May 9th-May 12th

Thursday May 9th

By Cody

After 2 days of slack packing, we're back to packing full loads. Rick and Lola are heading out to new ground and I'm sure they are tired of shluping us around while on their vacation! We're grateful though because they helped us out alot! We weighed our packs before we left the cabin and I won, or lost I suppose, because my pack weighed the most. I clocked in at a whopping 48 pounds! That's waaaayyyy more than I should have, but I'm loaded down with dog food and lots of snacks for me. Ideally I'd have around 40, so hopefully I can knock that down some soon. Gary and Kaci both weighed in at 42, so that's much more manageable!  Rick and Lola dropped us back off at Carvers Gap just passed Roan Mountain and we headed north. What. A. Gorgeous. Day! It was beautiful! For the first time in several days there was abundant sunshine and warmth. We made a short climb up and were on Round bald. We had a great 360 degree view and enjoyed it their for a while. Our day was actually full of large balds and meadows--it was awesome! We made our way up another bald then made a short descent. We came across Yellow Mountain Gap and there was a sign marking the spot that a thousand American militiamen had crossed there in 1780 on their way to fight the British. We kind of stood there for a bit and I just tried to imagine a thousand men in ragtag uniforms with their horses and long barrels walking through that gap on their way to fight.  The sign said they won the battle so that was nice to see. There was also a shelter close by that was an old barn but had been changed over for shelter use. Gary checked it out, but Kaci and I passed. There was a steep climb up for a bit, then we came to another nice bald with another amazing view. We decided to stop and eat a bit and enjoy the amazing area. We sat on some big rocks and let the dogs off the leash so they could run around --they loved it! They tore around chasing birds and chewing sticks and you could tell the were having a great time! We also jumped around the rocks, messed around and took lots of goofy pictures just because we could. We made one last climb for the day and went up yet another bald to Hump mountain. It was about a 600 foot climb and it was steep but wow, what a view. It was yet another 360 view and we were mesmerized. We wanted to stay up there for the night to watch the sunset, but we were low on water and needed to fill up before setting up camp. We ran out of daylight so we decided to stop at the next spot. Finally, we came to Doll Flats which is right on the North Carolina/ Tennessee state line. The sign about 15 feet from our tent stated that we were leaving North Carolina for good, so that means 2 states completely done so far on our hike! We ended up doing about 12 miles total and had a great day! We all remarked how good a day we had and how we all needed a good day like that. It was a lot of fun and I hope there are more days like that. 

Friday May 10th

HEADLINE: "No rain" streak ends at 1!

We decided to get up early and crank out some miles, so we got up and broke camp around 9:30. Doll Flats is a meadow, so we had to deal with spiders and grasshoppers all over the tent. I guess Dexter didn't get enough sleep because he was very ornery this morning. He felt he need to yap at EVERY person and EVERY dog. We hiked alone for most of the morning. We did a quick 3 miles and crossed US 19 near the town of Roan Mountain before heading uphill. We crossed an area that is being monitored for the endangered Yellow Wing Warbler, but we didn't see any. Soon after lunch, the skies turned grey and the thunder started to rumble. It was only a 30% chance of rain for the day, and it opened up. If anyone reading this wants to travel to southern Appalachia, just assume if the weather says at least a 10% chance of rain, it WILL rain. We got soaked for a bit and had some close lightning, but made it through. We cruised by the Elk River for a bit, made our way up the hills and got soaked again. Not long after the 2nd soaking we came across Cannibal Curious and his girlfriend who had their two dogs with them. Dexter and I were first by them, Dexter and the other two dogs started barking at each other. I tripped over my feet and fell into a creek and mud. I scrapped up my knee a bit too. Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated with the rain/creek/bloody knee. Gary caught up with us and looked pretty mad. Apparently Roofus had pulled Gary down a hill, he got drug into the creek  (doing a few backflips along the way) and he was soaked! We were all mad, so we stopped at the next spot which was just up ahead. We had originally wanted to go 14 miles, but called it at 11 because it was a frustrating day. We camped near Mountaineer Falls which was a nice waterfall. We set up camp and called it a day. Hopefully better weather is around the corner! Oh, and we crossed the 400 mile mark today, WOOHOO!!!!

