3/31-4/7: Standing Bear Farm, TN -> Sam’s Gap/Johnson City, TN

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve been on trail for over a month now! What a month it has been.

We got a delicious home-cooked breakfast at Standing Bear before hiking out that morning. It was a short day for us and we spent a long time at the shelter with our friends Little Bear and Smiley as well as a couple of cool section hikers. We also met a large trail maintenance crew from the Carolina Mountain Club (CMC). The AT is maintained by no fewer than 30 such clubs, and once we had left the Smokies we were in CMC’s jurisdiction. It has been interesting to observe the design differences between the shelters built by the different clubs. CMC’s were generally smaller, and their privies more so (but at least they have privies). We were also very impressed with their trail signage! The crew we ran into had just renovated our shelter that very day, and were fun to talk to. Later on, we were treated to homemade cookies from Cookie Monster, who I named on the spot (bringing my total of accepted trail names up to three!). It was probably the first day that I preferred the time we spent at camp to the hiking part, after a rather uninteresting section of trail.

The next day, we summitted Max Patch, which was easily the highlight of this brief leg. This iconic peak on the trail is kept clear of trees for ecological reasons, and gave us excellent views as a result; it reminded me of the Scottish Highlands.

It was also VERY windy, probably the windiest it has been on trail! We were absolutely buffetted around on the summit. It was exhilarating! I was glad to share that experience with Little Bear and Smiley, who hiked on and ate lunch with us too.

One of my favorite parts of trail life are these “visits,” where friends of ours will join us for a day or a mile of hiking. I always feel like I learn so much, and such different things, from everyone we meet! That day, Little Bear taught us about early succession ecosystems and sustainable farming practices. It is such a fun aspect of the experience out here.

That night, Sophie and I set up our tents in a field beneath a shelter. Between Daniel’s visit and sleeping in shelters in the Smokies, it was my first time in my tent by myself in over two weeks! That felt reeally nice. I royally screwed up my mac’n’cheese dinner, in amusing fashion, but still very much enjoyed our little private evening away from others.

The next day, we hiked up until about a mile and a half before Hot Springs, NC, where we stealth camped on a nice ridge above the town. It was an unremarkable section of trail, and I still had so much fun; I love being on the AT! We really enjoyed a relaxing, late lunch and a great, long conversation with our friend S’mores. We also had a rather long conversation with a thru-hiker and former PCT hiker named Finesse. Sophie remarked on how easy it is and how right it feels to have much longer conversations with strangers than we would off the trail, in the real world – or the “fake world,” as some have been calling it on trail. I totally agree. It was another fun night goofing off at our stealth campsite; I really enjoyed those last few days of hiking and hanging out together, proving that you don’t need any dramatic vistas or excitement to have a great time on the trail with the right company.

We were so excited to descend into Hot Springs in the morning. Hot Springs, NC is the first town that NOBOs walk directly into – no shuttle required! I was unreasonably excited about this. We had also heard great things about the town, and especially the diner there, and were looking forward to heading directly there for breakfast. Unfortunately, when we got down there, we discovered that the power was out across the entire town! Nowhere was open 😦 We had actually been given a heads up that the power had been out for a bit already since that big windstorm, but we were hopeful that it would have been revived overnight. No such luck.

We managed to check into our hostel, Elmer’s Sunnybank Inn. It was a really cool place, and a much different vibe than anywhere else we had stayed. The hostel is in a historic 1840 house that reminded me a lot of Greene, a similarly old house that has been in my family for generations. The Inn had a lot of varied, interesting art and artifacts, as well as a great music room. But despite the cool venue we found ourselves in, after expecting hot town food, we were pretty crushed by the situation. And hungry.

Luckily, S’mores came in clutch when he informed us that the outfitter in town was open and giving out free apple fritters and muffins. When we heard the news from Sophie, Dex, Tacos, and I immediately leapt to our feet, in perfect sync, and off we all went. That apple fritter tasted so good. Genius move by the outfitters, too, since naturally we all spent a lot of money to stock up, in the dark, from their surprisingly comprehensive (and unsurprisingly a bit expensive) resupply. Around this time, I started to get over my considerable disappointment and instead treat this day as the unexpected adventure it was.

We went to a different hostel up the road, Laughing Heart Hostel, for some more food, since they had frozen pizzas for sale that were still good, and even a gas grill to cook them all. That was a whole nother adventure to cook them on the grill, but it went ok and we had a filling lunch. We hung out at that hostel for quite a while, as there were lots of people there, unlike at our own, which was a lot more peaceful (which Sophie and I appreciated). Laughing Heart also had a bunch of trail magic, including some Girl Scout Cookies! What a special treat.

The power came back on at 2:45pm – hallelujah! We rushed to shower and do our laundry back at our hostel in case the power shut off again. But it was on to stay. Nowhere was opening for dinner, sadly, but we once again had hope for the next day. Meanwhile, we needed dinner, and the unique treats of the day continued. A hiker had gotten a shuttle into a nearby town that had power, and he returned with about six dozen(!) hot dogs to share. He grilled them up back at Laughing Heart, and I had a few hot dogs for dinner. Sophie went to the local market, which had opened up, and got some raw ingredients that made for a satisfying dinner for her too. More trail magic kept appearing at the hostel, mostly from other hikers! Someone went to the market and returned with an entire Italian cream cake, which was delicious. I was astounded by the generosity on display on this challenging day. It felt like the hiker community really banded together to make the most of a tough situation for us all. It warmed my heart; what a positive aspect of a very weird day.

The next morning, everything was back to normal and It Was On. We went to the famed Smoky Mountain Diner. I tried chicken and waffles for the first time! Y’all…they’re onto something with that one, it was SO good. I also had two eggs with a perfect biscuit and home fries and even a piece of french toast that a friend didn’t want to finish. Everything was delicious, and coupled with the disappointment of the previous day, on an emotional level, it was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

We spent the rest of the morning playing music together at the hostel. It felt great to get my hands on a piano again!

That day also marked Sophie and my one-month “trailiversary!” We’d been on trail for exactly a month, and what a month it had been. It felt much longer, but simultaneously like it was just yesterday that we were climbing those darned stairs at Amicalola Falls.

To celebrate our trailiversary, we treated ourselves to ice cream at Artisun Café, a very curious place that was some combination of boutique and art gallery that also served really good ice cream, smoothies, and the like. It was our first ice cream on trail, and it was a perfect day for it, as it was about 80 degrees outside!

The café, and indeed, the whole town of Hot Springs, felt very hippie and we loved it. Hot Springs definitely stood out from the rest of the trail towns we had visited, and was our favorite by far. I think the fact that the AT runs right through town – it literally follows the whole length of the main street! – had a big impact on how the town has developed and its character today, in an excellent way.

From there, we hiked out of town and hit the trail again, and immediately realized the downside of the weather – it truly was HOT, and it made for tough hiking, especially on the uphills. The fact that it had been so cold recently and was hot so suddenly also contributed to the weird feeling; it was hard to adapt to the weather. We ended up going longer than expected that day, but it was towards a unique destination: the Rich Mt. fire tower.

This fire tower was uncommonly new and sturdy, with plenty of space and a covered, walled space to protect from the elements. Since it was such a nice day, we seized the opportunity to sleep on top of the tower! It was super cool. We set up camp, cooked dinner, and took in 360 degree views as we watched a beautiful sunset. Logistically, it didn’t feel much different from being in a shelter, but it was much more exciting. Definitely the coolest place we’ve slept. There was even a full moon that night; it was gorgeous. We also felt bad because we think we ruined several local couples’ nights, who were hoping for some privacy on the fire tower, lol (we think we accidentally interfered with at least one engagement…). It was such a special experience; one of my favorite memories on trail, and a great way to cap off our one month trailiversary.

The magic of the experience was somewhat lessened the next morning after a very windy night. We were adequately sheltered from the wind, but it was still quite loud which made it hard to sleep. When we awoke, we were in the clouds! It was hard to pack up in the fog and cold.

It was another hot day once the clouds cleared. We met and hiked with a guy named Feet, who is thru-hiking barefoot! Yes, really. It was also a great day for trail magic. We got a lunch spread from the owner of a Virginia hostel, and only a few miles later, we met the Southern Cookie Lady! She bakes hundreds of cookies for thru-hikers every year. We had amaazing oatmeal orange ginger (and idk what else) cookies, and had a lovely time talking to her. It was a relatively easy and pleasant day. That night at the shelter we hung out with a chill group of section hikers, Feet, and a new trail friend K. I also taped up my first blister (on my heel) using moleskin.

