Day 29

Woah does it ever feel good to be back on trail. 

After 8 DAYS of zeroing, we woke up this morning in Banner Elk NC, ate breakfast, and started driving back to devils fork gap, west of Erwin TN. 

We had gone out last night and got our resupplies to last us all the way until Damascus. So, on our way over to devils gap, we swung by the station on 19e, dropped off a 4 day resupply, and then swang by uncle Johnny's in erwin and dropped off a 2.5 day resupply. 

Although we're well rested, I was curious to see how we'd feel hiking. Our bodies have obviously had a rough go of things, and dehydration is no joke. To my surprise, we all felt really good. Spencer was a little light headed at sections, but all in all, we were good.

Wouldn't you believe it too, Freshgrounds was at devils gap when we got there! Having just eaten breakfast, we only said hello before continuing down the trail. 

Really though, I should say up the trail. We started our day with a several mile, 1600 feet of ascent climb back into the mountains. However, the grade of the trail was good, and there were plenty of switchbacks to not only keep us from tiring out, but we were able to maintain a really good pace. 

Once we got up to elevation, we did a series of ridgewalks up and over hogback ridge mountain and shelter, and down to Sam's gap. Here, the second half of the day began. 

The big objective / mountain that we were aiming to get over today is big bald. There was a campsite a few miles before the summit, but we got there before 4 and stopping after 5.5 hours of hiking just seemed ridiculous. Plus it doesn't get dark until after 8 so it just didn't make sense to stop.

The entire walk up big bald was gradual until the very end, but the good views, sunny weather, and a well maintained trail, made the climb fly by. 

Remember those good views I just mentioned? Well the top didn't disappoint. Big bald is easily in the top 5 views of the entire trail. Absolutely phenomenal! So much so that I ate dinner up there and just enjoyed the 360 degree views. Once I realized though that my fingers were starting to go numb from the cold wind, I packed up dinner and got a move on. 

With only 1.5 miles left to camp, it didn't even take 30 minutes. Once at camp, I setup my tent, hung my bear bag, and now I'm in my tent laying down 20 minutes before last light and enjoying being off my feet. 

All in all, I felt good today. I can tell that I'll have to get reaclimated to hiking again, but I don't feel bad having gone from laying down 8 days straight to hiking almost 17 miles. My hips are a little sore, but my calves feel great -- something that I wouldn't have expected going nearly 5,500 feet up today. 

Quite frankly, I hated, absolutely hated taking 8 days off trail. I totally understand that it was needed and that being healthy enough to continue hiking is important, but I just can't believe how much this delayed us. Although we have the time, it's crazy to me that of the almost 30 days we've been out here, nearly 10 of then have been zero's.... that's insane! 

My stomach and guts feel good for the time being, but Spencer's and walker's are back to feeling suspicious. Since they recovered before me, I hope their current symptoms aren't what's waiting for me in 3 days time. I'd wish for all of us to be feeling better, but it looks like we're not quite there yet. 

Tomorrow we'll finally walk through Erwin, grab our resupply, and then camp about 3 miles out of town. It's looking like rain will move in tomorrow night, so if it's absolutely pouring maybe we'd stay at the hostel for the night and avoiding getting our tents soaked, but at this point even 3 extra miles would be nice to chip away at. I'M TIRED OF BEING INDOORS! 

We joked around today that all we would have to do in 10, 30 mile days in a row to be back on pace. Now, obviously, there's no rush and we aren't going to do that. I won't lie however, there is a very small part of me that says if I was hiking the trail by myself, I might just do something dumb like that.... so good thing that they're here with me. 

Either way, I'm glad to be back on trail, it feels right, and I'm looking forward to continuing the slow but steady chipping away of miles. 

Daily recap:

- Total miles hiked: 16.6

- From mile marker: 311.4 to 318

- From devils fork gap to a campsite slightly past bald mountain shelter 

- High temp: 60 and sun

- Low temp (morning): 30 and clear

- low temp (tonight): 40 and cloudy

- Total ascent: 5,344 feet

- Total descent: 3,501 feet

We should be back to the regularly scheduled programming and as always, thanks for following along. 

Tyler M.