Days 115-118: No more free cards to get out of the rain

Leaving camp, we questioned whether we really needed to resupply. It would have been a good safety net in case we needed a little extra food, but we actually had enough to get by.

Nick got a call from Fresh Ground. I wanted to know where we were. You recently received a letter from the state of Tennessee saying that you were not allowed to cook or serve food in this state without a food service license of some type. What a fool! It’s not a restaurant, but just a guy who prepares some meals in his van for hungry hikers. We were excited when he received this call; We thought we would soon receive a hot meal. We realized we might not see him again since we would be in and out of Tennessee for most of the rest of our trip.

At the time we were feeling a little frustrated with Tennessee. In addition to this news, we noticed that there are practically no toilets in any of the shelters. We have the means to dig cat burrows, but it really sucks to squat early in the morning when the stiff hiker body is still warming up. Obviously we’d suck it up and deal with it because that’s just the way it is, but Tennessee is losing some points in our book!

Shortly after this phone call, we pulled out onto a road and someone was yelling at us from a parking lot. Trail magic! This quickly changed our dejected mood.

Emoji has been making magic on the trails for about a decade. The trunk of your little Honda is packed with short-term resupply options, snacks, and other things we might need. I had a Gatorade and Nick had a soda. We chose a few items to ensure we reached Erwin without needing to stop. This was the most perfect gift we have received in a long time. She even gave us some of her poems that she had written in previous years while sitting in that same place.

Shortly after our Emoji stop, we found some sticks scattered on the ground in the shape of 4 0 0…. Four hundred miles left. Wow. These hundred mile milestones in our countdown feel bigger than the first few hundred miles we hiked in the beginning. This is really happening and it looks like we are going to end it.

We begin our ascent towards the Roan Highlands. From time to time we went out to nice grassy fields.

We crossed the border into North Carolina for the first time and saw some beautiful wildflowers as we meandered along the trail.

The climb was very well graded and after a few false summits we finally broke the tree line into some stunning grassy areas.

The weather was very changeable and storms were forecast, but it was very cold to be there. We stopped at a nice viewpoint to have a snack before continuing up.

We toured the Hump and Little Hump Mountains. Just one last climb and descent before reaching camp for the night.

Our overnight stop would be the former Overmountain Shelter tent site. There is a spring and a jeweled privy for your enjoyment. A group from the Blue Ridge Hiking Company was also there. We shared a pleasant conversation and enjoyed the afternoon.

The next day was our last few miles in the Roan Highlands area. We were at eye level with the clouds and it was an incredible sight.

It’s a very short walk from a parking lot to these balds, so we ran into a lot of day hikers.

Roan Mountain was mostly wooded, but we were able to jump into the old parking lot at the Cloudland Hotel site and use their bathrooms and trash cans.

We finally reached an important detour route from Helene. There are some rescue searches being done on the actual AT with heavy machinery, so we have a detour. Still, the damage is incredible.

We traveled almost the entire detour under a heavy downpour. We decided to leave it for today next to a stream. It was all wet and we just wanted to be in the tent where we had dry clothes.

The next morning a tragedy occurred. I bought some packets of oatmeal at a hostel a few days ago and started making myself oatmeal and Carnation Instant Breakfast. It was dark and the red light was on, so I didn’t see it at first, but just before I picked up my food to eat it, I noticed something was a little off. There were a lot of small, dark, seed-like things. INSECTS. At least fifteen insects killed by the oats he had gotten.

This was so twisted. I threw it in an old food bag and put it in my garbage bag, and ate a protein cookie instead. We have started to realize that restocking at shelters is a bad decision like SOBO. Much of the food offered by hostels is from the beginning of the season and is not rotated like in a typical store. We and some others we have been with have had rotten, deeply expired and now buggy food. Oh.

Since it’s raining again, the cute little red effects are back too! They are some of my favorite animals on the entire tour, although we see them more than most.

It was moody and cloudy outside again. The rain had eased, but the clouds were thick.

We arrived at the site of the washed out bridge in Erwin around 2pm. We took a shuttle to take the 3.6 mile detour that takes you through the city. We arrived at Uncle Johnny’s Hostel and cleaned up a bit before completely demolishing some Taco Bells and completing our food resupply.

We got up the next morning and left around 9am.

Our climb made us go uphill. Halfway there, we ran into our old friend Nope, who we met just before we went off trail at Delaware Water Gap.

There was a strange ferris wheel inside a tree.

Our day ended quite early. The rain had turned good for us and we wanted to be able to stay at least a little dry in a shelter instead of our tent.

A group from the SAWS (Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewardship) program was stationed at the same refuge we stayed at. It was great to talk to them and learn more about their organization.

It’s time we paid our rain dues. We have had a total of about 5 hours of hiking in the rain since we started hiking in early June. The forecast looks like it awaits us next week.

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