Appalachian Trail: Days 12-16

Day 12 - March 12th

Daily miles: 15.5

Official distance covered on trail: 125.2

Woke up this morning with relief. A few days ago, there was a prescribed fire in the area we camped in. We'd gotten official word that the burn had passed and it was safe "but possibly smokey" in the area, but when we got back to our camp site after our day in town, we could see fires nearby. They weren't on or near the trail, but close enough that we could see them, which was unsettling. Not much we could do but sleep, and honestly I slept like a rock. Wild how helpful it is when the outside temperature is in the high 40s and not low 30s. Still kinda scary to be so close to such large fires, even if they were controlled.

Not gonna lie, today was kinda a rough one for me, both physically and mentally. My family will be pleased to hear that my knees barely bothered me today! Unfortunately, the body part that pained me the most today was my right heel, and I honestly can't tell if it's an internal or external issue. I think it's just an inconveniently-placed bruise, but it's super frustrating.

Also, the 15 miles we did today were wayyyy harder than the 16 miles we did the other day, and I think that was discouraging for me. Like we did 8 miles by 11:00 yesterday and it took us an extra hour or so to complete that same distance today. The terrain was way more challenging, but even so.

My mood was brightened by a long break we took at a lookout tower around the tenth mile. Leading up to this tower, I was just... frustrated. Mostly by my heel, partly because I temporarily was unable to believe that what goes up ever goes back down, a bit because I assumed we'd covered more ground than we actually had. But the tower itself was a great place to take a break and breathe for awhile. Met a few high school girls who told us we were "cool" and we "actually don't look that bad," which is like the highest praise from teenagers!

From the tower, we had 5 miles to get to our campsite. I don't know why, but the last 2 miles felt impossible. I almost screamed when we kept coming to clearings that weren't the shelter we're staying at. We got here eventually, and ended the evening playing euchre with a few new friends, Fireball and 2.0.

Tough day in a lot of ways for me, and I know there will be many more just like it. Just gotta remember that I'm mentally stronger than a bad day, and hopefully tomorrow will be a better one.

Day 13 - March 13th

Daily miles: 11.7

Official distance covered on trail: 136.9

Slept really well again last night. Must have been the light rain against the tent. It cleared up before we had to wake up, by which time there was weak sun peaking out from the clouds. Looking out from our campsite, we could see entire layers of clouds beneath us, with occasional mountain peaks poking through. Most of the photos and videos that I took today were of inverted cloud sceneries.

Although there was a lot of uphills and downhills today, my heel didn't hurt so much. I'm pretty sure it's tendonitis, but I made sure to take some vitamin I (which is what we call ibuprofen) before leaving camp this morning, and that seemed to help a great deal! I was in a much better mood today, too. I've noticed that my worst moods come the day after we leave a town; I think I subconsciously get angry at myself for leaving comfort behind, and my outlook that day suffers for it.

On that note, we got into the Nantahala Outdoor Center (which we call the NOC, like "knock") today, which is a water sport hub and hostel. We got in around 2:00, immediately got some town food and drinks in our systems, and generally relaxed. The showers were ok - at least there was hot water - but the laundry was out of order, so I'm still not what I'd call particularly clean, especially since I didn't have a towel to dry off with, so I used my sweaty hiking shirt instead. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being absolutely filthy and 10 being super clean, I'd say I'm around a 6, which is miraculous, considering I hadn't showered since 7 days ago.

We got a 4-bed hostel room, which comprised of 2 bunk beds and very little extra space. Me, Mitch, Wilson, and Scott stayed in the beds, and Matt camped outside on the porch to test out his new sleeping pad. Before going to bed, Matt showed us a card game called Shithead, and we played for a few hours while eating pizza and drinking our various beers. I'm largely convinced that this trail is actually just an excuse to drink a lot, with a bunch of hiking in between. May start calling it the Beer Tour of the East Coast.

Also, due to my assertive and exuberant card game tactics, the guys I've been hiking with want to give me the trail name of Big Dick Energy. (To all of the grownups reading this who don't know what that means, big dick energy is an obvious display of power, not being an asshole. An example of BDE is leading a trick of euchre with both bowers instead of playing one at a time.) I think the name is hilarious, especially considering I'm usually the only woman in the group, but I've had to turn it down on account of not wanting to explain it to future coworkers and students.

I already know we'll get a late start tomorrow. For starters, it's almost 9:00. Also, tonight begins Daylight Savings Time, so we'll lose an hour. And we're sleeping inside, so even though the curtains are open, we won't be awoken by natural daylight. Oh well, I won't complain about being in a bed, in a room, with walls. Time to fall asleep while listening to the sweet sounds of distant frogs (although, not gonna lie, Wilson and I thought it was a car alarm before Scott and Matt corrected us).

Day 14 - March 14th

Daily miles: 10.6

Official distance covered on trail: 147.5

Woke up feeling refreshed as hellllll. Not sure how; the room got literally steamy enough to draw on the windows by morning, what with all of our body heat and an ignorance to the fact that there was an air conditioning system in the room. We had to sleep on our sleeping bags since the bed didn't come with sheets, and I do mean "on" instead of "in" because it was too warm for being inside quilts of down. But we stayed in bed until around 7:30, and it was wonderful to just lie there until everyone was ready to get going. Breakfast today was the can of beer that we didn't want to pack out with us. Got a later start than desired, but it was nice to laze around for once.

