April 27-28 wandering between NC/TN

April 27, 2005 | Day 31 | Miles: 20.6 | Total 332.4
End: No Business Knob Shelter, Tent
Danielle:
A bit of everything
So despite the little bit of everything thrown at us by Mother Nature (cold, wind, hail, rain, a few rays of sun), combined with all the mud on the trail, which made for a slip and slide fest, we managed to do our biggest mileage day yet. 20.6m. Wohoo! We started at 8:10am and got here about 5:45pm. Not bad for 20 miles :-) But boy, am I tired! I think we'll sleep well tonight...
We did go over a beautiful bald today, with the wind whipping us around, and sun shining down in the valley (although not on us). Great views.
Ryan had a rough start to the day, but he was tough and we pulled through. We were rewarded at dinner tonight with the wonderful Lindt truffles that our friend Gayle sent us in a little package at Hot Springs. I had saved them and they were a wonderful treat for dessert! Yum. Thanks Gayle :-)
We're looking forward to a short, six-mile day tomorrow into Erwin. And, despite the weather, as always it is good to be here :-)

Ryan:
the everything bagel of weather
a full day of work today. it took us a month, but we finally banged out a 20 mile day. lots of other people have done a lot of longer days, but we've been pretty conservative. but, today's 20 gives us a little over 6 into town tomorrow morning, so we're in great shape. btw, 20 miles is a long way to walk. i failed to mention a significant milestone yesterday - 300 miles. we're impressed. back to today, the weather was stupid. the highlights we're a pinch of sun and a fair amount of hail. rain on either end. so, the trail was mud all day. we've had maybe 3 days that haven't been muddy, but today was very gooshy. all in all, a perfect choice for our first 20. tomorrow, we're headed for erwin, tn. apparently, there is a killer burrito place. but, i doubt they'll match up to the tortilla with peanut butter, gorp and dried apples i had with dinner tonight.

April 28, 2005 | Day 32 | Miles: 6.3 | Total Miles: 338.7
End: Holiday Inn, Erwin, TN
Danielle:
Sunny
Well, we awoke to sunny skies. A miracle :-) Still cool, but nice for hiking. We only had 6 miles into Erwin, which was good as both of us were feeling a bit stiff from our 20 miles yesterday. Not too bad, but happy for a short day. We reached the road about 10:45am, and as we were walking along toward town, a Caddy stopped next to us and a nice woman asked us where we were headed. We said the PO and she said it was too far to walk, she'd take us there. Cool. She was super nice to do that for us. After we retreived our packages, we headed for Erwin Burrito, owned by a former thru-hiker. We got nachos and huge burritos--yum! Hit the spot and filled us up--amazing! Then as we were asking the nice lady behind the counter where it would be best to hitch back out to the Holiday Inn, a woman who was eating said she was leaving in 5 minutes and would take us there. Wow! Cool. We didn't even have to hitch. People here are so nice! So, we're currently drying our gear out in the room, all clean with clean clothes on, and extra full from the free pint of Ben & Jerry's they give hikers per room for staying here. Ahhhh. What else could we ask for? :-)

Ryan:
sunny am, then all rain
so, you're a stinky hiker, wandering down a random road in tennessee. do you expect to get a ride from an old woman in a cadillac, who's excited about the new wal-mart coming to town? me neither. but, strange things happen. that was our introduction to erwin. i've dubbed it the friendlist place you never want to go. but, if you do find yourself here, go to erwin burrito. very tasty...and big. mmmmmm.... quote of the day: "we have 5 kids and one on the way. but, it's not because we're hicks. i'm not even from here." whatever you say lady, thanks for the ride from erwin burrito to the hotel. yup, two rides without sticking out the thumb once. she was eating burritos with her very armed, very sheriff-like husband. ahhhh...tennessee.