We’ve got a plan. A six day plan to get to Erwin, TN. It’s only 70 miles so we should be cruising in easily on Tuesday. We decided to celebrate by starting the journey with a hearty breakfast at Smoky Mountain Diner. As soon as we walked in we saw a bunch of hikers we knew, plus met several more from the front edge of the bubble. Most interesting was a guy we sat next to, Scars. Scars was in the CIA for 32 years and has attempted to write a few novels based upon his experiences, but highly modified and factionalized. The biggest obstacle is that the CIA must ok the books for release and they are dragging their feet a bit for events to pass into distant memory. He retired last year but his wife still has 5 years to go, so it’s natural for him to try a thru-hike.
After breakfast, we went to the library to get caught up on blogging. Lady Bug, Postcard, Stickers, Thor, Pit Boss, and Play by Play were all in there taking advantage of the free internet. The WiFi was really fast so we were all done and ready to go by 11. We tried to wait for everyone else to finish up, but we were getting antsy because our plan calls for a little over 11 miles and we are slow hikers. If we don’t leave before noon, we will be hiking well past 7 tonight. We headed out at 11:30.
On the way out of town, we stopped to throw rocks in French Broad River for Alice and the memory of her sister and brother, Marsha and Paul. There was a little confusion so we ended up throwing rocks in just about every stream along the way. We eventually threw rocks in the right river.
The hike started out with a quick 900’ climb. We stopped at Lovers Leap Rock (doesn’t every river and bluff have a Lovers Leap?—it’s pretty amazing there is anyone still alive with all the scorned lovers leaping to their deaths all over the world) for some nice views of Hot Springs. We kept looking back and expecting to see people overtake us, but no one was there.
Once we got up near the top of the climb, we encountered the most dreaded white substance to hikers (no, not cocaine, that really helps the hiking pace, but we don’t partake)—snow! Not again! We were really hoping that the snow was gone after the Smokies. We were hoping for warmer temperatures to melt all the snow today, but it’s not happening. As soon as we got up, the temps dropped to near freezing. The snow and ice really slowed us down. It’s going to be a late night.
I saw a side trail to fire tower where we were almost dared to try to climb it. It was only 0.1 mile off the AT so I went to take a look. The first 20’ of stairs was missing and the structure on top looked derelict. The risk outweighed the potential benefit by a factor of 10. I passed. Bunny was waiting on the trail for me to return and pick up my pack.
We got to the shelter by 7. Firestarter and two older guys were inside the shelter already in bed. Swass and Flo (& Remmy, their cool dog) were finishing up dinner and talking with Sour Kraut. There was room in the shelter for us, but we opted to set up out tent to leave space for Stickers and Lady Bug who were surely following.
By the time we got done with supper, hanging bear bags, getting the tent ready, etc., no one had shown up yet. Apparently the “old people are cool” was goodbye gift from them and they suckered us into leaving town and getting ahead. Bunny asked me why I’m so paranoid with people ditching me so I had to remind her that my sister was 10 years older than me and my brother is 8 years older. The first 10 years of my life the only memories I have are being tricked into being ditched by them and fighting for table scraps with the dog (the reason I eat so fast). Life is not all roses when you are “Easily Forgotten.”
EFG
You guys are cool! Thanks for the update!
Cold is a better word—-cool implies widely accepted 😉