AT Day 19

Miles: 22.59

Total Miles: 336.31

(Nature’s Inn Hostel, TN)

I woke fairly early today, as I knew that I needed to make good distance in order to get to where I am tonight–Nature’s Inn. I read online that their last shuttle departs at 5pm as I laid in my tent last night, so that created my deadline for the day: Make it to Sam’s Gap by 5. For some reason I was thinking that was going to be closer to 26 miles, so I rushed through a bit of the morning, but that wasn’t all a loss. By the time I dropped pack at 10 miles into the day, I realized that I could basically take it easy for the remainder of what I had. It turned out to only be a bit over 22 miles; not the 26+ that I was expecting.

The reason that I needed to make it here is because this is where I had my down jacket shipped (YAY it’s back in hand!) as well as where I had an amazon order of Athletic Greens and Kachava shipped. Oh–and I had a new set of headphones shipped here from Amazon as well, but that was before I discovered that my other headphones aren’t actually broken; they just needed to be charged. I’m not always the smartest of hikers. I’ll be shipping the headphones back at the next trail town tomorrow.

Waking early let me catch a bit of the sunrise, although it’s hard to see much of a sunrise out here because the trail is pretty much always in the forest. So it was more of the sun breaking through the trees as I broke camp. That was still nice though.

Shivered a bit through the night, which made it a bit more challenging to get out of the sleeping bag and start to trail, but warm tea helped. I think I mentioned that I’ve quit drinking coffee for a bit (don’t know how long), but I’ve been really enjoying tea and honey in the morning. I did the same on the Colorado Trail in 2018 and felt great in those miles too.

The first few miles of trail today were on a ride line that divides Tennessee from North Carolina. The views weren’t anything to write home over, but the trail itself had some fun features.

The mushrooms that I started the day with blossomed wonderfully into the early morning today. They caught me a bit off guard, despite the frequency that I’ve added them to my days on the AT, but I suspect that taking them with tea made the concoction bloom faster. Suffice to say, the early morning hours today were spectacular and radiant. Flowers are blooming. Leaves are growing. And it’s beginning to look less like spring and more like summer.

The heat is starting to feel a bit too much like summer too… but that’s another story. It’s going to be a hot hundred days of the AT, I’m afraid.

The Cellulitis infection in my left shin is unfortunately not getting better. If anything it might be actually getting a bit worse. It’s weird though, because it has improved a lot since last week when I started taking antibotics, but it is sort of stagnant now. So I’m at a problem.

I run out of antibotics tomorrow, but I need more. That’s my current puzzle. I had a friend ship the rest of my antibotics to me up trail, but learned today that he didn’t get them into the mail until… yesterday. That’s a big big problem. So I’m not going to get them in time and I need more.

I have the option of shuttling 30 miles up trail, going to Urgent Care, filling a new antibiotics script, shuttling BACK to where I am now, and then picking up the trail from there, OR I can continue on for another 24 miles, which will bring me to Ervine, where I can go to the Urgent Care. They don’t close until 8pm tomorrow, and based on my research, it seems unlikely that my foot is going to fall off between now and then. I do however need to get right the F*** on with my hike tomorrow and get those miles under foot so that I can get the script filled with quickness.

—

I met some of the other hikers who had passed me while I was laid up with my injury at Standing Bear last week. It’s been refreshing to be back in that bubble of people whom I’m familiar with. But also more exciting still that I’ll soon be getting into new groups of people ahead whom I have not met. That’s what I maybe want for the most right now. Because the trail is lonely. I do walk most of my miles alone. I hiked with a guy called Wild Onion today (yes he picked and shared a wild onion with me while we hiked). We were together maybe from 3-4 miles. I’ve met him a few times before, and we’ve been friendly, but never gotten to know one another all that well. I doubt that we’ll spend all that much more time together on this trail, as his daily miles are around 10 less than my own, but it’s been nice to chat about life for the time we did have. We’re also both camped at this hostel tonight and will shuttle back to trail together tomorrow.

That’s all that’s on my mind tonight.

