I was awoken at 5:30am by the sounds of 3 dogs running around and barking whilst their beleaguered owner thrust his lazy hand in the air mumbling "Come on now". There was enough predawn light to see, but not enough to get me out of my sleeping bag. I pushed that off until 6am.
The sunrise was pretty stellar, as expected, and I was feeling a good deal healthier. I was off by 7am and made it all the way to the road by 11am, which was 9.5 miles. The terrain was varied and wore me ragged. I walked across long dew covered balds, scrambled over massive rocks, and tripped through knotted root steps. It was a trial of a hike, and made me glad that I didn't attempt it last night.
Once at the road I asked if anyone had seen Mr. Fantastic come by. Tender Fungus was there, and pointed me in the direction of Roan Mountain (the town) which was 7 miles.
A quick hitch, phone call, and walk later found me sitting at the corner booth in Bob's Dairyland with Mr. Fantastic, Optimus, and Lavender. Also sitting in the next booth were Essay and Pinky. The food was good and cheap, and I got my french fries fix.
We walked to the local grocery store, and Dollar General to do our resupply. I took advantage of the good cellular service to make a couple phone calls and update the blog and whatnot. It's good to soak up a little connection in those rare moments when it's presented. Oh and thank you to Val for the food donation! I shall eat accordingly.
We split into 2 groups to hitch, since 4 is too many. However, when Mr. Fantastic and Optimus flagged a ride from a family with a pickup, they pulled into the lot and picked Lavender and me up as well. Made our afternoon a lot easier!
Being dropped off directly a the trail is always a joy, and this was no exception. The only complaint I could level at being back on trail is the intensity of the sun on days when I'm trying to get over dehydration. We had just 6 more miles to put in to bring us to a campsite by Elk River. On the way we encountered plenty of horse hoof prints and scat. I think if I'm not allowed to defecate on the trail, horses shouldn't be allowed to either. Just one man's opinion.
Moving on, we found a side trail for a great waterfall. A few weekenders were enjoying it's pools, but we decided to continue on and set up camp before going back. Of course once we found the campgrounds we realized that it's directly on Elk River, and that was just fine for cleaning off. Mr. Fantastic and Lavender both enjoyed a cleansing bath, but Optimus and I abstained (the water was ice cold, and we're planning to stay at a hostel in 2 days and can clean up then).
Optimus built a fire, and we all dug into our fresh food stores. Once our wood started getting low I set off to find some more for stoking. I went on a long walk that reminded me of how great it is to be doing this. With the river flowing to my right, mountains looming on my left, I'm walking across a swatch of path about 10in wide carved through shoulder-deep grasses. While never truly that far from civilization, sometimes you can feel like you're in another time. I scavenged some half-charred wood from the next fire pit North, and enjoyed a slow stroll back.
It was a brutally tiring day, but a very successful feeling one. I caught up with one of the two groups ahead of me, got new food supplies, ate a great BBQ pork sandwich, blogged about horse poop, and dried my socks over a fire next to a river at the foot of a mountain. While physically hard, emotionally it's been pure success.
