“Back on the Trail… Again”

AT Day 18

Miles: 24.20

Total Miles: 313.72

(Little Firescald Nob)

Last night was rough.

I shivered and sweat so badly that I woke up around midnight and my bag felt like it was nearly soaked through with sweat. It was so drenched by morning that I tried to wake early so that I had time to throw it into the campground dryer while I took a shower before breakfast.

I hoped that meant that I had sweat the norovirus out of my system, but also understood that might have been wishful thinking. It doesn’t seem to have been though, because later in the morning I was able to get to trail and hike a full day. I wasn’t able to get near breaking 30 miles, but 24+ doesn’t feel bad considering that I could barely hold down solid food yesterday.

I met several others today who either were experiencing Norovirus or knew someone who was dealing with it. Fucking hell man… it sucks, but I also feel like I got the short end of the stick. I talked to one hiker who was out of commission for three full days with it. So it seems to have come into and out of my system pretty quickly.

Hopefully that’s behind me.

I met Specs in town this morning and we both got breakfast at the Smokey Mountain Diner. I had heard good things about it, and although it was nice, I wasn’t blown away or anything. It was your typical hiker style, small town diner. That said, I enjoyed it for what it was. Seemed to be mostly filled with hikers and a couple of locals.

I got to trail around 9 and hiked for around 12 hours today. Mostly I hiked by myself, but I did see a couple of others at shelters and at camp sites laster in the day. There was a fire tower that was maybe .2 miles off trial that I hiked up to and there was another hiker in there whom I had not yet met. We chatted for awhile, I blew bubbles, and we went on our way.

The flower blooms have been really pretty. The trees are starting to take on more leaves, and it’s starting to feel more like spring.

The temps however feel a bit more like summer… it makes me worried that I could have a hot summer ahead of me. We’ll see.

I struggled with loneliness for some of the day today. I think that’s going to be an inevitable demon on this trail. I seem to hike most of my miles alone–almost all of them. And that’s okay, but it does feel more oppressive in the forests of the Appalachian Trail for some reason. Maybe because the forest is so all encompassing out here. It’s hard to find distraction from the inner dialogue as we walk up trail. Or maybe I’m just all in my head.

For some of the day today my shin on that left side bothered me enough that it left me worried. I’ve been on antibotics for 6 days now, and I hoped that I’d be feeling just a bit better by now. But I will say that it is improved. This time a week ago I could barely walk. It’s the reason I had to take so much time at Standing Bear (which I’m referring to as Barfing Bear moving forward). The downhills are what hurt that leg the most, and unfortunately there’s a lot of up and down on this trail. It gets to me sometimes. But never for long. I just can’t get over the feeling that the designers of this trail were either arrogant or ignorant in their design of this thing. Maybe both. The grade of the AT just stands in the face of all logic. There is no gradual climb–it’s all about going straight the fuck up the mountain, as if to fly in the face of any idea that nature could outdo the man-made manifest destiny… or whatever you want to call it.

Clearly I’m becoming too tired as I write.

Tomorrow I’ll hopefully arrive at the road that leads to Natures Inn Hostel before 5pm. I have two different packages sent there–my down jacket, and an order from Amazon. They apparently do shuttles to and from trail up until 5pm. As such, I’m wanting to get in before then. It wasn’t my plan to stay, but if I get there at the end of the day, then I won’t be opposed to it, especially considering the positive reviews that I read online.

OH! I almost forgot to write about the Southern Cookie Lady! The highlight of my day!

It was probably 3pm, and I had just sat down to drink the last of my water. I checked my maps to find that I had just passed the last water source for the next 5 miles. I didn’t want to go back to refill though, so I just decided that it was going to be a thirsty, hot climb up the next 5 miles, and although I’d be thirsty as hell when I arrived, that I probably wasn’t going to be putting myself into any danger. I’ve hiked much more uncomfortable waterless stretches on other trails before.

But then, maybe a mile later, I come to a sign on trail that points down a road to The Southern Cookie Lady. Her and her husband Tim live about .1 miles off trail and offer water and fresh baked cookies. The sign said the first one was free and any more were $2 a piece. Left $10 and took 3… or 4 if you count the free one.

It was as close to anything that I can call “trail magic” that I’ve felt on trail yet. Though I don’t really like that term and for the most part, I feel like it’s abused… but that’s another opinion that I’ll keep to myself, at least until another day. For now I need to get some rest and hopefully get an early start into my day tomorrow. I’d like for 25 miles to get underfoot more swiftly tomorrow than they did today. Having a bit less to climb should help.

Wormwood.