Today was the first day here that I felt old. We met a bunch of mid-college students who are taking gap years or semesters, and they're doing like 15-20 mile days consistently, and they started 2 days after we did. Am I old enough to be the crotchety elder who curses the youths for being so damn fast?

It wasn't a high mileage day for us, but the first 6 miles were a steady uphill so we could gain 3,000 feet of elevation, and the other 4 miles were comprised of steep downs and steep ups. I think we could have stood to do a few more miles, but there aren't any good camping locations unless we wanted to do another 6 miles, so we just called it here. Somehow, I felt in good spirits all day, despite the physical challenges presented by today's miles, and despite coming from a town.

It seems that this is a popular camp site, as there are about a dozen of us. Met a girl named Maria, who also lives in Columbus, who's one of those speedy kids I was mentioning earlier, but she was cool even so. Also met a physics teacher named Travis who is using his spring break to train for his summer PCT hike. Finally got in a few games of euchre without having to teach people how to play - me, Mitch, Scott (who we've named Oogie Boogie, since his lanky legs bend like crazy when he stumbles over the terrain), and 92 (an older gentleman whose favorite rum variety is 92-proof, and who we cross paths with often) are all true-blooded Midwesterners who value a good quick game. Oogie Boogie and I won both games, obviously. Most of us hung around the fire until tent time.

Tent time was late tonight - past 8:00, which is very new to us - due to Daylight Savings. I'm looking forward to using this extended daylight both for logging more miles and spending more time socializing outside. Now we'll be in our tents for closer to 10 hours instead of 12, and I'm not mad at that change!

Day 15 - March 15th

Daily miles: 11.7

Official distance covered on trail: 159.2

We are officially 2 weeks in! Got a late start this morning - about 9:00 - but it felt like our usual morning routine, since the sun is coming up an hour later than we're used to. It's amazing how quickly we got into a sleep routine, and DST totally ruined that. Even so, we figured it didn't matter how late we got started; we're still trying to do low miles before the Smokeys (which we'll enter in 2 days), and we have extra time in the evening to get things done.

For the second or third time this hike, I left camp in the wrong direction. Fortunately, Matt noticed before I'd gone very far. I'm pleased to announce my new trail name: Wrong Way. It's the perfect amount of self-deprecating and humorous; you gotta be able to laugh at your shortcomings, and directional positioning is one of mine. So, hi everyone, I'm Wrong Way. Thank you, Mitch, for thinking of it, and thank you , Scott, Matt, and Wilson, for validating it.

After about 3 miles of hiking, we came upon a parking lot with not one, but two parties of trail angels with some trail magic for us. The first guy, YNot2K, has hiked the AT three separate times, and he provided donuts and hot coffee. The second party was a group of three guys - Ironsides, Particular, and Sweatin' - who have done a bunch of AT sections, and they provided fresh fruit, hot dogs, pop, chips, and an assortment of Little Debbie snacks. It was only like 10:15, and I wasn't even that hungry, but I ate so much food. I haven't eaten a hot dog in a longggg time, but I had one in the parking lot and wrapped one up for a later time, and it was honestly exactly what I wanted (which is mildly concerning, but I'll take what I can get!). The donuts were *chef's kiss*, and I scarfed down a banana and clementine.

There was an ascent called Jacob's Ladder about a mile after this parking lot. It was steep, but honestly it wasn't that bad. A lot of hikers before us had warned us about it, and the fact that it had a name was pretty intimidating, but honestly it was just an extra steep half mile. Not saying it was the most fun I've ever had, but it certainly wasn't terrible. Plus, I had a hot dog and clementine waiting for me when I got through it, even though I waited another few miles before eating them.

About a mile outside of camp, we ran into another trail magic! The one guy, Spy, is slackpacking (hiking during the day and having a second person shuttle the majority of your stuff to your end location), and his partner, Miss Frizzle, is using the opportunity to visit towns while Spy hikes. Wherever Miss Frizzle picks up Spy, they set up a bunch of food and a cooler of cold beverages for other hikers. I didn't need a canned mead or Snickers bar, but I did enjoy them.

At camp, we played a game that's like a cross between Taboo and charades until the rain forced us out. It started as a drizzle, then went away, then came down in sudden sheets, then went away, and now is alternating between heavy bursts and light drips.

Day 16 - March 16th

Daily miles: 5.5

Official distance covered on trail: 164.7

I don't know what happened to the "light drips" from yesterday evening, but the entire night and morning was filled with heavy curtains of rain and wind. Mitch and I were both awake before 7:30, but wouldn't get out of our tent until an hour later, when it finally slowed up a little.

All our stuff is sopping wet.

We really were planning on stopping by the Fontana Dam Lodge just to resupply and do laundry and have lunch before heading back to the trail to go to the shelter a mile away, but Wilson sweet talked us into getting a room for the night, that enabling bastard. We figure that gives us only one extra mile for the tomorrow, and not sleeping in our wet tent sounds too good to pass up.

We start the Smokeys tomorrow and should be through them in a few days! We've already decided we'll be taking a zero in Hot Springs, and we should be coming up on that in about a week. A lot of our hikes are going to straddle the North Carolina-Tennessee border, but I'm going to count this all as NC until we cross that border for the final time.