Erwin

So on the 18th I did 15.8(ish) miles to a campsite at Spivey Gap (Mom, there was some road that had a route # there if that helps you find it for the map). I had expected there to be a fair number of people there, it was just me and UV tenting there. On the 19th I did 11 miles into Uncle Johnnies hostel in Erwin. The last few miles were annoying, Erwin was in sight forever just taunting me as I switchbacked down the damn mountain.

So I had some rain again. I had become so spoiled by the weeks of dry sunny weather. The weather wasn't all that bad for hiking but stopping was a bit miserable and all of my gear was wet. The only dry things I owned was my sleeping bag and my extra set of socks. Not a long list... Other people were terribly cold while being wet but luckily I was able to avoid that. For a few hours I hiked without a shirt on, which drew exclamations from others. My internal furnace just works overtime, what can I say?

At Uncle Johnnies Spiller found me before I checked in and informed me that her and Tyvek had a 4 person cabin and it would be the same price as the bunkhouse. Seemed like a decent option so me and UV took the beds in the cabin. Having the ability to spread all of your gear and food out somewhere is quite helpful. I got a shuttle in to the post office to get my food boxes and so I could mail out some of my cold weather clothes. When I got back from that Spiller informed me that Miss Janet was arriving in a minute to take two people to free food. Spiller gave up her spot since she is getting off trail tomorrow so me and UV got some free potluck dinner.

This was a dinner for an elderly hiking club that Miss Janet was giving a speech to. Me and UV were joined by Dreamtime and Trog as "show and tell." It was quite a unique experience I think, the average age of the member of this club was somewhere in the upper 70's. They were quite active and maintain a portion of the AT. One person had a shirt on that said "90 and still hiking." The food was good and I had some interesting conversations with the members. Hopefully I can be as active as they are when I'm in my 80's.

Probably a late start out of town tomorrow. I still have a bunch of errands to run but some miles will get done, I just don't know how many. Sorry for the lack of photos in this post, my phone was dead for the last two days. Oh and I got my kilt today, already seems great! I'm sure I'll have a photo next post.