This was an interesting day for about eighteen thousand reasons. I started off pretty low in the mouth. I didn’t think when I started that I would ever get homesick, but that is exactly what happened this day. I missed Raleigh and Durham and all the neat stuff there is to do around the area. Tracing this back further, it became evident that my conversation with L, even though it was super good, made me homesick for where I’m living. I wanted to go for a hike in Umstead, then get down to Lilly’s Pizza for the best pizza ever (no exaggeration!), then go climb at the Rock gym, then swing by LaFarm for some tasty bread (best bread ever, see note for Lilly’s), then maybe go have some tea at Helios (a coffee shop with some incredible tea). I really wanted to go back home and do awesome at this life thing, I wanted to jump in and do life to the utmost at that moment. Then I looked around a little and said: I’m on the AT! Awesome!
Caleb’s leg started to hurt him on a scale that made me start to worry. We discovered that there was a Hostel not too far from the shelter we were considering before, and as we neared the shelter, got the information from a woman named Krebopple (she’s a teacher, and got named after a Simpson’s Character who teaches…Bart, I think), and swung into the shelter to think about our next move. I was feeling ok, but I certainly didn’t want Caleb’s leg to blow up, because that would be bad. L and M were there, and yearning for a burger. M because he was on Liquid Protein. L because she needed to get away from T and C. The Prof and So-Close wandered into the shelter a bit later, and we got together with them to plan our next move. Eventually, after the Prof hooked Caleb up with some high speed pain killers (b/c of his ankle, he had quite a few), and we decided to go the extra few miles (3, I think) to Standing Bear Hostel. So we set out. We crossed a bridge and stopped to watch the White Water Rafters. They saw us and were awed at our image of smelly nastiness. Which we were. Like woah. One guy (a guide) asked if we were North or South. We shouted back to him and then they hit a rapid and couldn’t pay any more attention. Then we passed I-40, which gave me a bit of a thrill, I-40 being an integral part of living near Raleigh. In all, I think we covered about 17-18 miles, to end up at Standing Bear Hostel. The owners weren’t actually in, but they left a note saying: Do whatever you want, money in here, groceries here, shower here, etc. So we wandered in, found Krebopple, settled into the bunk, and then showered. They also had a washing machine, so we changed into clothes from the hiker box and washed our nasty clothes, while sitting around in (for me) huge camo pants and a floral Hawaiian shirt. It was exceptional. Then we crashed. The bunks there: exceptionally comfy. The Hostel itself rocked, and I was very glad to be clean, etc. If you’re ever on the trail, I recommend it.
A cool view.
More of the same cool view.
Clouds moving in, but it didn't rain...
A cool stretch of trail, more ridge-running.
A very Dr. Suessian Flower. There were a lot in this neat little area.
The last huge big view of the Smokies.
C, surveying his kingdom.
This is the best sign we could find to state that we had just left the Smokies.
The White Water Rafters
We crossed under 40, and that was fun. This is a hugely important interstate where I live in real life.
1 comment:
interesting about your feelings of being homesick..and huge camo pants and a hawaiian shirt-wow! Mom
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