4/19/2014

4/19/14                                Fries, VA

    ^ Great last entry, eh? As I started writing, things started happening rather quickly. Seeing as this is the now first page, I'm not sure where I stopped writing. 

     I arrived in Hot Springs the 14th at 9a.m. in the morning or so. Had breakfast and hung out in town the rest of that day. There was a resource center that took my picture, proving I was indeed in Hot Springs the 14th. I met another main Trail Angel named Queen Diva who was in charge of said center / house / thing. Also I think I never mentioned that in Gatlinburg I met Miss Janet who is also a well known Trail Angel. That night (4/14) I stayed in a tavern room with Husker, Tex, and Junebug. It was awesome; it was legitimately like an old school inn with a bar downstairs and rooms up the stairs above it. Though you could hear a some noise through the floor it was still worth staying there. I think it was called the Iron Horse Station.
     The following day it was raining fairly hard. The four of us decided to zero that day (4/15). What solidified that was the fact it also started snowing midday. Snowing at low elevation means definitely blizzard at the top of the mountain. I already did that once and vowed never to do that again. Besides, Hot Springs was the first actual trail town. The A.T. was Main St. There were 'white blazes' embedded in the sidewalk. So we never actually left the trail while still being in town =p. That night the four of us plus a girl named Turtle split the cost of a cabin which was kinda neat. 

     4/16 I managed to pry myself out of Hot Springs ans got to Spring Mountain Shelter, 11 miles away. Quickest time i ever hiked as it took me something near 3 1/2 hours. When I got there, HOLY CRAP! I ran into Craftsman! I thought for sure he and Grizz were at least a week or so ahead of me. Apparantly they had stayed in Hot Springs through 4/13 for a trail-fest thing that happened there. It was a Fri-Sun event that was the Hot Springs version of the Damascus Trail Days. Sadly I didn't know it was happening, plus I got there the day after on Monday. He had zeroed that day, as i guessed right, there was quite a few inches of snow up and around the shelter and he definitely didn't feel like hiking through it. We talked and caught up and stayed at that shelter for the night (4/16).
     The following day, I hiked about 4 miles down the trail at Allen Gap to meet my dad. Craftsman and I just kinda hung out at the shelter till 2p.m. or so. My dad wasn't going to be here before 6-7 that evening. My dad was kind enough to also give Craftsman a ride into Erwin, and we the three of us had some very delicious pizza that night. Craftsman ended up finding a spot in the hostel that night (4/17) and my dad and I got a hotel room in Erwin.
     The next day (4/18) my dad dropped me off at my Gap (Sams Gap) and I slack-packed into Erwin. That was a twenty three-ish mile day into the city. even with nothing but water, twenty three miles is long. It certainly classified as type three fun. Drove up to VA that night to stay with one of my dad's friends on their farm. It was pretty awesome and very nice of them to have us there.
     Today we're going back down to Erwin later today to hike a small day ( eight or eleven miles, i think) and stay in a hotel in Johnson City.

-Sam

P.S. I've also notice that from here on out I'm not sure how well my journals will be written in the way of content. A lot of what's been happening is circumstantial. Like that one time a guy named Impact dumped his pot of water over half the campfire. He was swearing and everyone else was laughing hysterically. I would find that a worthy story but I feel like it's a 'you had to be there' moment.