AT Day 10

Miles: 4.69

Total Miles: 221.25

(Gatlenburg, TN)

This place is just weird. I don’t know how else to begin. Not the Appalachain Trail… although there’s plenty of weirdness to talk about on the trail. But I’m talking about Gatlenburg, TN.

I knew this place was going to be weird before even arriving. Its reputation precedes it. And I really didn’t want to come into Gatlenburg, but the last few resupply options have been extremely minimal, and ya’ boy is getting a little low on nutritional support. All I had left this morning was a snickers, some Jolly Ranchers, unflavored grits, and some “Cajun” trail mix. It would have been enough to get me a bit further down trail, but it was going to be about 42 miles to my next resupply option. And at 100-150 calories per mile being burned (conservatively), that wasn’t going to make it. I would have been starving by the end of Smokey Mountains National Park. And I’ve been starving on trails before. I didn’t want it to happen to me again right now.

Therefore… I’m in Gatlenburg.

I wasn’t planning on staying here long, but alas, here I am.

The plan was to drop down as quickly as I could, get to a food store, resupply, hopefully find a place to shower and do laundry, then get back to trail. Sounds simple, but after being on trail for almost two weeks, you get “hiker brain” in town, and it’s hard to not get distracted by all of the attractions… especially in a place like Gatlenburg.

This place is like Disney Land + Donald Trump + Guns + Bibles + Diabetes. It’s weird as fuck. Like a a more conservative version of Sedona, AZ with significantly less scenery. Don’t get me wrong–these mountains are beautiful around here, and the forest too, but it’s nothing like Sedona in terms of the scenery. So they make up for it with Dick’s Last Resort, a bunch of Riply’s Believe It Or Not stuff, arcades, bars, wine tastings, a bunch of pancake houses, and… shit… a lot of bible stuff. I walked into one of the Bible stores, which was also a Donald Trump store, and I could only get through around 45 seconds.

This place is just too much. Too overstimulating.

I had toyed with the idea last week, that maybe Gatlenburg would be the place to do what my friend and I did yesterday on trail, but when we were in the trip yesterday, rolling in the flowers, and pumping out miles, we both agreed that the mountains were the right place for it. Not down here in Donald Trump Disney Land.

—

Oh–so the plan WAS to go back to trail after food resupply, but right away when I got to town and opened my phone, Specs had texted me. He’s the guy I hiked with yesterday, and we’ve gotten along better than anyone else I’ve met on trail. He told me he’d hitched in from a place around 7 miles before where I came into town, and that he was mowing down on pancakes at the pancake house (one of at least three on this one strip).

Specs found a room for $50, but it didn’t open for us until 2pm, so we weren’t able to get showered and laundry done until around 4, then lunch/dinner at the burrito place… you get the picture.

It’s going to start raining tomorrow and it’s likely going to be very wet on trail for the next 10 days. It’s been a nice run of good weather up until now, but for a bit it’s going to be soggy. As such, getting our gear all cleaned and organized before going out into it seemed like a good idea. And Specs really wanted me to stay for the evening and not go back to trail. We’ve gotten along well.

So we’re back here at the hotel now. Specs had another round at the burrito place and also hit the Cici’s pizza all you can eat buffet. I’m pretty sure he’s put on around 30lbs in Gatlenburg so far, but who can blame him–he’s an ECT hiker and has walked almost 1,700 miles to get here. He’s also lost a lot of weight on trail–mostly muscle, but he’s trying to build it back.

On that note, I’m still in the pushup game every day. 10x per mile, and I’m extremely pleased with the results so far. My upper body is staying strong, and although there are places like my biceps that are clearly losing mass, the overall upper body muscle is remaining. So that feels validating, considering how much of a pain in the ass it has been to get 100-300 pushups every day out there.

So back to trail after breakfast tomorrow. There are several hikers I’ve talked to who are going to wait out at least some of the storm here in Gatlenburg, but it doesn’t feel right to me. I don’t need to stay in this weird place. I want to get back to trail.

It’ll be another two days in Great Smokey Mountains National Park, then around 150 miles dancing between the Tennessee/North Carolina border. My next resupply town will be Hot Springs, NC in around 3 days.

Wormwood Out.

AT Day 9

Miles: 26.98

Total Miles: 216.56

(Mt Collins Shelter, TN)

Warning: These journals moving forward will discuss drug use. My hope in sharing these parts of the story are to educate and share what I hope to model as responsible use. If this isn’t your jam, please don’t read today’s entry.

