C, in the mist of the morning
An awesome flower
An awesome tree in the middle of a glen.
Another awesome flower.
The trail wandered onto an old dirt road for a while, and it got pretty open and awesome.
Another old tombstone. 
The explanation of the old tombstones.
Likewise.
Likewise.
The cows that were kept in by the stile.
C and I on our first stile.
A stream along the path of the climb of death.
A view at the top.
We were worried today that we’d lose a few people, but C and I needed to cover some ground, so we hit about 15 miles. But at the end of the day, everyone showed up! It was very exciting. It did rain a bit, but barely, and it wasn’t long enough for the springs to get filled up again. The drought is pretty bad. We met a character today, his Trail Name was Old Thunder. He was a little crazy. He was hiking with his dog, named, inspiringly: Dog. We all kinda blinked when we heard that. Really? Your dog’s name is dog? Really? Fair enough. I was pretty thirsty this night, because we were trying to conserve water. Sigh.
As we were up on a ridge today, we got a good view of the surrounding territory, and to the west (the sun was setting, so it was near there), we saw flat land. It looked flat. It looked like we were running a ridge right by it…maybe 10 miles away, flat land. Right there. It was a little odd to see that. And we wondered why were weren’t over there. Of course, it we were there, we would want to be in the mountains, but during a hard climb, you always thing: wouldn’t it be nicer if this was flat? Naturally not, but it always makes you think. My left knee twitched a little today, but I decided that if C can gut out his leg thing, I can gut out a little knee thing now and again. It went away after some Vitamin I (Ibuprofen), and I was ok after that.
Some eggs of something or other.
A really awesome flowering tree
C and I, hanging out by an great view.
More of the view.
You can see the clouds starting to get a little grim.
We ate another wonderful breakfast at Elmers then geared up and left, heavier with the food we had loaded up, and heavier with the food we had eaten. We weighed ourselves at the outfitters when we came in (I had lost about 7 lbs from my ‘normal’ weight), and I found that I had gained 4 of those back.
We did about 11 miles due to our late start and the location of a shelter. I wanted to do more, but everyone was crashing there, and when I got there, it was a good time to stop. We didn’t get hungry till lunch, which was odd. Usually we eat breakfast, then a midmorning snack, lunch, midafternoon snack (or two, sometimes), and dinner. But we didn’t need the midmorning, and lunch was lighter than normal. There was an incident with a King Snake today that Caleb laughed a lot about. We always share the lead, because it’s fun leading. So I’m in the lead, and I’m trucking along, and then there’s movement right by my foot. I jump outa my skin, give a yell, and Caleb laughs immensely. A king snake (ok, it was pretty big), had been hanging out, and decided I was too close, so it moved. Jumped outa my skin. Krebopple taught us a rule that we hadn’t known of before: the Ounce rule. Every ounce of food should yield 100 calories. If it’s less effective, it’s too heavy, and why bother? The hike started off uphill, but it wasn’t hard at all. There was brief talk of slack-packing (getting Elmer to drive us to a point north, then hiking back to Hot Springs with minimal supplies), but I’m glad we didn’t. I would have been bummed, because nothing was hard enough to warrant needed the reduced pack weight (or the $ he would charge for driving us up and around). We met stinging nettles for the first time. They weren’t fun. You always brush up against stuff growing near the trail, but those things…it feels like they bite you…they snag into you, and it hurts. And then you brush against another, and it continues to feel like it bites. No fun. We finally made it to the shelter, discovered a lot of bugs, and wandered a little farther up the trail to a nice campsite. Met a guy there who had yet to be christened with a trail name. Later, we named him Mcgyver, because he could make the craziest stuff with what he had on hand. It was pretty awesome. We settled around, and So-Close and Krebopple taught us Euchre, which I’m trying not to forget, but it’s slipping away slowly.
The group! Me, the Prof, C, So close, and Krebopple.
A really large/gross bug.
Hot Springs...there isn't much there, but those hot springs are worth it...
The river we almost went rafting on.
A mountain!
The King Snake that Scared me, climbing a tree.
View from a tower.
This guy died a week before I was born. I like old tombstones...they all have a story to tell. Like books that you can't open.
