This place is at mile 290ish and is 0.7 miles off trail. That made this an 11 mile day. Yay! The hostel isn’t quite as cool as Standing Bear Farm was, but it’s still a nice place. Every hostel on the A.T. has its own unique character and this one doesn’t disappoint. I am tenting here tonight along with two others, pitched right by the creek. I love sleeping to the sound of the creek.
I’d made a mistake in thinking there was a campsite 10 miles from Tanyard Gap. So this hostel was perfectly placed. I must say that today’s hike was excellent. My mood was super and I was happy to be back on the trail without a doubt. The amount of greening that has occurred during my absence is amazing. The green tunnel is closing in!
About 5 miles into this 11 mile day, my knees started giving me trouble, especially on downhill runs. It seems the shock absorbing characteristics of my knees is gone! guess being off trail for two weeks has led to some atrophy. I’m hopeful this will improve. I may also consider knee braces as several folks on my blog and here on trail sing their praises.
About three miles into the day I arrived at the peak of Rich Mountain. There’s a fire tower here which I climbed up and took a video. This was also the last place where MotMot and Zeeba camped before getting off trail. I was able to see their campsite.
At Allen Gap, I took a break at Mom’s on route 208/70. The place is run by Pat and her husband and offers some basic resupply items. They also have cold sodas of which I enjoyed not one, but two! This is the place where MotMot and Zeeba left the trail. Pat helped them fashion a hitchhiking sign which proved effective for them. According to their story in Asheville, they were picked up by the third car which passed them.
I arrived at the hostel at 400pm – making 11 miles in 7 hours. Thats a decent pace especially considering an hour’s stop at Mom’s. Also arriving simultaneously were Trisha and forgotten name. They have a cool story – they met online while searching for potential hiking partners. This is Trisha’s first time camping or backpacking, while forgotten name has done several backpacking trips. They started at Tanyard Gap a couple days ago and are doing short 5ish mile days.
Some folks here at the hostel are headed to Trail Days tomorrow in Damascus. I was originally on the fence about going. On the one hand, I don’t care for large crowds. I mean, I’ve heard that Trail Days has about 20 thousand people descending onto the tiny town of Damascus. But on the other hand, it is such a seminal event in A.T. culture. So I was undecided for a while. Now, following my lengthy absence, I just can’t see spending the time.
So tomorrow is supposed to be another 10 mile day, and then three 15 mile days to get to Erwin on Monday. I’m glad to be back in the game! 🙂
Wandering on…
Mojo