nature's inn hostel to uncle johnny's hostel

despite the lack of hot water at nature’s inn hostel, the mattresses were memory foam, and the bunks didn’t squeak. it was a little hot, but ultimately i slept really well.

i packed up and made some oatmeal in the commin area, which was much easier due to the electric kettle. it’s the little things you lesrn to appreciate when on trail. comfortable places to sit is huge. i packed a lot more lunch and snacks than usual, as my plan was to do 25 miles to erwin and make it to unckle johnny’s hostel.

the shuttle left at 8, and i was on trail by 8:20. i figured that quick and bugs had been hiking for a few hours when i hit trail. (rocket had got picked up by a friend for a night at home.)

the trail started icy but moderately inclined, without a lot of snow. i was able to make good time for the first mile and a half, but as soon as i got to elevation, the snow got deep quickly. some of the snow drifts were almost to my knee.

thankfully two women had done a morning hike from street gap where quick and bugs slept at back toward me, so the trail wasnt impossible to follow. i made it to street gap in under an hour and kept motoring, now following bugs and quick’s tracks. surprise of all surprises, i caught up to quick about 45 minutes later. apparently it had been so cold they waited a lot longer than usual to get going. they even slept in the same tent and then used the other tent for their gear, and then broke all the rules in the morning and cooked inside their respective tents! we caught up to bugs not long after.

we climbed and climbed, and eventually got to big bald, which was absolutely stunning, but bitterly cold in the gale force winds. in fact the summit had very little snow as it had all blown off.

on the way down the other side, we followed cross country ski tracks. i snapped this photo which reminded both quick and i of japan, if the ice in the trees had been blossoms.

we continued down the other side, the weather improving, but unfortunately making the trail a slippery, muddy mess. i wiped out once and smashed my knee into a rock.

by the time we stopped for lunch at spivey gap, the trail had largely dried out and it was warm and sunny. we took a moment extra to enjoy the sun.

my ankle had started hurting after the morning’s fall, and the afternoon was a long 11 mile limp down the mountain into erwin, tn.

we got to the hostel pretty late, it was already closed, but found bunks with our names on them. we met a shool friend of bugs’, kimchi, who is hiking part of the trail before he has to go back to work. we showered, which was a bit of an ordeal because they were out of towels, but once clean, we took 4 bikes and biked the 4 miles in the dark by headlamp to a mexican restaurant, followed by taco bell, and finally to the food mart for ice cream, beers, and breakfast.

we biked back to the hostel and enjoyed our ice creams ans beers before heading to bed very late.

a few more images from today: