Catch up!

I've been really behind in my postings. Sorry! My book has gotten really good and there are only so many relaxing hours in the day. Anyways I believe I left off with us finally leaving hot springs. But I did forget to mention one last thing about hot springs... while we were there austin convinced all the guys we have been hiking with the save their hair into mohawks. So now everyone asks them what their deal is and where my mohawk is. Its a pretty funny way to distinguish our group.
So the climb out of hot springs was way worse then we expected and we all had a hard day. But the next morning we got up and hiked 4 miles into a gap and found a sign that said that if we walked 350 yards down the road there was a house where we could get waffles. That was a no brainer. It was a little weird just walking up to some random house but before we made it to the door a guy came out to great us and told us to leave our packs and shoes outside and come in. Two other hikers we knew were already there and the four of us sat down at the table. The wife was cooking waffles in the kitchen while she talked to us and the husband was showing us a drink menu and getting our orders. They had anything you could think of to drink! (Go figure I got a huge glass or cranberry juice and spilled it all over the table cloth..) She gave us each a huge plate sized waffle and when we were done with that she came out with plate number two. That consisted of a muffin, small quiche, and a meat medley (amazing). As soon as those plates were clear they brought out lunch. That was a bbq sandwich, coleslaw, greenbeans, baked beans, and a pickle. Then came dessert... they had a very long list of anything you could think of including apple pie and brownie Sundays. All I could put down after all that food was some icecream. We were all so stuffed that we ended up staying in their livingroom in food comas for an hour. When we finally left we planned on doing alot more miles but our bellies had trouble with the next few hills so we called it an early day and stayed at the next shelter.
The next few day were pretty normal. One of the nights we knew a big storm was coming but the shelters were spaced out weird so the did 16 miles and stayed at a campsite 4 miles from the next shelter (all uphill). One of our friends only has a tarp so he pushed on to be in the shelter and waited for us the next day to caught up. The storm was pretty intense but the way the gap was shaped shelters us alot from the wind. Turns out it was the same storm that caused a bunch of tornadoes in the area and killed a bunch of people in the area. But we rode it out in our tent and stayed completely dry. The next day we hiked the next 4 miles to meet up with our friend gravity who was waiting at the shelter. As we were taking our snack break they got to talking about the next town we were coming to, Erwin TN. It was around 17 miles to town from there. The plan was to go 10 more miles to the next shelter and into erwin the next day. But everyone wanted to go into town but no one really had the money to stay there. So austin offered to pay for a room for us all if we hiked the whole thing that day. It was a hard push but we made the 21 miles (our longest day yet). When we got there it was still 2 miles to our hotel from the trailhead. We started walking down the road with me in the back. As the first car was about to pass us gravity told me to stick my thumb out. Sure enough the truck stopped and picked us up and took us right there. Alot of the guys say its nice to have a girl to hike with cause you get hitches faster. Lol I don't know if that's true but it worked for us. The hotel was amazing and we were able to wash our socks in the sink and order pizza. The next day we met up with another hiker who was staying there and happened to have a rental car so he drove us around town to get our resupply. We were a little bummed cause everything we planned on doing there didn't pan out but we still had a wonderful time. We hiked out 4 miles the the curly maple shelter that night.
Yesterday we hiked out of curly maple and did an easy 14 mile day. In the middle of they day we came to a place called beauty spot. Its a big grassy bald on top of a mountain. It was so wonderful to eat lunch and relax in the grass that we made it a 2 hour lunch break and all relaxed and read in the sun after we ate. Go figure I got the worst sunburn I have gotten in awhile! I wasn't thinking and only put sunscreen on my face and Austins neck (which saved him from a burn). But I had taken off my knee braces and my black shirt was hot so I pulled it up as we laid in the grass. My knees and stomach are now lobster red. I couldn't were my knee braces today cause of it. And my pack tightens right over my burnt tummy. A couple other people that were up there got some sun too but I have it the worst.
And today was probably the hardest 16 miles we have done yet. The first 7 were easy but the last 9 were awful! We climbed roan mountain at the end of the day and it was by far the hardest climb we have had yet. We gained 2000 feet of elevation in about 3 and a half miles. If you have trouble picturing that, it is pretty much straight up. But we made it and it was a beautiful climb. We are now at the highest shelter on the AT (over 6,100 ft). It is an awesome pine forest though so we are camping out instead of sleeping in the shelter. It is much colder this high up!
Ill try to keep up with updating better. Sorry everyone! But thank you for reading. Reading your comments brightens our day :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7