sandwich at the NOC to shame! Wow that was good and it came with garlic Parmesan fries too, I’ll be thinking about that sandwich for a while.

It took a minute to figure out how to check in at the station 19E hostel we were staying at but eventually we found it and boy is this place bare bones. It’s like they gave up halfway through an didn’t bother with making it look decent, they know their crowd. There’s a whole section with just beds on a floor. So we do all that, grab our sheets and blankets and get back in the car for half an hour to Elizabethtown, whee another food city awaits our resupply. We’re planning on 5-6 days of food to get to Damascus. I’m lucky my mom had gotten me some resupply so I didn’t need much. I was able to aimlessly walk around the grocery store not needing but a few snacks and lunches. We also found a good selection of non alcoholic beers and decided to give them a try.

Back at the hostel more and more people and coming and going and we get caught up in conversations as we do. I go up and try to organize my food bag then we realize the pub downstairs is about to close so we go down to grab food. Some more familiar faces are down there and they watch the four of us play a game of pool while we eat dinner. When our belly’s were full and the 8 ball was sunk we trotted back upstairs to hangout, pack, and share stories.

Thanks dad for coming this way to see me and my weird friends. And thanks mom for sending me way more food than I know what to do with. I’m lucky to have you both.

Day 45: Lots of Water Crossings

Monday, April 22nd (Earth Day!)

18.1 miles today

414 total miles

Yeah that was up there for worst sleep I’ve gotten on trail. The beds at this hostel were flat and hard and the pillows were nonexistent. We kept banging against the sheet metal ceiling that was at an angle above our heads. I swear someone just gave up halfway through building this hostel and someone else just came in and tried to finish the job as cheap as possible. The people were nice though. I’m not a big fan of gravy but I finished my biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon breakfast. The guys asked for seconds while I was pushing the gravy off my biscuits (I’m sorry if this disappoints you Dylan).

My Dad got to witness thru hiker culture first hand which is cool because not a lot of people get to or won’t. Joey deemed him a trail angel and he is for helping us. Thanks dad. He also got to witness us waiting on Joey to finish packing and repacking his stuff and then weighing it. I don’t make this stuff up.

What they say is true. The second goodbyes are harder than the first. Granted it’s not easy to say goodbye to someone the first time but when you do get to see them and have to say goodbye again it digs a little deeper. And it makes you think about why you’re out here even if you have a solid answer. I’m excited to have more people visit but I’m not looking forward to going through more second goodbyes.

Today we passed the 400 mile mark.. it’s like walking from springer to Franklin 4 times over which sounds like so far yet we’ve only done about 1/5 of the trail. Now that I put it that way it doesn’t feel like a lot left but when you look at the map we’ve still only gone a few inches. I feel surprisingly good, today the calves were burning coming up out of Roan but with the distance I’ve crossed I’m glad I don’t have any significant pain anymore. I think those 0’s and near 0 days are paying off. I’m just hoping when we do increase our average mileage and take less breaks our bodies will adapt.

We passed a couple waterfalls, walked along a river and passed over so many streams it was too many to count. We saw some familiar faces again, people we thought were way ahead of us. It was relatively flat today but lots of little ups and downs and long steady inclines. I was plenty tired when I saw the shelter come into view, it might be the combination of meh sleep and the big miles we did coming into Roan.

I’m not passing the opportunity to sleep in my hammock tonight, I need the comfort and hopefully good sleep. It’ll get down into the 30s too which should help. It’s been awkward trying to find comfort sleeping in 50 degrees with a 20 degree sleeping bag. I can only imagine how hard it’ll be to get going in the morning. Once the sun went down we all felt the drop in temperature and I nearly forgot what it was like to sleep in temperatures this cold.

Thanks again to everyone helping me along this journey. Even if you just read this, I’ve been enjoying all the feedback it really helps.

Day 46: Boots Off

Tuesday, April 23rd

14.8 miles today

428.8 total miles

Finally some good sleep last night and it didn’t feel as cold as it was projected to be. I  packed up and ate breakfast fairly quickly. My cousin Sarah mentioned I never reviewed the Southern Cookie Lady’s cookie so here it goes. From what i remember, it was a decent size cookie, larger than normal but not abnormally large. It was chewy but not dry enough to be crunchy and not soft enough to crumble. It was peanut butter flavor but not overwhelmingly so with a loving home baked touch 8.5 out of 10.