Our first Zero Day! I wasn’t sure what I had wanted to do with this day, but after looking at what we could do, I had to declare our stay. There was the potential to white water raft, actual factual hot springs to go bask in, and we still needed to buy food, etc. There were a lot of errands to run. So we stuck around. Breakfast was wonderful. We signed up for breakfast the night before, and we didn’t quite have enough people, but Elmer decided to cook for us anyway (which rocked). It was super tasty. I forget what the hot carb was, either pancakes or waffles, but there was tasty granola, some yogurt, cantaloupe, and assorted other tastiness. Then, on with the day! The white water rafting fell through (there is a drought in progress, and the river is super low, so it’s mostly closed off because you can’t actually get anywhere on the thing), but there was still plenty to do. I raided the hiker box pretty hard while C went to the PO to sent off what we needed to mail. We huddled over our food situation, decided what we needed to pick up, and swung by the outfitters and the grocery store to flesh out our supplies. Then it was time for the Hot Springs! Krebopple couldn’t at that moment, so So-Close, the Prof, and I wandered down. We paused at the Outfitters for more Ben and Jerry’s. Mint and something else I can’t remember…maybe Peanut Butter Cup? The actual factual Hot Springs were…odd. It was water from a Hot Spring, and you could see the different things dissolved in the water, but they pumped that water into a hot tub type of thing. It was wonderful. Super relaxing, and all my muscles went ‘ahhhhhhh’. I don’t know if it was the Hot Springs, or the Zero day, but Caleb’s leg felt fine the next day, and indeed, from this point out. Super awesome!
Then dinner. It was another feast. Some people had shown up during the day, two people to help Elmer out with his farm/hostel, a few old friends of Elmers, and some others. It started out with a gazpacho soup (cold tomato soup…super tasty) and salad. Then cous-cous and more veggies! Finished off with incredible Key Lime Cheesecake. It was awesome. I was full. I was finally full! Until this point, I had reached the point where my stomach couldn’t hold anything else, but I could feel my body wanting more. Even after the big dinner yesterday, I had woken up hungry for breakfast. It’s crazy. As So-Close and I sat on the porch, we started talking about the Trail, and I knew it was time to get back on. My legs felt great, my stomach was happy with the food but wanted the woods, and I wanted the woods. They practically called to me. It was time.
A face on a tree by the hot spring
Hot Spring Spas...hot and wonderful
The inside of a room at Elmers.
The porch. 
I perused the bookshelves...there was a lot there.
So three miles isn’t much, but I was ok with doing the three miles into Hot Springs. We had heard about Hot Springs for a while, and this amazing Hostel named the SunnyBank Inn. Colloquially, it’s known as Elmer’s. On the way in, we met up with Sarah, and hiked into town with her. We passed a place that looked like a hostel, but weren’t sure, and needed to swing by the outfitters anyway, so we kept walking through town. It isn’t a big place at all. So we found the outfitters, poked around a little, realized that we smelled pretty bad and should probably shower at some point, and asked about Elmer’s. It was a fun moment, because they looked at us, then at an older man next to us, and said, ‘Meet Elmer’. We went ‘oh!’ and had a discussion. He gave us directions, and we wandered over to a massive old house that was pretty awesome. Settled into the rooms he had there, and then we went in search of food. Smokey Mountain Diner was right across the way…So-Close, C, and I had heard of another place up the hill, but Krebopple wanted to eat close. We wandered up to this other place, found it closed (punks!), and then back to Smokey Mountain Diner, to join Krebopple. Caleb got the Hungry Hiker Burger, and it was an awe inspiring sight. He finished it. We all polished off what we got. Then So-Close, C, and I went back to the outfitters. We had seen a glorious sight there: Ben and Jerry’s. We picked up two pints: Cinnamon Buns and a twisted flavor: Cookie Dough and Fudge Brownie. Back to Elmer’s for our Sporks, and then we found the Prof. All four of us went out onto the second story porch and passed the pints around. So tasty. Cinnamon Buns is perhaps the best flavor ever. It was so good…just like a cinnamon bun. Except in ice cream form. Can’t get much better than that. At all. So we finished those. Then we, for lack of a better descriptor, bummed around. I signed everyone up for dinner except the Prof, who wanted meat. Elmer used to be a vegetarian chef somewhere, and his meals are legendary. But you have to sign up beforehand, to get at least 4 people eating. I wrote the family, Caleb called his awesome Girlfriend, and we did laundry. I had to buy another pair of shorts so I would be clothed while we did laundry, but that’s ok, because they came in super handy.
