Past 100 Miles!

And now we just have to do this 21 more times… oh.

 

These last 5 days have been some of the best so far. We’ve gone past the Georgia/North Carolina border and I’m feeling strong! It’s also been a really nice feeling to have such a supportive group to hike with. In my last post it was just me, Brittany (now “My Shadow”) and Katrin (now “Finch”). I’m still hiking with them plus a fourth compatriot, Rubie (aka “Mountain Goat”). She’s an Ausie and is also from a coast town about 3 hours south of Sidney. As she’d say, we’re both sober 12 days from the ocean. Having a group of four has been a huge help here in Franklin. Splitting a room in an actual hotel four ways made it cheaper than a hostel, plus, there’s a pool. Not a very nice pool, but it was still a treat. It was also nice to go over all the logistics of sending food ahead two weeks. It would be a lot more rough managing that on my own. Our reasoning for doing this are as follows: the resupply in Fontana Village right before the Smokies isn’t the best, so this way we get to have everything a large grocery store can offer. There’s also a second resupply we did to Standing Bear Hostel just outside of the Smokies that will get us to Hot Springs NC. The plan so far is 5 days to Fontana Village, 6 days to the hostel outside of the Smokies, and then just 2 days to Hot Springs where we’re already planning our stay at the resort and celebrating my slightly belated 21st birthday.

The weather has been extremely forgiving for me so far. I haven’t had a night below freezing and I’ve had only one day of rain. I almost hope we get foul weather in the Smokies just so I had a good reason for all this winter sleeping gear. I’m sure it will happen but still, who really can tell. Here’s a good photo of us minus Mountain Goat. This was the evening before she joined us.

Here’s another photo from that campsite, we had a nice little fire going then.

A routine chore on the AT is filtering water.

Typically you’d think getting to the summit of a long climb would be exciting. Here’s what it looks like.

But this is where the majority of my time is spent, the trail.

Today we took a Zero and sent that food ahead. The beginning was very hectic, trying to figure out how many nights of food, how to get around town, and My Shadow even had to get some document notarized. I doubt we would have been able to accomplish all this if it weren’t for the amazing help of a man named David. We got his number from another shuttler in town and I honestly didn’t know what to expect. What happened was amazing. David is an older man, I’d say in his upper 80’s. He has a fast wit and a great humor. He basically said that he’d give us all a ride around town and even took us out to lunch (we covered the tab). It was an all you could eat Asian buffet, and it was honestly really good food. Not what I expected from such a place. He took us from our hotel to a bank, then the post office, then lunch, Walmart, an outfitter, and then back to our hotel. Oh, and he didn’t charge us, just said that “We take care of our hikers in North Carolina!”. He was damn right. Last night we were all too tired to go out for dinner so we just grabbed some food at the Ingles next to the hotel. Here’s me and My Shadow splitting a rotisserie chicken and 6 pack (a new staple of ours).

I’d say I’ve found a better group then I could ever had hoped for and am extremely grateful. Here’s to Katahdin!

-Orion, fed and content as could be…