Going into Northern North Carolina and Tennessee, we knew that we would see some damage from the Hurricane last September. This is a widely talked about topic on the AT this year and the rumors spread quickly backward of just how bad it is. Seeing it for myself has been like walking through a movie. It is so unnatural to see an entire forest all fallen like matchsticks in the same direction. It is mind blowing to see all of the chopped trees to the side of the trail and begin to imagine the amount of work that trail maintainers put into getting these trails open just so we can experience them. Whenever we run into trail crews, I want to hug them, I am so overwhelmed with gratitude for their work. When the hurricane happened last fall and we saw hundreds of AT miles close, Strider and I thought our AT dreams would have to get postponed. Then, when they started to be opened, people wondered how much these areas would affect the morale of hikers and if it’s even worth doing this trail anymore. In fact, we have heard that thru hiking is down 25% compared to an average year! (Don’t quote me on this, trail rumors)
However, some people wrote how these small trail towns that got hit hard by Helene need hikers more then ever this year. I am grateful for the people who spent time writing about this impact because that is one of the main reasons why we are on the trail this year. The descent into Hot Springs was the first time we started to see wreckage from the hurricane. I was amazed once we got into town how much had been built back, in fact I barely realized how hard this town had been hit until I looked up videos about what the town had looked like only months before our walkthrough. I have never been to this town before so I have the gift of naivety and walked around amazed at all of the people working to restore this community while we were there. In fact, I even got to see a CAT crane driving up the river! I didn’t even know those were able to be in water!!
Everything next to the river had been completely flooded, this included the post office. Strider and I wanted to send home a couple pieces of gear we decided we didn’t need (I sent home my puffy and camp shoes) and this ended up being a long, strenuous task. The post office is open, but is only getting packages in and out, nothing more. So, we had to find a box, package it, measure and weigh it at the outfitter, and then print the postage label at the welcome center. This process took about 2 hours, factoring in the waiting we did for them to come back from lunch break. It was pretty fun though, considering I got to meet a lot of people from Hot Springs in my scavenger hunt. The rest of the town is in the process of reopening, I did my whole resupply at the local market and ate two hot meals at the local diner. This was the first town I did not feel guilty about spending money in at all. (I’m on a tight budget) Also, we met a dad from Nashville named Bronco who was section hiking the trail who offered a spare room in his Airbnb to myself, Strider, and Iceberg for free! We had a great time hanging out with him and learning about his Airbnb treehouse business. The trail provides! Hot springs was amazing!
Strider super excited when we saw how nice our living situation was for the night
Back to trail after Hot Springs – Day 26 (11 miles)
That afternoon we got on trail finally at 3 pm and pushed 11 miles to camp where we got to at around 7 pm. I thought it was so crazy that 11 miles used to be our whole day and now we can do it in 4 hours. This week I am so happy to report that I am finally feeling my trail legs!! My arch pain in my foot has completely vanished and I don’t wake up stiff as a board any longer even though we are pushing bigger days. We hiked to the first shelter which was empty because everyone’s so afraid of noro (a whole bunch of people had it in town) that they pushed on. We ate dinner with a couple from the Netherlands who told us how much they loved Gatlinburg and want nothing more then to see a fake cowboy in a cowboy hat. Their American stereotypes made us laugh. They said to us, “Why do Americans go to bed at 7 or 8 pm?! That’s such a culture shock!” We laughed and explained to them that that’s not normal, it’s just trail culture. We then went to bed at 8 pm cause we were tired.
Day 27 (16 miles)
I woke up the next morning to a new Lorde song. I listened to it first thing and then maybe 80 times that day. The artist, Lorde, has always meant so much to me and to drop a new ALBUM while on trail means so much. I listened to her music all day. We met the southern cookie lady and ate a peanut butter cookie at her house right off trail. She told me Mothra is one of her favorite trail names and she will not forget me. This meant a lot to me because she has met almost 10,000 hikers!! We ate lunch after a climb with Square tail, a guy who just retired from Massachusetts. He started March 12 and showed us pictures of snow! I am so grateful to have not had any winter camping, even if our first week was all rain. Anyone I meet that started after April 5, I can’t help but think, “you haven’t even had a proper rain storm yet.” That would’ve been the ideal start date, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
We climbed up over the ridge and hit 300 miles! I was so scared of rattlesnakes on the ridgeline but we didn’t see any cause it was quite chilly. The weather was actually perfect today. A bit misty and chilled but not cold. We made it to camp (needed to shit so bad) and ate dinner with Losty and Rabbit and Iceberg. The Dutch couple showed up later and we promised to stay up later so then we talked about a whole lot of random stuff including deep conversations about regenerative farming and sperm donors. We went to bed at 9 pm, aka hiker midnight.