Saturday May 11

Woke up today to grey, misty skies. We were hoping that by some miracle we would see some sunshine, but to no avail. This is purely speculation, and I have no facts to back this up, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find an AT thru-hiking class that has had worse weather through the first two months than we have. I talked to some folks who thru-hiked last year, and he only got rained on 5 times on his whole hike, and 3 of those times were his choosing to hike that day, not because he had to! I don't want to complain too much because rain will happen, and we obviously know that, but it has rained SO MUCH over these last two months! We are so water logged and just want some warm sunshine. We got rained on most of today, on top of our wet clothes from yesterday, we are down to our last dry, clean clothes. The ones that are wet have this weird, pungent smell to them. We're assuming it is the beginnings of mildew, but it may just be a mix between the wet rain and sweat. We left camp around 1pm today because we just weren't really feeling it. In the world off of the trail, it would be a good day to lay on the couch under a blanket with a good book or watch a good movie. We agreed to just hike until 5pm, so that's what we did. Several people have been finding Morell mushrooms, so we took our time to scan for some. We didn't find any though. We have olive oil with us for the dogs, so were hoping to find some mushrooms to fry up for a good meal, or at least a snack. Not much else happened on the hike. We thought we'd be coming across some waterfalls we saw on the map, but we didn't see any. We ended up hiking 8 miles by 5pm, which wasn't too bad. We were completely soaked again and just ready to set up shop for the night. We chilled in our tent for a few hours and ate dinner then called it a day. Surely there will be better weather soon!

Sunday May 12th

Happy Mother's Day to all our moms! Luckily I was able to get a call into mom today and tell her. Lola is out hiking so Kaci sent a text to her,  Gary never got a signal, but I'm sure Linda knows Gary would have called if possible! We woke up to a very chilly morning, cold enough to see our breath! One would think May in Tennessee would be a tad bit warmer. We broke camp around 11. Our 2 days worth of nasty wet clothes are almost unbearable to smell and should probably just be burned. They're gag inducing.  The cold air mixed with grey skies again had us all in a funk. I had just commented that I felt like yelling to make myself feel better, so I did. Kaci said she could freak out herself. At that same time, Gary was trying to pack his tent away, but it wouldn't fit right, and he had a real freak out! He just made this crazy primal yell, ran, grabbed this random piece of plastic tubing that was at our camp, and chucked it as hard as he could into the woods! The best part was he fell when he threw it because the ground was wet and he rolled over on the ground and got more wet. Kaci and I were hysterical after watching this, which made him laugh, and we all felt better afterward. After this, we rolled out and had about 8 miles to do. Due to being out of clothes and just needing to warm up and dry out, we decided we would go back to the Black Bear Resort to rent a cabin where we stayed with Rick and Lola earlier this week. Luckily, I had a signal to call and we got the last one. These are more like a bunkhouse than a cabin, with a shower house and restroom in a building near by. One of the cleaner and newer places we've stayed, really a nice place. Believe it or not we had some sunshine during the afternoon. I was almost blinded by that big yellow thing in the sky since it had been so long since I'd seen it. It even warmed up a bit! It was a relatively easy hike and we arrived to the cabin around 3pm. We all took showers, piled up our stinking mass of nasty clothes and got them in the washer. Gary and I caught the shuttle into Hampton and went to Dollar General to resupply and grabbed McDonalds for all of us for dinner! I decided since it had been a tough go the last few days, I bought us each a Heineken that I felt was well deserved. I'm glad we chose spending the money on renting a cabin for tonight because the temperature is supposed to drop down to 32! As I write this, Kaci is reading and Gary is packing. We've gotten all the 'chores' done and are just going to relax all night in the warm cabin. I think clean laundry and full stomachs is exactly what we needed to lift our spirits after a cold, sloppy, wet slog the last 3 days. We are still motivated and excited to be on the hike, just ready for some warm sunny days to join us!! We are 50 miles out from Damascus, VA where will be arriving on Friday for Trail Days! Trail Days is the biggest hiker event on the AT and every hiker tries to make it there. We are planning on doing roughly 10 miles a day to arrive there on Friday the 17th. We will be taking several much needed days off. We are all looking forward to Virginia and hanging out in Damascus!