"Always looking at the ground so I don't trip. I don't see anything but ground and now and then a newt, salamander or snake." LabRat, 5/30/10, Calf Mountain Shelter
"Deep in thought, walkin' the walk." Kimazoid, 4/23/11, Birch Run Shelter
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| Sensei (left) and Delaware Dave on Max's Patch (March 17, 2011) |
After the Smokies we find our stride. It's not a real stride quite yet but it resembles
a stride. We're traveling about 15 miles a day. I've lost 18 pounds. We're also able to enjoy a handful of the better hostels and towns along the trail. In Hot Springs, North Carolina we try to stay at a beautiful hostel that offers organic, homemade cooking but we get snubbed by the pompous buffoon who runs the place. He tells us that they are short one bed. One of us can sleep on the floor, right? I ask.
I'm not sure what you people are used to... he says. Worse, he is surrounded by about 3 giggling yes-men who sort of nod and seem to be harmonizing with him, saying, You dirty people may be used to motels but we run a high class joint here. I don't know what all the giggling boys are doing there nodding their heads for this pseudo-intellectual prick but I have a guess. Enjoy your upscale establishment that charges $25 a night, assholes.
It will be a recurring theme that people think hikers are homeless plebes. Only I take offense. Sensei was ill and vomiting so he takes one of the beds with Delaware Dave. Guido, JT Hill and I head over to the Iron Horse Inn and get a nice room.
While resupplying at the sophisticated Dollar General, JT Hill chats with a few girls and gets an invite to meet them at the only bar in town. We later meet them while Sensei goes to the snotty hostel to recover and hydrate.
The girl I'm talking to in the group refers to an ex-boyfriend as an old "partner." I don't care if you're gay or straight--just use the words boyfriend and girlfriend. When I casually mention that it's funny how we picked them up in a Dollar General, she gets noticeably pissy. What's the point of dating? There is none. I detect no gratitude from her that we're here. We all go home alone to hike another day.
We leave town with Sensei a day behind, recovering, and we push on. The hiking begins to get monotonous now. 8 hours of uninterrupted thought is hard to cope with at first. Everything looks the same--dead, winterized forest. I find myself thinking of things that were buried in small passages of my mind. It's a colonic of the brain out here.
We eventually make it to Erwin, Tennessee and check into a hostel there. It's one of the more famous places on the trail, Uncle Johnny's. Sensei catches up with us the next morning. Before we leave town we go out to celebrate Guido's 21st birthday in Johnson City. We mostly sit in our booth with our ragged hiker clothes and beards, hiding behind our beers. We gawk at plenty of girls and leave peacefully.
The next day we leave town and Sensei is back on pace with us. Sensei and I have a conversation about picking up the pace (something we've been talking about for a while), and decide to do our first 20+ mile day. It's overdue. We crank out 22 miles on March 27th and we don't look back. JT Hill and Guido decided not to keep pace and we haven't seen them since.
Moving along nicely now.
Just at 1,814.9 miles remaining.
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