—

Today was the absolutely most magical day that I’ve had on the AT, or possibly any of the long trails that I’ve hiked. It was absolutely unbelievable in every sense of the word.

I had considered doing this thing that we did as I climbed up into the Smokeys yesterday afternoon. I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the high mountain flowers up here, so much so that I decided that today I wanted to do something special. Something came prepared to do on trail, but didn’t know when it would happen.

And I didn’t even realize until later today, that April 19th is considered Bicycle Day, until after we were already into it.

—

Last night I camped by the shelter with several other hikers, none of whom I’d met before. I didn’t really connect with any of them, except one lent me a lighter to start my Jet Boil because I had left mine back at camp.

That hiker ended up heading out of camp early this morning and getting right to trail. It kind of caught me off guard, as I was hoping to be one of the first to trail this morning. I wanted to have the time and space to myself, and I knew that none of the other AT hikers would be near, as we’re all required to camp at shelters in the National Park. So the next nearest hiker would be 5 miles up ahead at the next shelter, and if I got to trail first I’d mostly have the trail to myself this morning.

But that hiker bolted right back into camp about 30 seconds after he walked by me, breaking my own camp and packing my pack.

“Hey, do you guys want to see a bear?!” He asked. And immediately I darted up to follow him up trial.

Ultimately we never ended up seeing the bear again, but for some reason, in the moment, it seemed appropriate to ask if he wanted to join me for the day and take part in the adventure I was about to get into.

“Hey man,” I said to him. “I was just about to take acid and start hiking for the day. Do you want to join me?”

He said yes, and it ended up being the first time I’ve had a trip like that with an otherwise complete stranger.

He’s an ECT hiker, meaning that he’s been hiking from Florida and started at the end of December. He’s strong, but ultimately we realized after most of the day together that we aren’t as close to one another’s pace as we’d like to be. But I was able to slow down a bit today and he was able to speed up a bit today. And what resulted was one of the best L experiences of my life.

We were both experienced in it, and both experienced out here on trail, so we both knew that the other could handle things if we needed to go independent and seperate.

The flowers and the mountains were a kind of unbelievable that can’t be put into words. The forest danced and breathed and the colors flowed from the sky to the leaves to the trail and back into us. We both wondered about the journeys of the little beetles alongside the trail and whether their wanderings and wondering were any more or any less important than our own.

Time and space became very slippery.

We smiled with intensity for miles, although the meaning of a mile lost most of its meaning to us along that first hour or two out from camp.

We realized that 5 miles had passed like the blink of an eye, while we both reminisced about our past relationships with friends and lovers, reflected about our lives and our hikes of the AT so far. We talked about how we’ve both been affected by the trail up to here, and how we expect to be changed further from here.

He was a super solid dude. A bit younger than me, but then everyone seems to think that I’m younger than I am, so it kind of fits that I end up hiking with others who are a little bit younger.

Up to today he had only done up to about 15 miles per day, but we both toyed with the idea of doing big big miles and doing 33 today to get past newfound gap. Ultimately we decided not to.

The trip peaked and passed mostly in the first five hours today. Even into the evening I was glowing however. This place is absolutely magical!

The other hiker I was with liked taking breaks more than I do, so at one point we just pulled aside on trail and melted into the little purple flowers and grasses. It was a rare day for me to actually relax for a bit.

We hiked together until the early afternoon, maybe 6 or 7 hours before the heat of the day got to him and he peeled back. We may see one another tomorrow in Gatlenburg. Or at Trail Days, or up ahead on the AT. Hard to say.

But after so much time hiking alone last week, I’m finally starting to feel like I’m finding my people, and that feels really good.

Ultimately I ended up hiking about 27 miles today, about 4.5 miles short of Newfound Gap where I’ll hitch into Gatlenburg tomorrow for resupply.

So much more to say, but it’s becoming late and I’m camped here around at least a dozen other hikers who can undoubtedly hear my fingers on a keyboard, so I better call it.

With love.

Wormwood.

Happy bicycle day!

AT Day 8

Miles: 18.20

Total Miles: 189.58

(Mollie Ridge Shelter, TN)

Today was the first day on trail that I set an alarm and actually stuck with it. Well, to be fair, I still slept in an extra fifteen minutes after hitting snooze. But what I mean is that I was motivated to get up and get to trail this morning. So much so that I was able to catch the sunrise while I sipped coffee.

Shoot–that’s what I didn’t get at the resupply–coffee. I’m going to be without caffeine for the next couple of days.

