Erwin, TN to Damascus,VA

This 5 day stretch was great!  I have now ran into about 8 other thru-hikers along with some great long section hikers and have enjoyed the company of others along the trail.  One worth noting is a 20 year old kid from New Jersey attempting to complete the trail in 100 days.  This has resulted in him putting in some long days!  His trail name is Glacier and it has been really fun running into him from Hot Springs to Damascus, but I have a feeling he is going to leave me in the dust as I take a zero here and he moves on.  There are quite a few others that I have been able to camp with as well, which made a couple of nights on the last stretch really enjoyable.

My favorite part of the trail on this last stretch was by far the Roan Highlands!  This was an amazing bald that lasted miles and was so beautiful.  It didn't hurt that I had great weather while I was walking across it, made for a wonderful hike!  During this stretch I left the border and moved into just Tennessee, and near the end crossed over into Virginia, so I am now in state number 4!  There were some great lunch time views along this stretch as well!  As far as miles go, I was able to do 4 twenty-six mile days in a row then an 18 into Damascus, so I am really getting into shape.  However, I felt pretty well starved on the trail even though I had eaten what I considered 6 days worth of food in 4 and a half days.  The hiker hunger has begun!

Newfound Gap to Erwin, TN

The majority of this stretch has been on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee.  There has been quite a bit of rain which has meant shelters most nights for me.  I really enjoy the different mini-society that forms in each shelter for just a night.  During this last week of hiking I have been with a group of teachers, old stoners from Georgia I could not understand for the life of me, grungy hippie thru-hikers, and some quiet guys.  Each night in a shelter is a completely new and entertaining experience.

The highlight of the hiking has definitely been 'the balds'.  They have gotten much bigger on this stretch, and I actually passed by 'Big Bald' yesterday in some decent weather and got some nice views west to Tennessee and east to North Carolina.  It has also been fun catching up to some other thru-hikers and getting to know them, many are from the north east and it is a foreign experience for us all traveling through the south.  I am currently staying at Uncle Johnny's Hostel right off of the trail with about 7 other long distance hikers.  Its nice to be in a bit of a crowd for a change!

A major highlight of this stretch was getting to see an old hometown friend in Hot Springs, NC.  Ally Stacher is living in Asheville and rode her bike up to have lunch with me for the day.  It was so much fun to see her looking so healthy and happy and hearing her amazing stories about traveling around the world racing her bike.  I absolutely love when people come and see me in trail towns!!  Hot Springs was a great little stop over for a quick night at Elmers, with a great breakfast to send me off in the morning.

The trail is going great and I am so excited to have caught up with a group of people to hang out with on the hike for awhile!

Bly Gap to Newfound Gap

Made it to mile 200 yesterday!!  I am now rewarding myself with my first true zero in Gatlinburg, TN.  I am not really done with North Carolina yet, the trail walks along the border of NC and TN for awhile then goes back and forth.  Since Georgia, I have been seeing some beautiful country, saw 7 bear (one mama with 3 cubs and one with 2), made my way to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, which is stationed on the Nantahala river, great little stop for some real food and a little bit of live music for a night.  After that I had a day and a half of great weather getting me to Fontana Dam.  While at the shelter just south of Fontana Dam it started to rain.  The others that were staying there said that it was supposed to last the whole next day...

I took this as an opportunity to try out my rain gear!!  So I got all of my 'special gear' (sleeping bag and electronics) wrapped in trash bags, put the pack cover that was given to me by Blueberry in Neel's Gap (THANK YOU!!), and put my new rain jacket on with the hood up and headed out around 8:30 in the morning.  I crossed the dam which provided nice views of the lake, and then entered the Great Smoky Mountains on the other side.  After I was completely soaked (around 8:45)  I really started to enjoy hiking in the rain.  It was one of my favorite days on the trail so far!  I found it kind of novel to just be out walking soaking wet, and if I wasn't worried about my stuff getting wet (which it didn't) I would have enjoyed it even more, which I am sure I will next time now that I know I can trust my system!!  There was thunder and lightning throughout the day as well, luckily the lightning never got closer than 7 miles away so I felt pretty safe and actually managed to put in some good miles.  The rain actually started to clear up around 4:00 and this was right as I got to some of the balds (large tree-less areas), which provided amazing views right after the storm!  The balds throughout the Smoky's have been just beautiful thus far.  It is kind of a shame that I was unable to take any pictures this day because it was amazing...

After my day in the rain, I woke up to a sunny morning and semi-dry shoes thanks to some awesome shelter mates that kept a fire going throughout the night!!  So I ate a little breakfast and got on my way, only 10 miles to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee and the highest on the trail!!  I was so excited, but that 10 miles killed me... for some reason I was just sapped of all energy and had to take tons of breaks and eat all of my snacks that I had left, but I made it.  It was a great moment, making it to my 34th state high point and the highest point on the trail at the same time:)  I spent about an hour there talking to people, taking pictures, going down to the visitors center.  I then got back on the trail for another 8 miles to Newfound Gap where I needed to find a ride to Gatlinburg.  About 5 minutes into the downhill hike, I saw a blue drysack roped to the end of a log by the trail... On it was some tape with "For Stacy from California" written on it... Some very specific trail magic:)  So I open up the dry sack and in it is an MP3 player and a note from one of the singers, Dwayne, that had played at the open mic night at the NOC and that I had talked to for awhile that night...  He had written me a song!!  Needless to say, this gave me something to listen to for the next 8 miles, and pretty much made my day.  So I made quick work of the trip to Newfound Gap through a lot of dead and down trees and made my way into Gatlinburg for my first '0' day!! 

Loving life, I have many good pictures on my camera unfortunately the only ones I am able to post here right now are off of my phone...