300 milesss
The ridge was so cool cause to our left (pictured) was Tennessee and to our right was North Carolina
Day 28 (19.2 miles)
Strider and I agreed to wake up early this morning and for the first time, we did. 6:30 wake up and 7:45 leave. It was wicked foggy this morning and wet. Our shoes were soaked from the we grass and we passed through some open fields that truly felt like a horror movie. We even passed through some union soldier grave sites that were extra spooky cause of the fog. Then when we left those, the fog just disappeared. We went to the shelter and some people were just hanging out and haven’t left yet. They commended our early set off time. They don’t know it’s our first time ever doing that.
We set off again and climbed up a mountain. It went through this unbelievable grassy field and up a waterfall. By the top of the climb we were both sooo hungry and cooked ramen in the summit. We hiked down to the next shelter where we planned to stop and there was a presumably homeless dude there since he had no backpack and only a bottle of lotion and a pair of jeans. My brain is trained out here to notice things out of place so we decided to push on a little further. We camped with Junco and Pickles, a young couple from upstate NY, and Poppins. This was our longest day yet! I’m so happy that the we have had minimal rain this week, I won’t take it for granted.
Day 29 (20.2 miles)
However, that night it rained almost all night and I didn’t sleep great. We woke up at seven and were pretty quick to get ready and go, our routines are getting sharper. We hiked with Poppins all day, he got his name from his umbrella always being out in sun and rain, but I think it’s also because he has a “Mary Poppins bag” of life stories. He has a little bit of experience in everything and if he didn’t already have a trail name, I’d suggest Google because he can answer almost all of my questions I randomly ask. We joke everyone we meet, no matter where they’re from, Poppins goes, “Oh yeah, I lived there for a year. Love that bakery in town.”
Us and Poppins on Big Bald
The day started off so foggy and then rainy as we climbed Big Bald. A previous thru hiker told us this was her favorite view on the whole AT, but it was entirely foggy so we saw nothing. We slipped on the mud the whole way up and down. Poppins and I were goofing around with our umbrellas in the fog cause you “disappear” in the fog. We were having a good time detailing our dream cabins we want to build that the time flew. Eventually we ran into a trail crew and then a mile of some serious blowdowns. This absolutely broke my heart and I have a hard time not internalizing the damage. It feels like a movie set, seeing an entire forest leveled and truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Poppins could sense my sadness and made a comment that these trees will nourish the next forest. It’s all part of the life cycle far beyond us.
Right outside the blowdowns, we got a little trail magic at a random cooler of a capri sun and oranges. Strider and I don’t have enough food this resupply. I actually would’ve had a perfect amount if Strider did too cause I offered to give a lot to him today and he was still hungry. We are still learning! Our afternoon went by with a random hard rain storm. Strider got soaked while Poppins and I had our umbrellas so we just thought the storm was funny cause there were blue skies everywhere around us. We ate dinner at the shelter and met two sisters. We then hiked an additional 3 miles to get closer to town in the morning. We hiked through another set of blowdowns to the top of the ridge where we camped. Due to the blowdowns around us, the campsite had a virtually unobstructed, beautiful view, probably my most beautiful campsite so far. Sad, but little victories. Finding the beauty in moments of destruction.
The view from our tent
Day 30 (3 miles)
In the morning we hiked down 3 miles to town and were shocked by the views we had coming in of the riverbed after the hurricane. The damage was bad, the worst we’ve seen so far. Uncle Johnnys, the hostel we were staying at, had its main building completely destroyed so the one we stayed in is brand new. We checked in at 8 and saw Sugar glider and Moon pie who said Iceberg was saying we yellow blazed (skip a part of trail by getting a ride in a car) cause he hadn’t seen us yet. Kinda funny, we’re faster than others all of the sudden and they think we yellow blazed! We went into town and I got Pals for the first time and a Dunks iced coffee. The south is making me realize how much I absolutely love biscuits.
This is where the bridge the AT crossed used to be. You can see it on the river bed in the back of this photo.
Poppins and Strider posing in front of Pals. To order we just walked through the drive thru lane in between the cars!
