Dennis Cove, near Hampton TN

First, there are a ton of new pics posted on Snap's blog; see previous post for the link. 

Well, I seem to have hit a wall the other day. I blame poor meal planning, mainly. In Erwin, the hostel owners ran a shuttle into town to the Post Office, leaving me only ten minutes or so to run down to a Walgreens to try and get my resupply. Well, ramen, easy mac, granola bars and snickers were the mainstay for the next few days, and I definitely didn't have my lunches and snacks figured out too well. I think I exhausted myself, I've been feeling nauseous on and off the last two days. Fortunately, we're taking a zero today. Unfortunately, I can't gorge myself to try and regain some energy reserves, though as the day goes on I'm getting my appetite back. Spent most of the afternoon napping, which also helps. 

I have had some great times even so; I think the morning climb two days ago up Hump Mountain was excellent; probably the most beautiful mountain so far. Roan Mountain the day before was also beautiful, reminded me of Michigan's UP, what with all the conifer forests. I really love the balds, though. Hump Mountain is a bald; that is, the top of it is grassy and meadow-like, for reasons unknown to anyone. Great views from the tops, you can see the trail snaking along the grass-covered ridges. 

Our sleeping arrangements last night came about in a pretty interesting way. Early on in the hike we had met this married couple from Johnson City, TN, named Adam (Slowtrain) and Rachel (EZ Does It). Turns out Adam's parents have a cabin about 200 yards from the A.T. where it crosses Dennis Cove Rd. But they had been off the trail a few days for a wedding, and were a few days behind us anyways. So we got to the cabin, with no one there, and were going to just camp out on the lawn or porch (as they had suggested we do if they weren't there). Then, needing resupply and dinner, we start walking into town, which was starting to feel like a long walk over a damn mountain; after 15.5 miles already that day, we weren't excited for that. So I heard a car coming and stuck out my thumb. Best luck ever hitchhiking so far... a very low-traffic road, and the first guy stopped. We rode down a really twisty-turny road in the back of a pickup that was going way too fast. Tons of fun!

After a great, cheap meal and grocery shopping, we started walking, but no one was driving by. We ended up calling Kincorra Hostel, which was also near the AT, for a shuttle back. Bob Peoples is a great friend to hikers, and a great guy, didn't even charge us for the ride, even though we weren't staying at his hostel. We hung out there a while with everyone that was (the place was full, no room at the Inn) then walked back to the cabin, ready to sleep out.

Well, Adam and Rachel ended up showing up! It was so cool, they're a lot of fun to hang out with, and we stayed up till 3 talking and drinking. Considering we usually go to bed at 9 or whenever it gets dark, it was a real crazy night. We went to church this morning, which was different. Never been to a Protestant church; actually, the presentation seemed almost half-assed. I don't really mean that offensively, I'm just used to the exact-same-every-time Catholic Mass... they have that thing down to a science. I'm glad I went though, it was a good experience. 

Kind of goes along with where my mind's been lately. There's a lot of time to think when you hike, since you're mostly staring at the ground for 8 hours. Half the time I'm just playing songs in my head, since that's all the music I have, but sometimes I have some pretty deep thoughts, about God, and nature, philosophy, the pollution killing all the trees in the Smokies. Being so far from the canned news sources and media, there feels like there's so much freedom of thought, and much more depth to thought. 

For example, the other day I was hiking alone through some beautiful forest, and was thinking about how between God and man, only man has ever shown any real intent on destroying the world. Nature, or Creation if you prefer, has been flourishing for so long, since the beginning. But look at how we war; we invent the atomic bomb and use it immediately. I got so depressed thinking about how the longer we have nukes, the more certain it is we're going to use them. Sad to know that all this beauty I'm walking in will probably be turned to ash unless we get our act together as a species. If only we could have time to think about what life really is all about, not all the little bullshit material things, but the things that matter, like family, friends, love, faith, and nature; if only we could open up to one another and to the world, open the clenched fist in our hearts, silence the voice that screams No! to the world and say Yes; if only we could look for what connects us rather than what divides, because the differences are so small, the similarities so overarching. 

I'm only just scratching the surface here; hard to condense so many hours of ideas into a little blog. So long as I don't waste all my time playing songs in my head, I just may end up with some material for a book.