“Wormwood Barks”

AT Day 23 

Miles: 16.07

Total Miles: 422.13

(Overlooking Elk River)

It’s funny now. As I sit down to write about today, I literally can’t even recall where I woke up this morning or set camp last night. It was dark last night when I set camp though. And early when I broke things down. Also, this forest is so ever-present and seemingly all-encompassing that the campsites have come to just bleed together in my memory. That happened on my other long trails too–where I’d have trouble remembering even where I’d been through that day. But it took much longer for that to happen on my other trails. It was almost immediately with the AT. Shoot… I’ve barely even taken any photos of camp on this trail. Not that it isn’t pleasant out here; it’s just not as breathtaking in photograph.

—

I woke up right next to the trail, but about 100 years up trail from a large, open camping area where several other hikers had set camp before me last night.

I rolled in late last night, and don’t like setting up camp that late when there are others around. It’s still weird to me how early thru hikers on the AT set camp–many of them around 4pm! But that also makes it difficult for me to find a place to camp by myself where I won’t disturb another hiker when I finish hiking at 8 or 9, as I like to most nights.

There was one guy who got out of camp before me as I was breaking things down this morning. I made some kind of commend like “uh-saw-due?” Which of course is California-Surfer-Stoner-Meme-Boy-Slang for “sup dude?” Which is contemporary slang for, “Hello there, good sir; how are you this fine morning?”

He didn’t answer, which is completely reasonable considering how weird it was of me to say “uh-saw-due?” Hhaving never met one another before that interaction.

But I caught up with him in short time after getting to trail. Up on a ridge that overlooked the miles we’d covered so far.

He told me that he’s a section hiker and that last night he celebrated hiking 1,200 miles of the AT over the last 50 years. I exclaimed congratulations and told him in response that yesterday I got to celebrate 400 miles.

He looked at me confused, and asked how that could be possible. “The official 400th mile of the AT isn’t for another 15 miles from here.”

I pointed at my Garmin watch and told him that I track everything by GPS. That I don’t really care about the “official trail milage.” That I track everything that I hike on the trail, so including the 9 mile Approach Trail, and little side trips to shelters and water, I was just over 400 miles now.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the moment that I was reminded that God does indeed exist…

I could hear him before he even started. He said, “Well, technically…” then stopped mid sentence as two trail runners wandered by and caught his attention. He shouted out to them, asking how far they were running.

And because of that distraction, I was prevented from opening my stupid mouth and telling that dude to go fuck himself.

Pardon my French and all, but this is something that just can’t go unmentioned.

No matter what you do out here, there’s somebody that’s going to tell you that you’re doing it wrong. And in making the observation that I think such a subjective assessment of somebody elese’s hike asinine, so too do I think it’d be silly for me to judge anyone else’s hike.

The fact is that there will be a lot of people who will claim that they hiked the AT this summer. And I’m cool with that. I’ve come to peace with the fact that what I call a “thru hike” and what others call a “thru hike” are often draumaticallly different things. I’m grateful that the person who taught me to hike–a guy named Stephan–taught me in a way that I can call “purist.” I do need to get the F off my high bourse with all of this. But it’s just been such a theme today and maybe throughout this week. So much more I could say on that, but I’ll leave it with that for now.

I got to the road crossing that lead me to the small community of Roan Mountain (spelled it wrong last night) around 11am. Which was perfect, because that’s exactly when the BBQ place opened for business. I was able to Yogi a ride from two trail runners whom I’d seen twice this morning, and they dropped me off right at the restaurant. I guess I was the first one in there for the day, as it was empty when I arrived, but by the time I left (literally 2.5 hours later) it was mostly full.

I’m not kidding when I say that I ate more in that one sitting than I may have ever consumed in a single sitting in my life. Sometimes, after coming off trail, menus and choices all become too overwhelming. Plus I was still a bit trippy dippy from the morning supplementation, and so ended up ordering way too much food. That’s not quite true though… it was the perfect amount of food; I just can’t believe that I ate it all.

I even asked the lady as she delivered it to my table, “Do you think that I’m going to finish all of this?” And she nodded. I guess she’s been around hikers enough before.

After the loaded backed potato, and double-burger with pulled-pork stuffed with French fries, I ordered two pieces of pie; a strawberry “Poke” cake and a chocolate pie. I didn’t know what a Poke cake was before today. I’m glad to know now.

That they let me stay in there and consume so much food for so long is a wonder to me. I know that I must have been making a scene of myself by the end. But damn… that was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long while.

I got an ice cream bar at the gas station across the street on my way out.

Resupplied at the small general market.

Hitched a mile up the road to a hostel where I had a box of other personal resuspplies sent from Arizona–including my more hardy rain jacket. Hung out there at the hostel for an hour or so. Got a shower–god how I love how easy it is to get a shower on this trail almost every day or two!

And waddled my ass back to trail.

Made another 7 miles in the afternoon, and although I hiked much later tonight than what I see from other hikers, it is still a bit early for me. But thank god. I need the sleep. My Garmin tells me I’ve been sleeping well, but I’ve been so tired today. I’m grateful for the chance to get a bit more sleep than I’ve found these last couple of nights.

Hoping for something exciting tomorrow.

Wormwood.