(3/15) A Shorter Day and a Resupply

     We slept in this morning. There was a lot of rain last night and the some pretty strong gusts of wind. By the time the sun came up neither of us had moved, hoping for the rain to pass. Eventually we got up and packed up. 

     The morning had rain showers off and on. We couldn’t decide if it was better to wear the rain gear and sweat or take it off and just let the rain fall on us. By the late morning the rain had passed and we were just hiking in fog. Pretty soon the fog cleared too, but the clouds stuck around.

     We only had to go 16 miles today to make it into Erwin. By 1 pm we had gone 9 miles so we stopped for lunch at the No Business Shelter, pleased with our progress. We haven’t been seeing many other people. There’s the occasional section hiker and some through hikers we have met before, but we might go a whole day without seeing anyone.

     After lunch the fog cleared too, leaving us with a pleasant but overcast afternoon descent into Erwin. The trail was very easy and slightly sloping down hill for most of the afternoon. We had a pretty cool view of Erwin and the Nolichucky River from up above.

     Before getting to town we couldn’t decide if we should stay in the Uncle Johnny Hostel, go into town for a room, or stay in the trail. I was of the opinion that we should stay in the trail since we just stayed in town at Hot Springs. Tyler liked the idea of drying our stuff, charging phones, and town food.

      When we got to the Uncle Johnny Hostel (which is right on the trail) we learned of a shuttle which would take us into town for 5 dollars each. This would pick us up after 2 hours in town, allowing us to get dinner at a restaurant and resupply, then get right back on the trail. This seemed like a good compromise. 

     We went to a Mexican restaurant then resupplied in a Walmart. The shuttle picked us up a little early and we were back on the trail around 7 pm. We then hiked 1.6 more to a tent site that was in the guide books.

     We got here in the dark and set up pretty quickly. Tomorrow we will hike either a 15 mile day or a 20 mile day. We will probably sleep in a little since we got to camp so late. Should be decent weather tonight and in the morning. We are very close to our next zero in Banner Elk.

Goodnight.

Walker

Check out Tyler’s blog too- https://tylerat2020.blogspot.com/?m=1