We then went to Food City and did our quickest resupply yet. We’ll see how good we did this week as we only bought enough to make it to Roan, TN which is 55 miles away. With our miles we’ve been doing this is about 2.5 days. I met a man named Crazy Wolf from New Boston, NH. He reminds me of my dad’s friends from back home and Thought it was so cool that I’m from Londonderry, NH. No one has ever thought that before haha. I also met a man, Peepaw, from Germany. We then spent the rest of the day showering and doing laundry and dishes and hanging out in the sun. There was a good crew at the hostel and it was fun hanging with everyone. Poppins made a nice family dinner and we laughed since the two of us were preparing it like surgeons- we would wash our hands then hold them up like we’re about to get gloved for surgery and make sure to only touch the food. The life of noro-conscious chefs at a dirty hostel. Junco also made us a ceasar salad in his bear can! The food was so good (I ate too much) and we sat around the fire for the rest of the night. Fun crowd, we are definitely in the bubble right now! I love the AT!
Getting a tour of the kitchen at Uncle Johnnys Hostel
Hiker family dinner! Pickles even made a center piece out of an invasive plant.
Day 31 (18.1 miles)
I ate a Taco Bell burrito for breakfast and felt weird in my stomach. I’m so paranoid about norovirus but also I drank 3 beers last night and barely want water so I was (looking back on it now) just intensely dehydrated all day. To get back on trail, we had to ride the raft across the Nolichucky river since the bridge was destroyed by Helene. I was nervous to do so but it was super chill. It’s crazy seeing all the trash, picture frames, and parts of peoples house baked into the mud against the river.
Sugar Glider and Moon Pie calling a hitch (the raft)
The day was sunny and warm, but not hot, and most of the day was a steady climb. We started off the day talking to Rorshack, he got this name because of the sweatstains on his shirt, about his life living in Alaska for the past 14 years. We hiked a bit with Junco and Pickles as well. When we stopped for lunch at the gap, there was trail magic! The guy said he’s been there ten years and never met another Mothra 🙂 I drank lemonade and ate a brownie. We heard about two guys staying at the hostel the night before us were sick on trail with noro. It’s nonstop washing hands for me as a hypochondriac. We made it to the “beauty spot” and Strider and I sat in the sun to tan our pasty torso compared to wicked tan hands. We met two new guys which is rare because we’re getting to a point where we recognize most people on trail.
We then did our final climb, I finally turned on a podcast even though nothing really interested me today. I will take any and all podcast requests! Days after town are so hard for me, especially this one. Even though I’m only carrying 3 days of food, my pack felt so heavy and I just felt slow.
As of 4/16/2024, all hikers have to take a 5.8 mile detour around some areas where crews are clearing more blowdowns. This included a long road walk and then some intense uphills and downhills that were crazy steep.
Detour signs
Road walk along most of the detour
Some kind person left a comment on Farout, the app we use for maps, that there was nice camping on this detour next to a creek. It was a lovely spot and we had a village of tents across the creek. Strider and I decided to camp on the flattest spot closest to the road on the other side of the creek. This ended up being scary when at about 1 am, a group of (we assumed) drunk people were blaring music from the road above us and yelling, “Oh yeah I know the spot is right down here.” When I woke up at first, it sounded like ritualistic chanting. It was just hip hop music. Everything at 1 pm in your tent is scarier. I grabbed my pepper spray and was ready if needed. No one came down in the end but we laughed in the morning thinking about a drunk person coming down and being like “oh a tent”, opening it, then getting pepper sprayed. I missed the real AT, where we are almost always camped separated from the roads. I must remind myself how lucky I am to be experiencing the majority of the AT, however, and grateful for crews working to restore the trail just for people like me to enjoy it.
Some more blow downs. This section is full of them.
Day 32 (18.2 miles)
We woke up to a dry tent and took off in the morning to finish the rest of the detour which was pretty gnarly steep, but I felt strong. I joked it was just NH prep! Today I felt really strong overall, my feet didn’t hurt at all and I didn’t feel nauseous. So grateful after my hypochondriac/dehydrated day yesterday. When we got back in the main trail, we then went over some rolling hills through a ton of blowndowns. It was a mid day in terms of trail scenery because of the constant destruction. We ran into Rorschach, Sugar Glider, Sparky, Moonpie, Junco, and Pickles all day long. This is our little bubble for the past week. I listened to some random podcasts as well as a lot of music. Today felt really long, but not much happened. It felt really hot but it was only 67 degrees, jeez. We set up camp in a big tent city with everyone mentioned above off the main road, where no one was yelling at us. Tomorrow we will hit 100,000 feet of vertical climbs and 400 miles!! It is crazy I finished the Colorado Trail in 31 days and I have not passed that point and I’m not even 25% of the way to Katahdin. How lucky am I to have had such an adventure already?
I left my spoon at Uncle Johnny’s so I’ve been eating my food with a tent stake lol
We leave NC for good tomorrow! Roll neers 😀
Mayapples!
Thanks for reading! I am updating my writing style every week so I don’t get bored and consider it a chore 🙂
