“Too Tired to Write”

AT Day 4

Miles: 27.03

Total Miles: 105.74

(Near Betty Creek Gap)

I slept poorly last night, but that was no fault of the Green Dragon Hostel. That place was top notch, and the owners–Bill and Donna–were both great as well. I think that it had more to do with just being in a different environment. It was always like that on my other trails. I’d get to a trail town and not be able to sleep because it was different than my tent. Seems too early to be so attached to my tent, but here we are.

Breakfast at the hostel was good, and we were back to trail soon after 8am. I say “we” as there were several hikers returning to trail from the hostel together, and I ended up hiking with one of them for a few miles. His name was Austin, and I met him in the first hostel I stayed in before starting the trail. He was already a few days into the hike at that time. We made a few miles together, but it wasn’t long before he fell behind and I was hiking by myself again.

I met several other hikers at the GA/NC state line. It was the first state line crossing of the AT so far, and I had packed a Key Lime pie out from the last trail town to celebrate. I ended up splitting it with several of the other hikers that were there at the water crossing by the state boarder.

I feel like I’m in the main “group” of AT hikers now, but it’s also hard to tell. I seem to be meeting around ten others a day, but then walking by another ten to twenty who are stopped at water sources, off trail, or at camp earlier. I still expected to see a lot more than this.

Most of the others I don’t talk with much; we just cross paths and I go on my way while they go on theirs. But I did talk with a guy today who had a knee injury. We hiked together for a bit before I broke ahead.

Speaking of injury, I’m starting to develop some issues in my lower legs. My achellies tendon on the left side is becoming very painful particularly. Today it reached a point of pain that was starting to bother me in one of the climbs.

I’m so tired here tonight that I can barely keep my eyes open. I need to go to sleep.

Wormwood.