Hampton, TN – mile 421 – 19.1% of the trail completed

May 18th – River Rd. (Erwin, TN) to Cherry Gap Shelter
Total miles on AT – 17.1
Elevation gain – 3837ft
Elevation loss – 1488ft
Weather: turning overcast with an afternoon shower

I had intended to go 12.3. Ran into trail magic at TN 395. (Indian Grave Gap) but it started to rain so the guy there running trail magic packed up his pick up and left while Fun Fact and I moved on. Fun Fact just got back on the trail after attending his sister’s graduation from medical school.

I met Spam and Sniper at the 12.3 mile mark for the day on the side of a forest road where I was going to camp. Spam said the top of the mountain would be out of the wind, another 1.5.

It started raining on the way up, and I didn’t see the campsite until the minute after I had given up on finding it and dumping my water out because I had decided to go all the way to shelter – 17.1 miles for the day. The fifth longest day so far and longest in three weeks.

There was a horrible snorer at the shelter. My tent was a good 40 yards from his. I’m sorry to say, but he sounds like a pig in labor. I am not even trying to sleep right now and the sound is driving me nutty!

My knees felt better with new supporters. Still sharp pains, but the downhills felt better. My feet didn’t hurt late in the day. We’ll see how I feel in the morning. Might do as little as 9 tomorrow.

May 19th – Cherry Gap Shelter to Clyde Smith Shelter
Total miles on AT – 9.1
Elevation gain – 1602ft
Elevation loss – 1094ft
Weather: misty with light rain and mild

It rained lightly without stopping for twelve hours from last night through the morning. I woke up for a couple hours in the middle of the night as is the norm for me and when I went back to sleep I didn’t wake till 9. The difference is that I usually when I wake up in the middle of the night I have anxiety. That has not been the case recently.

I had a lazy morning reading and playing cards in my tent and didn’t break camp till 1:35pm. All I wanted to do was get back in my tent to do more reading and playing cards. I had decided only to do nine miles after a seventeen miler yesterday, but it was a struggle, mostly mentally. I walked through a thick mist for most of the afternoon and supposedly just missed trail magic at a road crossing.

The rain picked up again about an hour ago and the temperature has dropped some. I’m snug in my tent but some of my stuff is pretty damp. Tomorrow we head over Roan Mountain, the highest mountain between here and Mt. Washington (only two feet higher) in New Hampshire. I hope the weather clears.

May 20th – Clyde Smith Shelter to Overmountain Shelter
Total miles on AT – 15.6
Elevation gain – 3028ft
Elevation loss – 2894ft
Weather: cloudy, windy, and cool with low visibility, evening rain

The hostel owner in Hot Springs said the Roan Mountain area was her favorite section of the trail when she thru-hiked, but it won’t be mine. Early morning sun turned to clouds, turned to mist, turned to a damp trudge over high country balds with visibility of about 100 yards and 45 mile-an-hour gusts.

The weather continued to get worse and I am happy to be holed up on the second floor of a barn with at least twenty other hikers. The wind is whipping around outside and it is just raw.

I snapped the chord of my pack cover today and it became a useless relic flapping in the wind, and the poncho over the pack cover also needs to be retired. My bag got pretty drenched. My sleeping bag is a bit damp, but is keeping me warm. This is the worst night of weather yet.

Despite the weather and despite the lack of views it was an interesting section. I enjoyed the pine forests of Roan Mtn. and going to the highest shelter on the trail, and the grassy balds after that. It was the highest section we’ve done since the Smokies.

The barn is full of dogs and a woman with a German Sheppard mix asked me if I was the one who was nervous around dogs. I don’t know if she was thinking of someone else, but I told her I got bit a few years ago and she really reached out to me which was nice. Her dog seems to be ok with me.

