Spring break in retrospect

After a drinky night at Fontana Village, spent with many of the same people whom I gathered with outside mine and Tintin's hotel room in Franklin, I got a shuttle ride to Asheville, NC with Gene Laney, 82, whose business card reads "A Hikers Friend from Beginning to End." I got mildly carsick twisting along the hills. The ride from the middle of nowhere to Asheville took nearly two hours.

In Asheville I stayed at a brand new hostel called Sweat Peas. I spent an hour or two waiting for it to open at Malaprops bookstore. Outside it was sunny, warm and young buskers stood on almost all of the corners, including just outside the bookstore, where a young bearded man played a mandolin for passersby.

At night I realized why the hostel gives guests a fresh pair of ear plugs upon check-in. Just below the hostel, which I shared with maybe five other people, a dueling piano night took place in Lab, a hopping brew pub. The pub owner also owns the hostel. The music traveled easily up through the floor.

The next day, Wednesday, March 31, Ashley arrived after noon. We booked a private room in the hostel, actually more like a windowless cell, but comfortable, and walked through the sunny streets. We ate the lunch buffet at the much-heralded Mela, an awesome Indian restaurant five minutes' walk from the hostel. The chicken masala was every bit as good as Miguel [class of 2010] said it would be. Then we got me a haircut. It was due. I was, as Ashley pointed out, getting the mad scientist look.

That night we met Johnny Thunder GA->ME '08, LT '09, at Barley's, yet another brew pub. Ashley and I did the alpine slide with Johnny and his girlfriend, Freefall GA->ME '08, in Rutland, VT last year when Ashley came up to visit me. Ashley gave them a ride while she was waiting for me to come down from the mountain to the Inn at Long Trail. That's when Ashley and Johnny realized they were in the same graduating class in college. Small world!

Anyway, the three of us went on to win 2nd place in the pub trivia contest. We dominated the whole game until the final round, when another team jumped from like 8th place to first with a 15-point wager. Our $15 prize made a nice dent in our bill for pizza and beer. Johnny gave me a bunch of tips for things to do and places to see on the southern half of the AT.

On Thursday, we went to REI and got outfitted. I got a warm jacket for the Smokies and inquired about swapping out my defective sleeping bag. Ashley got a pillow and a pack cover: She's getting prepared for the two AT ection hikes we plan to do this summer.

Next: Massages! We got a 30-minute couple's massage at a spa just around the corner from our hostel. I ordered the deep-tissue, she had the Swedish. It seemed over too quickly.

We switched to a downtown hotel that was the same price as the hostel, but which included a view, a private bathroom, fridge, TV and more space. It was a no-brainer. That night we caught a bluegrass jam at Jack In the Woods.

To be continued...

Hi!

So yes, it's been more than a week since I blogged here. I was on vacation in Asheville and Hot Springs, and I'll be posting all about that soon.

But for now, I'm doing the Smokies in one stretch with Early Bear. At the moment we're at a popular parking spot at Newfound Gap, where the road goes into Gatlinburg, receiving trail magic.

Perfect warmup for the 900 feet of climb coming up.

Smokies!

Waking up at Fontana

Crazy night last night. Asheville bound.

Fontana stop

I just booked a spot at a new hostel in Asheville from my tent, for when Ashley comes down this week. It's an example of how profoundly technology has changed the trail. I can't imagine thru-hiking in the early 1990s, having to use a payphone to reach out and touch people and being virtually unreachable. Much less hiking the AT in '48, Earl Shaffer's day.

I'll soon be taking a few days off the trail that coincide with Ashley's spring break. Then I'm meeting up with a friend from the class of '09 for the epic challenge presented by the Smokies. I'm thinking of the privy-less shelters, Clingman's Dome, the highest point on the AT, and horrible horrible weather, with cold long nights.

At the NOC I spent a tedious night in an Dutch oven of a little bunkroom. Somebody finally dialed down the thermostat and I slept a while. 

In the morning they were out of clean towels at the office so I did town stuff - pick up a maildrop, eat real food - while I waited. I spent a gorgeous day in the sun, studying the movements of kayakers negotiating a slalom course. Kayaking is one skill I'm keen to learn.

Last night I tented next to a rhododendron patch against the phenomenal wind blowing over the ridge at Sassafras Gap. I rebuilt a fire ring and got a fire going. It went out, and I pushed all the sticks and logs together so their still-glowing embers might generate enough heat to reignite flames. Nothing but a trickle of smoke emerged, but the wind's relentless energy eventually did the work for me. I had a good blaze going.

This southern trek has been blessed with campfires. I've started three so far myself.

Today I think I hiked the worst climb so far down here.  The trail went up hard from Stecoah Gap to the ridge just before Brown Fork Gap, with some rain thrown in for additional challenge.

The rain didn't stop me from breaking my tenting streak [I've slept in shelters on only three nights so far]. I set up in a gulch below the shelter. Raindrops fell on my footprint and then through the mesh tent before I was able to top it with the rain fly. I toweled the inside down with a handkerchief. It seems ok in here now, just moist around my sleeping pad.

Tomorrow I should make the Fontana "Hilton," a 22-person capacity shelter with developed water and hot showers. Then it's time to find a shuttle for the two-hour drive east to where I'm meeting my girlfriend.

Happy full moon,

Ink

NOC

I don't know about this place.

Two weeks!

Two weeks, two states, 119 + 9 miles and zero shaving.