The next day was our longest day yet. It was a tiring, mixed bag of a day. In the morning, we had a fun, but challenging, and eventually frustrating traverse over the Big Firescald Knob ridgeline. There were good views, but tough rocks that overstayed their welcome.

The good news was that we reached the 300 mile mark right at the end of the ridge! That last 0.6 miles before we got there felt like the longest of the whole trail so far.

When we stopped for lunch at the next shelter, I was a bit worried about how long the morning had taken us, and we weren’t even halfway through the mileage we had planned for the day. The second half of the day turned around though. We summitted Big Butt (yes, really), and then had a long, gentle descent basically for the entire rest of the day, which was pleasant. Our friend Tacos has been compiling an awesome hiking playlist from all sorts of thru-hikers, and listening to that powered me through the rest of the day. It’s so cool to hear what everyone suggested for the playlist and to learn a lot of new music! Meanwhile, we were expecting rain all day, but only got a little bit, and only briefly – once again, we totally lucked out with the weather. It’s beginning to feel uncanny.

We got truly magical trail magic when we needed it most, towards the end of our long day: oranges, from a thru-hiker and his wife who were so, so nice! He has been thru-hiking while she follows along in their camper, and he meets up with her at the end of each section; their trail names were “Hiking Home” and “Home Sweet Home,” respectively (adorable!). We happened to run across them at one of these meetups and both the fruit and the company were just what we needed.

Finally, Sophie and I found a nice stealth spot near a creek to conclude our long day. It was a 17 mile day in all, and we were certainly tired and glad to be hanging out together at camp.

The hardest part of the day was that unfortunately, Sophie’s knee was seriously hurting again – worse than before. She got a new diagnosis from her PT of patella-femural pain (nothing structural, thank goodness). She decided to take another week+ off trail 😦 It is certainly sad for both of us, but it’s for the best. I admire Sophie’s mindfulness when it comes to health, and her tenacity to work through these things and still get back out there.

The next day, I was very excited to meet up with some very special people at the next gap: my parents! They had spent the week driving down to meet up with us and exploring some parts of the trail that we will encounter later. We had eight miles to go before the promise of showers, hot food, and loving company. No problem, right?

It was a very challenging day. We finally got the rain we had been expecting for so long. It was the worst weather we had had on trail yet. It felt like the other shoe had dropped in a big way. Sophie took a fall in a stream crossing; thankfully, she was unhurt, but got soaked beneath her rain gear. Uh-oh. She felt dangerously cold at one point, and we kept moving without taking much of any breaks to keep warm. Despite all this, I remained in pretty good spirits; knowing we’d be safely in town and with my parents that evening was a good motivator.

We reached Sam’s Gap at 12:30pm and met up with Mom and Dad. It was so, so good to see them! We got a hot, healing lunch at Panera and went back to our AirBnB in Johnson City, TN. There, Sophie and I were greeted by an astounding assortment of Easter candy and resupply things! It was an immense spread and we were blown away by their generosity. There was way too much to carry at once, so I ended up preparing 3 mail drops to send ahead to towns in TN and Southern Virginia. Some people prepare many such boxes ahead of their thru-hikes, rather than doing all their resupplying at grocery stores and outfitters etc. I hadn’t done any, so this was new to me, but it was cool to explore this option and aspect of trail life.

My parents, Sophie, and I went out for Thai food for dinner. Sadly, they didn’t have Sophie’s favorite, green curry, but it was still good. Then we had a smorgasbord of cookies that Mom and Dad had brought from home for dessert, including some Girl Scout Cookies, ever the special treat. They had even brought some board games from home, so we played Carcassonne. I had been missing board games, one of my favorite hobbies, and it was great to get a taste of that again. It was a lovely afternoon and evening with my parents.

The next morning, we had a veritable feast for breakfast, with more special treats. Sophie and I made avocado toast on challah, made omelettes, and we had scones, biscuits, and of course, lots of fresh fruit. It was delightful; I can’t thank Mom and Dad enough for such an amazing visit.

Then, all too soon, it was time to head back on trail, at least for me. Sophie caught an Uber to Asheville to fly home for a while to heal, and Mom, Dad, and I headed back to Sam’s Gap. We sent my mail drops on the way out of town and had a nice drive back to the trail. It was so good to be with them.

Now I was ready to head back and face a new adventure on the AT: being alone on the trail for the first time.