May 21st – Overmountain Shelter to Elk River
Total miles on AT – 15.3
Elevation gain – 2246ft
Elevation loss – 4267ft
Weather: cool and rain, partial clearing in the afternoon turning mild, then evening showers

A tremendously huge youth group came in last night at 9:00 after dark and disrupted the quietly sleeping masses in the barn attic. Each one it seemed had to come up and take a look around, but they all set up their tents in the dry floor below before setting them out into the rain. The rain and wind drowned out the snoring.

I awoke around 2:30 and the rain and wind had stopped. I read for a while before making the death-defying decent down the steep stairs to relieve myself outside. No flashlight was needed outside the confines of the barn as the full moon lit up the earth.

What a sight it was – clouds to the right covering the moon, stars above the valley, and a large house fully lit up to the left across the valley, the outline of the mountains surrounding the valley clearly defined.

I instantly was reminded of a night on the Inca trail in Peru where I looked at a similar scene and was surprised that the sight before me tonight could trigger such a memory without the same 6000 meter peaks surrounding me. The air had warmed, but I retreated to my spot upstairs in the barn, a piece of floor all to myself to the right of the stairs.

The rain returned in the morning, and it was a cold and wet trip over more grassy balds, and much like yesterday I could not catch much of the surrounding views. At mile 390, I passed into Tennessee for good until the trail crosses into Virginia 75 miles from now. The trail has been skirting the border between Tennessee and North Carolina for over 200 miles.

As I descended, the air warmed and the sun made appearances. On the other side of US Route 19, I had some views back to where I came from earlier in the day.

The rain returned for a stint in the evening after I set my tent up next to the Elk River, which reminds me of the Blackfoot River in Montana. The crickets are deafening, it’s the first time I’ve heard them since Erwin.

I ran into a couple of section hikers less than a mile before camp at Jones Falls, the most impressive waterfall we’ve passed on the trail. One of them told me assuredly, “If you’ve come this far you’ll make it.” He told me he only made it 300 miles last year before he got injured.

May 22nd – Elk River to Moreland Gap Shelter
Total miles on AT – 12.3
Elevation gain – 1812ft
Elevation loss – 701ft
Weather: cool and mostly cloudy, evening showers and thunderstorms

Cold and more rain this evening which interrupted a nice fire that a guy made at the shelter. He was drying up his boots along with another guy named Eagle Eye who told us how he killed and ate a rattlesnake the other day.

I did 12.3 today over pretty easy terrain but it was a major struggle because my left knee started hurting almost immediately this morning. It is the patella tendon and it was more pronounced and consistent today than it has been on the entire trip. It hurt on almost every step. I first felt it last night as I arrived at Elk River. I spent an extra fifteen minutes after I arrived walking up and down the banks of the river trying to find the perfect camping spot and that is when it started hurting – there sure was a lot of down yesterday. I stood in the middle of Elk River soaking up to over my knees, and soaked again today at a stream crossing at lunch.

I have never been so worried that my trip might not last than I was today. I am reading about people in the register that are pulling off 27 mile days. Most of the guys and girls at the shelter tonight did 18 to 20 today. I hope like hell that it feels better tomorrow, but I am very scared that I won’t be able to increase mileage. I’ve averaged 14 miles a day over the last five days and maybe that’s too much too fast. I had intended to go 58 in the next four days to get to Damascus, but that is certainly in jeopardy now.

May 23rd – Moreland Gap Shelter to Hampton, TN
Total miles on AT – 9.5
Elevation gain – 254ft
Elevation loss – 2093ft
Weather: partly sunny and mild

I awoke to clear blue skies, but chilly temps. Some dark clouds rolled in in the afternoon, but this was the first day in six days without any rain. The knee was slightly better today, despite having to go down 2000 feet. But I babied it for sure.

The highlight of the day was most certainly Laurel Falls. I can’t imagine a more impressive falls on the trail. A sign posted on a tree of two victims four years ago was there to remind us how dangerous nature can be. The walk along the bank of the river north of the falls was just as spectacular.

I am staying in a very nice hostel – an old school converted into a home on one side and a hostel on the other.