We beat the rain to Uncle Johnny’s Nolichucky Lodge. It’s right on the trail, exactly where the bridge carrying the AT over the Nolichucky River was washed away by the flooding of Hurricane Helene. It is quite an impressive site seeing the cracked bridge girders on the river banks and the destroyed bridge towers lying flat in the river. The history of reconstruction says that FEMA was very responsive and had begun the preliminary reconstruction process, but some type of conflict delayed FEMA’s reconstruction. It is now a local matter and a legal challenge has been filed due to some endangered species. The local people and AT community just need the bridge to be rebuilt as it was previously. Since the AT thru hikers are all visitors to the area and don’t really have a «dog in the fight» so to speak, we have to use a shuttle or walk down the road until the bridge is rebuilt.
The keyboard in the Hiker box
A hiker learned that he was writing a blog and had placed his folding keyboard in the hiker’s box. Hiker boxes at various locations are where things are handed out for others to consider using. It alerted me to the opportunity and at first I thought, «Oh my God, more weight,» but it’s pretty light. Then I thought the software compatibility issues that always occur with things like this would drag me into a vortex of frustration, but my iPhone picked up the Bluetooth signal and worked immediately. I’m typing this entry using the keyboard and the only physical problem is the space for the fold in the middle of the QWERTY keyboard and the need to move my thumb to press one of the split space bars. It’s amazing how these details only become interesting as small changes are made. Once you adjust your fingers, the foldable keyboard is pretty good. Of course, another thing is having to recharge from time to time. For now it has earned a place in my pack.Uncle Johnny
What a great place. Uncle Johnny’s has all the elements of a great hostel. Replenishment stock is as good as Mountain Crossings was at Neel’s Gap. They are definitely in tune with what hikers need at this point in their trail adventure. The Slack Pack options are good. It’s hard to come up with plans this week as bad weather is on the way. It’s not that walking in the rain is so bad, it’s the exposure two days ahead at Roan High Knob with thunderstorms and lightning predicted. Accepting a wet hike is one thing, being exposed on top of a long, gaping bald spot with lightning expected in the area can be a little difficult to deal with in wet shoes and socks. Also north of here is a very steep Hurricane Helene runoff and two of the shelters are closed, so it’s camping in the rain rather than cramming everyone into a shelter to try to keep gear dry. So I’m doing something new for me at 64: I’m learning to be patient as I look for the right weather window to climb the 13-mile climb and cross the ridge and open highlands. It’s a new arrow in my emotional quiver. It also gives me time to let my ankles and knees continue to heal from the almost overuse injuries from the first few weeks on the trail.
Church
Erwin, Tennessee is in the «Bible Belt.» A local person in the area told me that it is actually the “buckle,” as in the “Bible Belt” buckle, since there are about 90 churches in the city. First I looked for a Catholic church and none came up on Google. I then used AI to set some parameters for the church search. If I can’t find a Catholic church, I look for other denominations in the area. I also livestream a lot of masses when I have a signal. There’s a pretty impressive mass by Father David at Saint Martha’s, I believe, in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. I prefer big churches. I like music to be participatory versus interpretive and of course the denomination must have essentially all the elements of Christian churches. In my non-theological opinion, I don’t think we Christians really have many differences on the basics, it’s on the more detailed aspects where we may have disagreements. I agree with attending different denominations. I like Pope Leo and I am proud to be Catholic. I feel like I am “going deeper” in developing my faith, as the Pentecostal parishioner who spoke in tongues at that shelter in southern Pennsylvania said in my 22LASH. Today’s adventure was another fantastic day and I’m convinced it was guided because I again made all the right decisions to be in the right place at the right time and did things I normally wouldn’t have done. So, thinking there was no Catholic church in town, while searching, a “mission” church appeared. I didn’t really understand that a “mission” Catholic Church today is a branch of a larger regional parish. I thought a mission was a parish. Google showed a mass time of 10am and it was on the other side of town. Now Uncle Johnny’s has a great shuttle service, but they have a set schedule. Having to transport people over the bridge to exit the detour, they have to stick to their schedules. I would not have returned to the hostel after mass if I had tried to take the return transportation. I had already had to cut Mass a little short in Clayton, GA, to take the trip back to the shelter there, and I didn’t want to do that again. Uncle Johnny’s offers bikes to hikers to use to get in and out of town. Now these are stationary beach bikes, not road bikes with gears. I couldn’t resist, so I got on a bike. The other day I heard our shuttle driver mention that most of the bike trail that used to go from Uncle Johnny’s house to town had been washed away by the flood, yet she pointed out the secret to finding what was left of the trail. Ride to the end of a paved road, continue on gravel, go over what looks like a wooden bridge that should be destroyed, ride your bike over some fences and brush, and you’ll end up on the remaining part of the bike path that’s intact and no one uses. It will take you right to the necessary crossing of the Nolichucky Bridge, which has been rebuilt and is being used by all traffic. It was amazing. Add to that the threatening clouds that were swirling and looking like they were ready to burst with rain at any moment, and the result was one hell of a trip. I arrived at the address I had found in my search. It looked like a church, but it had the markings of a local nondenominational church, not a Catholic missionary church. I called the parish and the voicemail from the priest, Father Tom, mentioned a different address. I connected it to Google Maps and started. It was on the other side of town. The mountainous part of the city, with a heavy beach bike and a fast bike. To add to the adventure, the bike I had chosen, which was the fourth one I had to inspect to see if it worked, started showing problems with the chain coming off because I was putting too much power on the hill climbs. I had to put the chain back on three times and my hands were full of chain grease. I arrived at the mission with 5 minutes to spare and was able to wash the grease off my hands before sitting down for mass.bilingual mass
The missionary mass had about 100 attendees. 80 of them were Hispanic. There were children everywhere. The priest (I’m pretty sure it was Father Tom) did a great job speaking the prayers in both English and Spanish. His homily had an interpreter and they worked together perfectly. I was actually able to understand parts of the Spanish and the massive parts were not a problem as they are easily identifiable regardless of the language. It was a great experience. The music had familiar songs in English and Spanish. This bilingual thing really worked. On the way back to the hostel, the bike ride was mostly downhill. Being Sunday, the city is quite closed to the public. After that, massive food options were only found at the chain restaurants at the interstate highway interchange. However, I saw that a cafeteria away from the main street of the city had Sunday hours. It was run by a young couple who had started the business in a shopping center a little away from the main part of the city. The coffee was excellent and the breakfast sandwich was so good that I asked them to make me a second one that I wrapped up and took to the hostel for dinner. Last night I also bought a salad kit for dinner tonight when a group of us ate at the local cafe inside the local supermarket. Overall the food was pretty good.
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