May 6, 2007 Erwin, Tennessee

Greetings all from the AT! The last four days of hiking have brought us from Hot Springs, N.C. to Erwin over 70 intervening miles of trails. One word probably describes the last few days - wet, wet , wet.
Hot Springs was a fantastic trail town, very small and quaint, well versed in greeting trail hikers, and making them feel at home. The trail goes right through the middle of the town. We had already decided to take our first 'zero' day there and ended up staying at Elmer's, a hiker hostel in the middle of town, and right across the street from the town diner, where the meaning of fried greasy food takes on a whole other delicious meaning to trail hikers. Elmer has an interesting history: having hiked the trail in 1976, he returned to Hot Springs after finishing and bought the old Victorian house he now runs as a hostel. This is a beautiful old home, and for $15 per night per person, we got a private room, and for an additional $10 per person, we had a gourmet vegan meal each night. (After 4-5 days on the trail without substantial vegetables, the idea of veggie overload with these two meals seemed like a good idea.)
We managed to do a little personal grooming while there, going to the only woman in town who does hair. She was very pleasant, but must have been at least 80, and judging by the cut lines in our hair, must have just had her cataracts done. Ah well, we're both wearing hats anyway.
The trail between these two towns was very reasonable, with graded trails, and nothing terribly challenging. The weather, however, threw us our first curve ball. Each day we had showers and thundershowers. During one of the more turbulent t-storms, we hunkered down under my tarp waiting for the thunder to pass. The next day, we found a tree several miles down the trail that had scored a direct hit from this storm. Most days we were walking the the mist and fog. Obviously, nothing wanted to dry out. You do your best to keep your dry things dry. With our arrival in town today, the clouds parted and the sun returned. The best news is that the weather is expected to be good for the next eight days or so, more than enough time to get us to Virginia and the town of Damascus, which we expect will take another 5-6 days.
Most nights we have stayed at the shelters. We have yet to encounter any significant biting insects so it's comfortable to sleep at night, and particularly with bad weather, its nice to end the day in a dry place. As Sean has indicated, the trail is a very social experience. At the shelters we can interact with other hikers and share stories. Most, if not all, are extremely nice people from every walk of life. Many are students, just out of college, some are young computer or bank workers, fed up with their jobs, who gave it up to seek the trail, with no formal plan for reintroduction to the work force on their return. Finally there are other old guy hikers like myself who have retired, etc. We have encountered one other father-son pair hiking together from Georgia, and they lived only a short distance from Springer Mountain.
There are the occasional unusual hikers who seem to become trail legends, and everyone knows about them. It's unclear if they truly are 'crazy' or merely act this way to gain notoriety. One such gentleman told us he would always hike with chewing gum. When he begins to sweat, he would immerse the chewed gum in his sweat and save it, convinced that the gum can then be used to cure homosexuality.
Spring has been slow to come even here. Only now in the lower elevations are the leaves yet out. The forest floor is now a verdant green with an abundance of wildflowers and ferns. Most of them look like prepared gardens. We have seen many lady-slippers, and four different varieties of Trillium; white pink,yellow, and crimson. The azaleas are just starting to bloom, and within the next week or two, the mountain rhododendrons should come out. These plants are abundant at all elevations, and at times make a virtual tunnel or trellis over the trail.
Over all, Sean and I have found ourselves well equipped to handle the challenges of the trail. We seem to have a good system which works well for us. The only exception is my change of boots in Hot Springs after 270 miles. The bottoms of my feet became very swollen, painful and numb on a daily basis, mostly from pounding during descent. I brought the shoes to the local outfitter who quickly showed me that the New Balance trail shoes had no support under the forefoot; so of course, he was able to find me a good substitute, and my feet have been much happier ever since.
I suspect both of us have lost some weight after 340 miles of hiking. Sean's appetite is gearing up a little more than mine, but he had a shorter road to travel to lean body mass than I still have. For four days of hiking, we are generally carrying 10-12 pounds of food, which is about a third of our pack weight. Even with this, I think we are consuming a total of about 2500 calories per day. With a twenty mile day of hiking, we should be in the 4000 cal per day range, but I don't think they make a pack big enough for this. Meals can be repetitious, but the day always starts off right with two pop-tarts. We are trying different recipes at times.
Next update will be in Damascus, in about a week. We hope to pick-up my second son Ryan in Pearisburg, for two weeks of hiking. Every step brings us that much closer to home!