The Climb to Katahdin: Good Things

We are currently in Waynesville, NC. "But Spiral and Reverie, what are you doing there? The AT doesn't run through that city." You are correct, it does not. Fortunately, Caveman has an awesome hook up.

We unintentionally double zeroed in Gatlinburg. We actually didn't even mean to stop there at all. Nevertheless, the weather was horrific. It sucked for all the hikers stuck out in the hail and thunder storms. Luckily and slightly reluctantly, as we were all together missing the Trail, we managed 6 people in Pep Talk and Lucky Charm's motel room. We agreed to wake up early and get back on it. We were quite over Gatlinburg. Free samples of hot sauce and moonshine only goes so far.

So, awake we did. Another run to Dunkin' Donuts and off to hitch back to the gap. That ended up to be quite difficult. It took about 45 minutes for Belch, Rev, and me to end up in the back of an old pick up truck. The excitement grew on that beautiful day.

We got to Newfound Gap and got going. 11 mile day underway. The first shelter had volunteers working on it. Sweet footage op. there were some amazing views that day. Suddenly the Smokies were awesome. Ridge walking with drops on both sides. Massive sights and easy climbing.

We got a shelter where section hikers took over. Lots of older people who snored. Arg. But the temperature was great and we decided to try and pull our first 20 miler the next day to try and get on the edge of the Smokies to get Chaser ASAP the following day(today). Caveman mentioned something about a parents friend who was willing to feed us shortly before Max Patch. So, we were thinking about that too.

We got going at 8. We got 5 miles within 3 hours. That's pretty good timing for us. We were cruising. Reverie preformed better than she ever has. I was very proud. She is getting her hiking legs. By mile 10 Belch hopped in our hiking party and Caveman stayed back. We succeeded the 20 miles. 20.4 really. We were flying the last few miles. Downhill. We rolled up to Davenport Shelter right as the sun went down. It was kinda nice hiking at a different time of day. 12 hour day. We caught up to Patch, Sullie, Ultimatum, Tantrum, Sling Blade, Creeper, Pesky, and Gluten Puff. Great group. There was space in the shelter and no snoring. Awesome night.

Caveman got up before the sun and 7 miles behind us and caught up to us by the time we left the shelter. He said we were going to be meeting up with his people the same place we get Chaser. Exciting! Not many miles today but that's okay.

We descended to the gap and here comes Chaser so so so happy. We were so thrilled. He was howling with excitement. Mrs. Nancy and Mr. Rusty had Spring Water cheese, jerky, brownies, and cookies for us and any hiker to come by. Trail Angels. Before we knew it Mr. Tim showed up, we hopped in, and we were off.

It was a beautiful drive on I-40. Caveman and Mr. Tim had never met. It was a just a coincidental series of events that got us here. We rolled up across some amazing mountain landscape to their house. Mr. Tim and Mrs. Bonnie Brown. Trail Angels to the max. Mr. Tim builds and sells acoustic guitars. Not to mention the abundance of other instruments here!(stand up bass, steel drum, harp, hammering dulcimer, and mandolin) Holy crap, right? Showers, laundry, they bar-b-qued for us and beer. They have a dog named Moose and 3 month old hound dog named Banjo. Chaser got along great. Everything is really great. The best part is that offered to let us slackpack to Max Patch. That means we are getting dropped off where we were picked up with no big ole packs. Cannot wait. 12 miler to where we'll meet them at Max Patch. Great deal.

Good things keep happening and we are really fortunate. Hot Springs by Wednesday where we have about 6 or 7 packages waiting for us. Looking forward to it.