Then it was dinnertime. Oh, dinner time. We started with a soup and some salad. Potatoes + all sorts of tasty veggies. And the salad was exquisite. He had this incredible tahini based dressing that revolutionized the way I see Salad Dressings. I’ve never been able to find it’s equal since that point. I had a huge plate of salad, and a bowl or two of soup, then started to get worried. I didn’t know what the deal with food was, and needed more than salad and soup. A hiker’s hunger knows no satiation. Salad, while super tasty, doesn’t cut it, whatever the quantity. I saw myself shortly slipping out of the hostel and sneaking to a real restaurant with actual factual food in order to get full. But then Elmer and his Assistant G got up. They entered the kitchen. They returned with a vat of curry veggies and a mammoth bowl of rice. There was much rejoicing. I ate. And ate. And ate. And then, then! Oh then…dessert came out. A slab of gingerbread with a scrumptious scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. The gingerbread was still warm from the oven. Glorious! So-Close later mentioned that her endorphins had spiked like crazy…she had felt a little euphoric, and came close to tears from the volume of tasty food and the feeling of a full belly. I knew what she meant.
A tombstone we passed. I have an odd love for old tombstones.
Another old tombstone. Older than the first.
All of them together.
The AT into Hot Springs!
A marker on the sidewalk. And my feet.
Max Patch and I, in addition to the trail markers that occur on balds such as this one.
The view from Max Patch
More of that view.
An Ent-like tree. The knobs looked like a face.
Then Ent tree from a different vantage point.
This was the best Fourth of July I’ve ever had. We got up, and I made some sort of rudimentary fried dough business with some of the hiker box stuff and the primitive kitchen that I had at my disposal. C and I raided the hiker box for food, and then went to buy groceries at their store. We didn’t have enough, so we went ahead and didn’t pay for a visit, but left him a note saying that we’d send him the money a little later. Which we did. After all this, everyone had long since left, so we hit the trail. We found the Prof really quickly, which was odd. He had left a full half hour before we had. However, he had also taken a wrong turn, and spent that time backtracking, etc, until he could find where he needed to go. I felt bad for him. C and I have done that before…many times, in fact. Mostly due to my exceptional navigation skills…
We passed him. Then we passed So-Close (she hung with us for a while, because she’s determined and stubborn. Good things for a hiker to be) We ran into this Radar Tower thing on top of one of the mountains we were climbing...we saw it, and were a little weirded out, because we weren't sure what it was, and it was a very long way away. We poked around for a while, and I wanted to get closer, then noticed a sign that said it was restricted area. Even though there was noone even close to the area, we decided to keep going. I mean, what do I need to play with the radar for? So we went on. At the very last, we came upon Gretchen. We didn’t pass her, because she was totally in the zone. We ascended with her to this incredible spot called Max Patch. It’s a wonderfully bald mountain, with only long grass capping the top of it. Great views of the recently-exited Smokies and the surrounding everything. It wasn’t that late, but we sat down for a break and began toying with the idea of just making camp on the Bald. Since it was the Fourth, we figured that we would be able to see a few fireworks from the top. Also, C really wanted to camp on top of a bald at least once along the way. So we started setting up Camp. C and I used our poles and tarps from the Hammocks to get something going, everyone else had tents and were ok. We break out food stuff, and eat.
Then a marvelous thing happened. Two hippies and their new child (2 months!) came wandering up to the top with some incredible Trail Magic. The guy (his trail name was freestyle) had thru-hiked a few years ago, and knew that there would probably be hikers up there, so he brought some extra goodies. Now that I look back upon it, it wasn’t all that much stuff. He had watermelon, shared some red wine (a wonderfully dry cab[Yellow Tail, out of Australia. I have yet to get it again, because I like it in my memory so much]), and some chocolate (by Dagoba chocolate, the stuff with spices in it that starts with an X. Xotlcatl? Something like that). Then the night fell, and the fireworks started. They were very faint, just tiny puff-balls of color in the distance, but we could see three or four towns of fireworks going off. It was pretty awesome. They ended, and I snuggled down into my sleeping bag near So-Close and the Prof so we could hang out. And we realized that the stars were out. They were incredible. We spent a long time looking at them and marveling. The Prof rolled off to his tent, and So-Close and I continued to bask in the ethereal glory of it all. Eventually we realized that it was pushing 3, and decided to get to bed.
The Radar Tower of Oddness
Daisies! There were tones of them around the Tower of Oddness.
A black snake. I don't remember if this was the one that climbed the tree or the one that I jumped outa my skin about.
A cool leaf
C and I on Max Patch. There was an American Flag secured to the top of a pole that had a blaze on it.
Me, taking in the sun, the view, and loving life.
This is how the whole top was like. It was glorious.
The smokies, and the sun setting.
The Crew! Me, C, The Prof, Krebopple, and So-Close!
Even though our country does messed up things, the flag against the sunset brought to mind all the glorious things that America was created to stand for and to serve.
