Eyes at Night

This post covers April 9-13. April 9th was my "zero day" in Erwin. A nice enough town, but not very pedestrian friendly. You realize when on foot that sidewalks aren't a given in many towns along the trail. They exist sporadically, but don't seem at all to be a priority. Anyway, while in Erwin I got a nice military haircut to go with my clean-shaven look. I also bought a replacement pair of orthotic insoles for my hiking shoes from Rite-Aid. These new insoles have proven to be nothing short of miraculous. My foot pain and knee pain completely disappeared soon after I started hiking with them. It's been three days and I'm a true believer on Pro-Foot insoles. I ate lunch on Saturday at the KFC buffet. In the non-hiking world Jackie and I never partake in all-you-can eat buffets, but now I understand their appeal. I indulged.

Sunday the 10th was a long strenuous day, starting at about 1600 feet and climbing to about 5200 feet over 14 miles, ending in a dense spruce forest with ice and snow on the ground. I pushed on for another 11 miles for one of my longest days yet, using a headlamp for the last few miles. After dark, I glanced to the side of the trail and my headlamp reflected brightly on a pair of eyes about 50 feet away, staring at me. Then I saw a second set of eyes. I roared loudly, just in case they were bears. I saw movement from side to side, and then four sets of glowing eyes. I yelled again; the eyes kept staring at me, so I moved on. It was much too dark to make out what they were. They could have been raccoons, foxes, bears, or some other animal. A mile later I noticed two more sets of eyes glowing at me. There was a lot of nocturnal wildlife in that section if the woods that night.

The next day, Monday the 11th, more uphill was in order. I hiked up to Roan Mountain at 6200 feet, the last time I would be over 6000 feet on the trail. On the way up I was passed by a guy going in the opposite direction. He had a foot long beard and his trail name was the Hiking Viking. He started his southbound thru hike in Maine in January, tackling Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont in winter. That's some seriously crazy mountain man stuff.

One way of funneling water into your squeeze filter.

Tuesday the 12th was forecast for rain, so it was no surprise when it came. It started raining at night, so in the morning I packed up my wet tent, threw on my rain gear and walked in the cold rain. The muddy trail was very slick; even though I had trekking poles for balance and support I still managed to slip and get mud all over me. Fortunately, after hiking for about three hours the rain let up. The rest of the day made for fine hiking. I passed an old family cemetery (still in use) near a mountain top in the middle of nowhere. I took a few pictures there.

Tennessee is frustrating because it has several sections where you must hike in a southerly direction for a while before resuming northward. I had another one of those sections on Tuesday.

I hiked for over 25 miles on Tuesday with the intention of camping fairly close to Hampton, TN, my next stop. I had a box of food and a new tent waiting for me at the Hampton, Post Office, and I also wanted to send my old tent to Jackie, so I wanted to get there well before closing time at 4:00 PM. I ended up camping only about five miles from Hampton.

Wednesday the 13th was a short, but beautiful hike, often paralleling the stunningly scenic Laurel Creek, with canyons and waterfalls. It was perhaps the the most scenic section of trail to date. I took care of my Post Office business after arriving in town via a one mile side trail and then proceeded to the Braemar Castle Hostel, located in an enormous old 1909 stone building. The proprietor and his wife live in one half and the other half houses the hostel. That's where I'm writing this.

Laurel Falls on April 13, 2016.

Braemar Castle Hostel.

Hampton is a nice enough town, but again, strangely devoid of sidewalks. Maybe it's a Tennessee thing. Anyway, Virginia beckons. I just checked my guide book and I'm only 50 miles from Damascus. I'll arrive on Saturday the 16th, a month after leaving Springer Mountain, GA on March 17th. I'm making very good time.