Day 61 - Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Woke up to cloudy skies and 54°. Today’s forecast is calling for the temperatures to get into the mid 60s and the sun is supposed to peek out later this afternoon… We’ll see how good the weather man is today?

Today we are continuing our hiking in the Cherokee National Forest from TN 91, Shady Valley, TN (449.1 NoBo) to Wilbur Dam Road (433.0 NoBo) equaling 16.1 miles which will take around 8 hours; so we attempted to not dilly dally and began hiking at 9:30 am.

We are averaging right around 2 mph which includes all our stops for breaks, lunch, getting water and chatting with other hikers. We have made even better time the last few days as trail conditions have been exceptionally good; not many obstacles or trail gnomes or rock scrambles which can slow you down. 

They say hiking could stress your body causing one to go prematurely gray- look at Turtle Power.  

Crossing a local spring.

Trail maintenance blazed a cut log.

Just a walk in the woods.... looks so peaceful and serene making one forget they are always just one step away from leaving the trail 😬.

This is “Hangman” who got his trail name due to him using a hammock to camp on the trail. He left Springer on March 27th. 

And this is “Dot” who is from Brooklyn, NY.  Dot left Springer on March 27th too.

The first wave of the bubble is making their way NoBo. Today we passed 72 NoBo thru-hikers. We estimated that less than 10 were over 30; only 8 were couples and approximately 40% were women. We also realized that all these hikers are “noobs” compared to TP and myself when you consider total trail miles. They have around 435 miles to date beginning at Springer and we are breaking the 700 mile barrier this week. I’m curious to see how many thru-hikers we will see tomorrow? 

This is the grave and memorial to Nick Grindstaff  located on the Appalachian Trail in NE Tennessee; and several miles’ hike from the nearest road. He was supposedly a nice man who just had no use for people. He kept several wild animals as pets, including a rattlesnake that someone shot. The memorial used to include his cast iron pots and pans, but vandals stole them through the years. There are stories that it is haunted. It is a very peaceful spot for a rest. 

“Lived alone, suffered alone, and died alone”

Tennessee and parts of North Carolina are in the Cherokee National Forest.

Views of Watauga Lake.

We met “Digit”, “Beetlejuice” and “Retro” at the Vandeventer Shelter. “Digit” and “Beetlejuice” are married. They left Springer on March 8th. They are about two weeks behind schedule as they admitted they like going to every town that they pass through having fun taking “Zero’s”  😂. The morning line on them making it to Katahdin is 10-1 🤭.

We finished hiking at 5:00 pm under sunny skies and the temperature was 63°. I am expecting to see as many if not more NoBo thru-hikers tomorrow as the bubble is making its way north to Damascus for “Trail Days” starting Friday. We were told that 1000 hikers could be there for the weekend. I can’t imagine where everyone could even camp? Many locals allow people to camp on their properties as this is a huge economic event for the community.  

Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾 

😋

“You gotta have passion for life and passion for something that you're going to get up and do,".    

                                Meredith “Sunny” Eberhart