May 4-8th

Saturday May 4th-Monday May 6th

By Cody

What a lovely 3 days we had in Erwin...or not. I went to bed Friday night at 1145, feeling fine. 130am rolls around and that has changed drastically. I woke up shivering and shaking and I couldn't stop, as well as my stomach going nuts. I hurried myself to the bathroom where I promptly threw up all my dinner...the dreaded Norovirus had struck. The Norovirus is the dreaded 24 stomach bug that's been spreading like wildfire along the AT, and Erwin has been infested. I had several trips to the boys room that night the puke amongst other things and finally calmed down around sunup. I told Kaci and Gary there was no way I could hike and we decided to stay again Saturday. Kaci did a great job taking care of me and made a store run to get me Gatorade. Mama Goose gave me some stuff to calm my stomach and make me sleep. There's not much I can report from Saturday because I didn't leave the tent for almost 24 hours because I was asleep. I was only awake an hour or two until 7am Sunday morning. Kacis parents made it back to the area and Rick set up camp with us while Lola started her section hike. I believe everybody had a very chill day. On Sunday I woke up feeling better so I took a shower. The monsoon had set in and it rained alllllll day. Rick made sausage and bacon for breakfast and we spent all day in our tents. Gary fashioned an old tarp and connected our tents so we stopped feeling so isolated! We played some trivia on Kacis Kindle and it helped to pass the time. Rick brought down some food for us From Dats Cajun restaurant in Bloomington, IN for us! He was talking to the owner Bob Crowley who is a former marine, and he and Rick got us 40 pounds of food! It was amazing! So Sunday evening we cooked Thai Peanut Ettofe and buffalo chicken. It was donated to Warrior hike, but since we had 40 pounds we were able to feed the whole hostel! Needless to say everybody was loving us! I'm not sure spicy Cajun was the best choice on my still sensitive stomach, but I mowed it down anyway, and enjoyed every bit of it! Dats is delicious anyway and after seeing how generous the owner is, I hope his good intentions don't go unnoticed! If you live In the area and love Cajun, go to Dats in Btown! It's right on 4th street next to all the other houses converted into restaurants! You WILL NOT regret it! That night we went to bed and it was still raining. We got 2 inches during the day and another inch over night.  A couple  people were camping along the river and were hesitant to move their campsites to higher ground, but they finally decided too. It's a good thing because the Nolichucky River rose really fast over night and they would have gotten washed away! I was standing on the bridge watching whole trees float under me, it was crazy! I hadn't seen a river that flooded in a long time. Monday  we got up and the forecast was  still crappy. Since I was still recovering, we took one more down day. We moved up to Black Bear Resort where Rick and Lola were staying because they had room for us. They took us to an Outfitter in Johnson City and we messed around for the day. We were all getting cabin fever and ready to hit the trail again since we had been off for 3 days. The weather this year has been nuts. I never would have guessed we would have this much rain so far. It's not that we're being fair weather hikers, it's just not smart to head into the mountains when it's raining 2 inches per day and 45 degrees. Every hotel and hostel along his stretch of AT was full with all the hikers coming down. Being wet for one day is one thing. Being wet and cold for multiple days is another and can get you in trouble fast! 

Tuesday May 7th

Regardless of weather, we were heading out. My stomach had calmed down and I think I finally kicked the bug. Because we missed so much time, Rick offered to help us slack pack and get some miles made up. In order to maximize miles, we chose to start today at Iron Mountain Gap and hike southbound back to Erwin. This way we would flip flop and have less climbing and more downhill. This was going to be a 20 mile day, so we wanted to knock it out the easiest way possible. The first 8 miles of the day were awesome. Good weather, and good terrain. We climbed Unaka mountain where it is beautiful. The whole top is covered with spruce forest, so we felt like we were in a completely different place. It smelled great, and was jus really pretty. We messed around up there and took lots of pictures. After that we started getting into hiker mode and headed out. By this time the weather was setting in and we needed to hurry. We ended up getting rained on for a good 2 1/2 hours, go figure. I learned my lesson from our first slack pack and actually brought my rain coat! Most of the afternoon was downhill so the terrain was good, but we were above the cloud line, so we had no views. Most of it was spent with our heads down watching our footing and just hiking hard to go fast. The rain finally quit for a bit and we kept chugging along. Of course the last mile into Erwin it started raining again. We ended up covering 20 miles in 8 hours and 45 minutes. We couldn't get out of Erwin fast enough and I was so glad to see that town in our rearview. We spent way to much time and money in that town over the days we were stuck there and it felt good to move on!

Wednesday May 8th

Today was another extremely gloomy day. I tell you what, we can't catch a break on this weather. Kaci decided to take the day off today because she was really feeling that 20 miles she did on an already sore knee. Gary and I were feeling good so we went out to tackle a 15 mile slackpack. We started out at Carver Gap and went southbound again today back to Iron Mountain Gap where we started yesterday. We did this because we wanted to go up Roan mountain on the shorter side instead of making the big climb up, and we could go faster. We climbed up to the top and started back down making really good time. We passed alot of the same people and they kept asking "didn't we pass you yesterday?!" We said we were just taking advantage of the slackpack while we could! We didn't have any good views at all today. We were completely socked in all day, mostly above the cloud line, so there wasn't much to look at. We felt like really stepping it out today so we pushed it pretty hard. We ended up doing 15 miles in 5 hours and 40 minutes which is slightly less than 3mph, which is a pretty fast clip. I enjoy hiking fast once in awhile, but I wouldn't want to go that fast everyday. I'd rather move slower and stop and smell the roses so to speak. Some days we'll fly, but I like the slow and steady variety more. We've done 35 miles the last 2 days, so were making up some time. We're back to only needing to do 10 miles a day over 9 days to make it to Damascus on time. Rick and Lola are moving up north tomorrow, so were hiking out again with full packs like normal. We will be starting at Carvers Gap again and heading north like normal. I'm sure our  packs will feel like we're carrying bricks after slackpacking for 2 days! I weighed my pack and it weighs 46 pounds right now. Thats quite a bit of heavier then Id like, but Im loaded down with food, so that should get lighter soon. We're hoping to do 15 more tomorrow since the majority is downhill. Hopefully we can do a couple more big days to    take a zero day without falling behind. We are just desperate for some sunshine. This miserable weather is just depressing and we just want some sun and nice weather for a few days to dry out! The forecast so far looks good for a few days, so hopefully it pans out. The terrain is getting a little flatter from here on out, so were looking forward to less mountains and more flatness! Hope we can update again soon. Until then, take care everybody!