Based on the reputation I seem to be getting on trail, most of the hikers will probably say that is okay. A lot of people make comments about my energy. I’ve been trying to ride that wave the whole trail so far. I don’t know if it’s a high vibration that I can keep up for the whole time I”m out here, but I’d like to try. It’s kept me chipper, and I’ve seen it have the same effect on others. Some people maybe it annoys.

But I like rolling into camp, at the top of the biggest climb that we’ve seen so far on the AT, and arriving full of energy and excitement. I’ve been carrying beer with me back to trail, but not real beer. I’ve been carrying two NA beers out of towns, and when I get to dinner or to camp, it’s just felt so good to crack a beer. I tend to get sideways glances from the others, but I try to make it known that it’s NA, and that it’s really more just about the moment and the novelty of having it up here that makes carrying the extra weight up into the mountains worth it.

But this morning… I was onto something there… I was camped about 4 miles from the road where the shuttle to the Fontaine Lake Dam Resort shuttle picks up, and they shuttled me and two other hikers in to an all you can eat breakfast. Admittedly it wasn’t anything special, but it was all you can eat French toast sticks. So that was awesome. It’s places like this that I meet other hikers mostly. I hike faster than most of them, so I don’t really meet many on trail. But I like to chill with them in town or while I have dinner at the shelters.

I was able to get laundry and a pretty bare bones resupply from the general store that’s either going to carry me 40 or 60 miles, depending on how I’m feeling tomorrow. Mostly it’s a lot of junk food, because that’s about all that they had available to buy there, but I feel like I’m doing okay. I’m still doing the 10x pushups for every mile I hike every day, and Ive found that throwing my foam pad down on the dirt to do them makes it way easier. I feel really strong still. Amazingly, I’m 8 days in and feeling stronger than when I started. No alcohol probably helps. Shit… I was doing pull-ups at the shelter and was able to get a solid 18x, so I’m not really losing any upper body strength yet. It’s still early, but it’s promising.

I shuttled back with the other two hikers, got a shower at this fancy shelter by the lake dam, and then walked across the dam and into the third state of the trail: Tennis see. It also represented the entrance to Smokey Mountain National Park.

The rest of the day was basically up hill. I met some college kids at the top of one of the climbs where there was an old fire watch tower, and I blew some bubbles. That general store didn’t have shit for resupply, but it had bubbles. So I’ve added that to my base weight. It reminds me to slow down and be silly. I probably didn’t need the reminder on the latter.

Within the park however, I’m required to camp at designated camp sites or shelters, of which there are not a lot, compared to the frequency that I find them south of here along the AT. But I get it, this is a national park, and so they want to keep it less trampled.

The climb was a bit rough, but the air cooled when I got higher up and later into the day. Down low I used my umbrella to block the sun–a trick that I didn’t think I’d end up using out here. But up high it was more tollerable.

I got here, to this shelter and shared camping area a couple of hours ago. Another hiker was commenting that it’s the latest that she’s hiked into the day. It was by far the earliest that I’ve set camp since starting the trail. But it was either here or continue on for another 8 or 9 miles. I could have done it physically, but it seemed silly to do so. These mountains have been by far the most beautiful scenery that I’ve seen yet on trail, and I feel no rush to rush. I know that some people will still accuse me of doing so, but I’m consciously slowing down compared to my standard pace.

That said, tomorrow I think I’m going to do big miles. I’d like to maybe get 33. Or I could aim for 30, which will bring me to Newfound Gap, where I can hitch into Gatlenburg for resupply and a bunk at a hostel. But I think I may have enough (junk)food to get me through the park if I bust two big days. It’ll necessitate getting up early tomorrow, so I’m going to set an alarm, but if the day leads me to feel like slowing down, then I also have the option of just melting out, shortening my miles, and resupplying in Gatlenburg a day later. One more thing to consider however–there’s rain in the forecast starting Monday. I have two full days of clear weather before that, and thank God I’m in the park for the good weather and not the bad. But if I can do big miles in the good weather, then I can consider doing a zero day once I’m north of the park on Monday while I see how the weather plays out. I know I’ve been amazingly fortunate with weather so far. It rained and hailed that first day, but I was in such bliss that day that it didn’t matter. I can imagine that spirits at this mile of the trail would be a lot harder to keep high if it had been raining this whole time. I’m prepared for just that, but grateful that the weather has been so nice up to now.

Froze my ass off three nights back. Had the hostel in NOC two nights back. Last night was windy but comfortable. Tonight feels like it will be the same–windy but comfortable.

I’m really enjoying this experience of being on trail more than I even know how to say. It will not last, not like it feels right now. But right now it feels good.

Wormwood.