Wormwood–out.

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.

AT Day 17

Miles: 0

Total Miles: 289.52

(Hot springs, NC)

It’s definitely getting to me.

This isn’t fun anymore.

Four days laid up with an infection in my distal, left leg, and now I have norovirus…

I made it 24 miles from Brown Gap yesterday to Hot Springs. Got checked into the campground, visited some other hikers at the brewery last night, and came back to camp around 9:30. I had a message on my phone from another hiker, warning that there’s a norovirus outbreak, likely coming from Standing Bear Hostel, where I stayed for 4 nights.

Several people were sick there, so it should be no surprise that I contracted it.

It was around 1am that I woke up last night. Puked violently for around 30 minutes, hobbled through the dark to the bathroom and showers (.3 miles away from my tent), then spent the rest of the night absolutely miserable.

It’s so frusterating. I’ve had better hygiene on this trail than any of the others I’ve hiked. I knew coming into this hike that Norovirus historically spreads on the AT every summer. But I guess I thought I was going to get through without catching it.

Impossible to say how I contracted it, but after 4 days at Standing Bear, I have to believe it was from there. I’ve counted 5 hikers who have contracted it in the last 3 days, and several more at Standing Bear who were sick while I was resting my injured leg.

Needless to say, I feel like garbage. Haven’t been throwing up since that first episode, but hot flashes, shivers, lethargy, no energy, and I feel like I got hit by a truck. My body hurts… bad.

Good news: while I was bobbling over to the bathrooms last night, trying to puke discretely on the side of the road (unsuccessful with the discretion part, by the way), I did observe that my ankle is feeling a lot better. So I’ve remedied that just in time to get knocked on my face by Noro.

It’s sunny today. Absolutely beautiful. It kills me to not be on trail, considering all the rain we’ve been having, but I couldn’t hike even if I tried. Just walking to the dollar general to get some pedialyte was about all I could do. I’m really rough today!

For all that I do like about the AT, it is not my favorite trail. At this time it’s quickly becoming the worst thru hike experience of my life. Today was the first time that the thought of quitting entered my mind–not in a really serious way, but in a way where I realized that nothing is forcing me to stay out here in this… except the things I’m probably running away from back home.

This is a really hard chapter for me.

I won’t go so far as to say that I regret being here, but I will say that the last 17 days have reinforced my belief that I don’t like the AT. The culture is fun, and the people are good, but just being real–this trail fucking sucks. There’s almost no scenery. It’s wet. Everyone is sick. All the bugs and snakes are new to me. I’m terrified of Lyme disease…

Honestly I want this to be done.

There’s only maybe 90-100 days to go from here.

I’m hopeful that I’ll be feeling good enough to hike tomorrow. The time down this week is bothering me. My mental health is struggling. Some of the other hikers who have been sick have reported 3-4 days of being unable to hike. But after all that down time at Standing Bear, I’m going to lose it if I have to stay here another day.

Trying to keep my chin up, but my head aches enough that even that’s uncomfortable.

Hoping for better luck, less committing, reduced leg infection, and higher spirits tomorrow.

—

Continued:

Okay, I was admittedly a bit harsh this morning. I was still hurting pretty bad and feeling nauseous.

It’s evening now, and I’m back in my tent. Symptoms have reduced, and I’ve been able to eat some dinner with a couple other hikers.

Learned lots about Norovirus through Google searching as I laid in my tent through much of the day. Learned that I should be immune to catching this again for the next six months or so… at least it’s through my system now.

Had bad shivers and hot flashes today while I laid on my tent. But I came out at around 5:30 and have felt a lot better since.

I’m going to try to get some sleep and a good breakfast tomorrow, then hopefully get back to trail from there. Unknown how many miles I’ll be able to hike, and will need to feel this noro-thing out, but I feel pretty confident that I’ll be ready to go back to trail tomorrow.

Shame I couldn’t have hiked today, especially with beautiful weather, but fortunate that this hasn’t hit me worse than it did.

We count our blessings.

Wormwood.