My Tennessee Mountain Home

Greetings from Tennessee! I just passed the one month mark, and I'm still having the best time! 

Friends 

Over the past couple of weeks I've been lucky enough to stay with friends and have had friends come hike with me. Kellie and Andrea drove out and each hiked for 3 days with me. Both committed to whatever pace I was doing, and to hiking wherever I was. I had so much fun! I feel like no one can truly understand my trip until they're out here hiking with me, and having two of my best friends come and gain that understanding was amazing. You guys rule, and I can't believe how tough both of you are! 

"I don't mean to be rude, but you guys don't have jobs"

Meet Rachel Drummond

Rachel and I grew up together, and she is a true trail angel. She and her husband Gerrad live in Johnson City, Tennessee, and have let friends and me stay with them on multiple occasions over the course of the North Carolina/ Tennessee portion of my hike. Rachel has driven 30ish miles at least 6 times to pick me up/ drop me back off at the trail, and even took me to rescue Lara when she got sick. She and Gerrad have taken me out to dinner, let me do laundry, shower, and have even cooked for me! On a recent grocery store outing Rachel grabbed mine and Lara's food and said "I don't mean to be rude, but you guys don't have jobs", and paid for it! Rachel is already extraordinarily generous, and like Kellie and Andrea she gets it. She and most of my other close friends understand that it'll cost roughly $3,000-$5,000 (this doesn't include gear already purchased) over the course of my hike. In my mind three to five thousand dollars doesn't seem like a ton for 5-6 months worth of living, but spending without earning starts to add up quickly. I can't even begin to explain how helpful staying with friends/ getting mail drops is! 

What is down time?

I'm currently wrapping up my third 0 mileage day by sitting on Rachel's couch, watching Game of Thrones, and trying to figure out mail drops/ mileage for the next few weeks. I think another thing many people don't understand is my lack of down time! When I envisioned hiking the AT I imagined myself hiking for most of the day, being able to hangout at camp, eating, sleeping, and repeating. This never happens! My daily schedule is as follows:

7:00- wake up 

7:15- start packing up 

7:30- leave tent

7:45- eat breakfast

7:45/8:30- leave camp/ shelter/ begin hiking

10:00- snack break

11:30/11:45- lunch break #1

2:30/3:00- lunch break #2

4:00- snack break 

5:30/6:30/7:30- finish hiking

7:30- DINNER

8:00- journal

8:30- sleep

I thought days in town would be a great time to relax and explore, but in reality they're normally spent running "town errands". Going to a post office, grocery store, and an outfitter gets difficult when you have a limited amount of time/ don't have a car! Fortunately, hitch hiking has been incredibly easy! If you're wondering why I've been so bad at keeping my blog current, it's solely because of lack of down time! 

Ok now hiking 

This week was trying. It rained for 6 out of 7 days and saying I'm soggy is an understatement. 

Tuesday

Tuesday started out with a climb from out of town. It was hot and humid and was raining on and off and I was generally unhappy. 

The rain stopped just long enough for us to get trail magic! BT (brother Tom) wasn't a hiker, but came and set out banana bread, brownies, and sweet tea for a few months at the start of AT season just because he wanted to be helpful! He even had dog treats! After our trail magic break we continued on to our intended campsite, and were surprised with the presence of 8 of our friends! 

We all stayed up (and by stayed up I mean until 9; this is late for us), hung out, and cooked dinner together, which never happens! 

Wednesday 

I woke up to the sound of pouring rain on my tent on Wednesday morning. I'm normally up and out of camp by 9 at the latest, but we didn't end up leaving until 10:30 because we were all trying to wait the rain out/ were unwilling to get drenched. The rain slowed just long enough for us to pack up our soaking wet tents and we continued on. I knew we were starting the day off with a big climb, and that was daunting. 

The climb itself wasn't terrible. Torrential downpour had turned the trail into a swamp, and that made hiking really difficult. I tried to dodge water, but gave up shortly after. My feet were soaked, and freezing, but got better because my shoes turned into tiny wetsuits. The farther I hiked, the warmer the layer of water trapped in my shoes got (small victory). We hiked to the summit of Roan Mountain (6,286 ft.), which was our last 6,000 ft mountain until Massachusetts! We ate lunch #2 at Roan High Knob Shelter, which is the highest shelter on the AT! We trudged on for another 8.5 miles and set up camp in the hopes that our tents would dry out overnight. 

Thursday 

Nothing dried. It wasn't actively raining, but my tent was just as wet as when I had set it up at night because there was so much moisture in the air. We left camp and the sun came out for 20 minutes! 

It rained more, and was freezing, and Thursday was terrible. Lara and I had no dry clothes, and no dry gear, and were cranky/ homesick. I'm normally fine with rain, but when I didn't have a way of escaping it, and has nothing dry to change into I realized how much I hate it. 

Thursday ended on a high note though! I stayed at Overmountain Shelter, which is a converted barn that now sleeps 20+ people! 

It was really drafty at night, but I was so happy to be out of the rain that I didn't care. 

Friday 

Friday was my favorite day thus far! When I woke up it wasn't raining, and I realized how beautiful the views around the barn were! 

Right after leaving we climbed Little Hump and Hump Mountain. 

Hump Mountain doesn't look very imposing here, but it was. If you look really closely at the top of the mountain you can see a few small dots, these are fellow hikers. Lara and I rounded the corner, saw Hump Mountain, and just started laughing. We could see our friends slowly making their way up, and could see how distant those who were already at the top were. 

We made the climb and were rewarded with cool views all around! We've been going back and forth between North Carolina and Tennessee for the last few weeks, and we finally left North Carolina for good! 

After border crossing we ran into town, and were offered a ride! Naturally we accepted and asked to be taken to Bob's Dairyland. I was starving and had a  strawberry milkshake, BBQ sandwich, fries, and cornbread! 

We met up with a bunch of friends, ate and hitched back to the trail. We started hiking, and immediately looked around at each other. We all realized what a huge mistake we had made. It was around 75 degrees, humid, we had 8.5 miles left to hike, and we were miserable. We all sat around a water source and whined but continued on to help speed up digestion. 

We passed through beautiful meadows and walked along the Elk river, and it was glorious. Shortly after we found this nice sign 

With praise like that we couldn't turn Jones falls down! 

Totaly bitchin', right?! We also passed the 400 mile mark!

Saturday 

It rained again. We did an uneventful 15 into Dennis Cove. The day was boring, except for one cool, old barn. 

Wrap up

Despite the weather, I've really loved this part of Tennessee. In the last four days I've hiked through meadows, rhododendron  tunnels, spruce forrest, by rivers and waterfalls, and over balds. It's really beautiful, incredibly diverse, and I would love to hike it again in the future! 

The next time I update it'll be from Virginia!