The climb out of camp warmed me up but the 6 miles of mostly decent was lovely. At the entrance to pond mountain wilderness we were greeted by grapefruit and no hitch with snacks and drinks. I introduced myself as ian instead of Side Quest, the first time aloud since I’d taken the name after the smokies. They were really nice people who’d also thru hiked before and kept us engaged in conversation for over an hour. We’re hoping to see them again at the trail days festival in Damascus.

I think this walk through the pond mountain wilderness was my favorite part so far. It was so green and lush and most of it was an easy walk by the river. We passed a fly fisherman who showed us a picture of the rainbow trout he caught by the Laurel fork falls. The waterfall was stunning. We just had to stop there for a bit and I rescued a butterfly from the wet wind coming from the falls. Just after that there was a really cool trail along the river literally carved from the big rocks along the river, just wide enough to fit one person. It was also a sunny 70 degree day that was perfect. I just keep thinking about how I’d tell everyone to hike through here if they asked for good sections of the AT to see.

What came next was not so fun. A climb over pond mountain. 3 miles up and 3 miles down and it was the last miles of the day. I had to stop serval times to catch my breath and drink water or I’d pass out from exhaustion it was that bad. Just before I thought I’d tap out we reached the anticlimactic summit with a small piped spring. We made the decision then to camp at boots off hostel because there was just nowhere else to camp in this area and no shelters. On the descent I listened to songs I could sing to because I deserved that after the brutal climbing.

I thought that would be the rest of our climbing when we got to the bottom but of course the hostel had a long steep driveway. This place is really cool and the first thing I did was tell my dad I wish he could’ve stayed here. It’s so much nicer than the station 19. We found some spots to setup camp and got our hot showers that were pipes directed into metal buckets hung from the ceiling with holes drilled in a + pattern. They were really nice but it took a moment to figure out the balance of hot to cold water.

We spent the rest of the evening in the kitchenette making dinner and chatting with other guests and Steve on the phone. The whole time I’m thinking about kitchen sink when he gave me that wrist band to this hostel on that first day. When I saw the mile marker on it 428.8, i thought that was so far away. Now I’m here, it’s just had to fathom. It seems like that moment was a lifetime ago and this place seemed far beyond my reach.

Day 47: No Rush

Wednesday, April 24th

16.1 miles today

444.8 miles total

Boots off was so cool. I’d totally go back there in a heartbeat. Lucky moon, dirt bag, flag, and chopsticks were such nice people. I’m glad we ended up staying there to camp. One of the best hostels yet, I never thought I’d enjoy a $9 frozen pizza as much as I did last night.

I’m so glad I set my alarm for 6:40am. Breakfast was at 7 and the fear of an oncoming rainstorm had me completely packed up in 15 minutes. Both of the other guys were still sleeping. I was so happy to have an orange, banana, apple and a donut. One hit wonder even gave me some of the hand and spinach eggs he made. I felt like I had all the time in the world. I think Spencer came in around 7:30 and Joe came in around 8:30. The rain had already started by then and the radar kept changing but it was going to rain until at least 10:30 so we waited it out.

During this time dirt bag, a triple crowner (hiked the PCT, CDT and AT), was telling us we need to stretch EVERY day. He learned that from another hiker and couldn’t stress the importance of it enough. So much so, I stared stretching then and there.

I’ve come to a realization that these loaner clothes are so comfy and stylish I don’t want to put my hiking clothes back on. With pink swim trunks and a light and loose blue button down I was wishing I could hike in these clothes. Maybe in Damascus I’ll find something cool.

We didn’t get out of the hostel until twenty after 12. I wasn’t thrilled about that but I was glad my base weight (no food or water or PBR) was a smidge over 20lbs. But my pack still feels heavy as fuck going up hill. The walk around the Watauga lake was nice but the climb out of there was hard but somehow we still managed a 3mph pace for 9 miles to the next shelter. This is the one I was hoping to stay at but it just didn’t line up  mileage wise. The Vandeventer shelter is supposedly haunted after someone was murdered there in the 70s.

I did get to meet No rush though, a friend of chopsticks. He is in no rush to go anywhere, his goal to NEVER get to Katahdin he’d say in a voice that only had one volume, loud! He was featured in a YouTube documentary called Pack and Soul. This dude is a real character, used to be an electrician from Boston and was a heroin addict for 30 years and now hikes the trail as much as he can and doesn’t even have a bank account. I learned a lot from him in just a few minutes but dam did he talk loud and he had so much passion and energy.

When we finally got to camp I setup quick and started stretching before dinner. I’ve neglected this for too long, it’s a habit I need to keep. I’ve been stretching here and there but I want to take it more serious.

A guy named switch who we talked to briefly at the hostel stopped by for dinner before making the push to Damascus tonight, like 40 something miles he said would be his total for the day. It’s funny, the humor of the world, letting me meet two polar opposite people in one day. I’d like to fall in the middle of that spectrum.

I haven’t been listening to much besides my own thoughts. The time flies by like it does when you scroll on social media but instead of pictures and videos i see mountains and new flowers. I listen to what the birds have to say, what the trees have learned, what the rocks have weathered. Lucky moon told me the woods have things to say and I’m trying to listen to a language I haven’t heard before.

Day 48: Damascus!!

Thursday, April 25th

26.2 miles today

471.3 miles total

6am came too quickly but that sunrise was insane! I snoozed a couple of my alarms before getting up but it was really the fact that I had to pee that got me out of my hammock.  We still ended up being second to last out of camp. So a decent amount of people decide to do the marathon, 26.2 miles, into Damascus, VA because they say this section is very flat and easy… it wasn’t. I’m done listening to these people, they’re all liars, especially the south bounders. It was flat for the first mile or so but then it was like any other day, up and down.

I was sooo happy to see trail magic at our first gap 5 miles in, he even had McDonald’s!  I would never be happy to see that food except when I’m out here. Joe who was doing the trail magic was so nice a bunch of us gave him a few dollars he’d put right back into more magic.

After that we all kinda got out at the same time and once Joey figured out how to open the gate we walked through the gorgeous pastures and past the AT barn. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the red-winged blackbirds were singing. It was so beautiful I didn’t want to leave but we had a lot more miles to cover.

At the next shelter I ran into a local, bill, who talked about the flowers and the ponies but all I could think about were the new birds songs in the background. Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, Least Flycatchers, Blackburnian Warblers all singing harmonies together.

The terrain just seemed to get worse more ups followed by more downs and hardly any flat sections. I only stopped once to refill on water and after i thought I’d see the guys at the following shelter halfway in to the day but I didn’t. I didn’t care, I was gonna stop and eat and rest. Just after goose and tink showed up to get water I left with no intent to stop until Virginia. I finally saw the boarder 6 miles later and only 3.5 left to Damascus. It’s just indescribable the feeling of walking into this state all the way from Georgia over 470 miles of hard hiking, sweating bullets everyday getting into camp exhausted with hardly any energy to setup camp and eat dinner. Doing only 3-8 miles to now doing 15-26 miles in one day.

When I could smell the grass clippings and hear the dogs barking I slowed my pace because I wanted to savor every bit of this moment, I’d never get opportunity to walk into Damascus off the trail for the first time ever again. It’s funny it comes out between these houses like right in their backyard and you walk down the street and then bam that iconic sign is right there.

I was debating in my head if I’d actually cry or if I was too dehydrated but I shed a tear. It’s just that monumental and I’m kinda glad I got to experience that all to myself. It’s another one of those places like the arch at the start where you’re just in pure shock. It’s like seeing a celebrity except you had to walk over 400 miles with 30+ pounds on your back over thousands of feet of elevation gain to see them. Not a lot of people will understand exactly what I feel but I’m okay with that because I know the handful of people that do and that’s enough.

I find the guys in town at a Dairy King, not Queen, and they ordered me a cheeseburger before they closed which was in a few minutes. It was finally done, I’d hiked 26.2 in about 10 hours. I’m glad we started early. We check into our rooms at the broken fiddle hostel, very cool place with a whole projector for movies. Treehouse, the guy helping run it, seemingly by himself was a lot cooler in person than on the phone. We ran into sweet relish who’s leaving tomorrow and saw a couple familiar names written on the walls. We scurried over to the diner before they closed at 8 and got a very nice dinner. I watched a couple triple crowners give this guy a shakedown of his pack to help lighten his load and I was inspired to loose some more weight myself.

We watched spaceballs, my first time, and it was funnier than I thought it would be but not hilarious. Joey chose the movie but ended up walking to treehouse by the fire most of it. We came back to the room after it was over and talked while I wrote this and its almost 1am so I’m going to bed now.

Day 49: All Over the Place

Friday, April 26th

0 miles today

471.3 miles total

I slept like a rock and I don’t feel any guilt for not getting out of bed until after 9. I hung around out side drinking water and talking to some of the other hikers while I waited for the guys to drink their coffee. When we finally get up and going we head to the outfitters store. We have a few chores still left on our agenda: go to the outfitters, send stuff home at the post office, go to the grocery store to resupply, figure out plans for diner.

So we walk to the store and I loom around while Joey and Spence try on new shoes. Joe’s shoes are shot, the soles are coming off and the stitching is tearing and Spence is also feeling the wear of his shoes. I’m not quite there yet so I’m trying to hold off on buying another pair, it still feels early but I’m thinking about the 420+ miles I’ve already put on this new pair since Georgia and it’s probably better to just get a new pair now before I start getting problems. In all honesty I already started getting new blisters on the ends of my toes I think because I’ve already grown a size. So just like in hiawasse when I watched Joe try on shoes and didn’t think I would, I caved and decided to try some on, just to make sure I wasn’t making a bad decision. Of course I tried them on and they felt great so I bought them and some new shorts because the old ones were starting to feel uncomfortable and some new sunglasses because I stepped on my old ones.

Now we had to pack up all the stuff we didn’t want to carry anymore and send it home. So i used the shoe box to put my old shorts, sleeping bag liner, extra carabiner, long pants and a couple other things in. We took the 3 loner bikes down to the post office and each got rid of about a pound of weight. Then it was ride further off town to the food city to resupply. I only needed to pick up a few things to make the next four day stretch. We decided to pick up some frozen pizzas for dinner and I looked for the one with the most calories, 2,100 for one pizza. I talked to my parents on the phone while I did the rest of my shopping and we ran into one hit wonder outside.

After we got situated back at the hostel, unboxing and repacking food bags, washing dishes and doing other chores we heard there was some trail magic down in the park so we took the bikes again to check it out. It turns out there was some snacks, sandwiches, and drinks so we hung there for a bit and watched hikers come and go. We ended up playing this game Spence told us call two balls but instead of balls we used clementines. It started sprinkling and we heard some people were heading to the local distillery so we headed over there.

I’m glad we did there was actually a decent group of familiar people there and it was good to catch up with some people, the drinks were nothing special but the live music was great. When they closed at nine we got back to the hostel and put our pizzas in the oven and asked treehouse if we could watch a weekend at Bernie’s. He complied and set it up for us while we waited for the pizzas. I found an unlabeled drink in the fridge and checked for any sign of a label but didn’t notice any so I took it. When I came back into the kitchen this bigger guy saw the drink open on the table and asked if that was mine, I told him I found it in the fridge and he said it was his. He was intoxicated but had a look like he was gonna beat me up so I tried to explain the situation and even though the rules of the fridge are clear, if it’s not labeled it’s fair game, I apologized. When I saw treehouse again I told him what happened and he was like “oh that’s why he was so pissed that makes sense, hold on..” then he grabs an ipa and tells me to give it to the guy tomorrow and starts the movie for us. It was already getting late and after an hour and half of a bad 80s comedy a filling pizza and someone else’s beer I was ready for bed and Spence was already there. After I cleaned up I went to let treehouse know we were done and he said “oh I already knew, that’s why I turned the volume down.” This guy had been drinking liquor since I woke up and still had more spatial awareness than tourists in Gatlinburg.