14.0 miles
This morning at 7:30 Jeff picked me up at the hotel. We had debated waiting another day because it was cold, cold rain today, but I decided I wanted to keep moving. He took my pack to his hostel and dropped me off at Stecoah Gap. It only rained for about the first two miles and then relatively cleared up. He had told me over and over and over again "I want you to be off trail by 4:00". And I had told him over and over again that I am not a fast hiker, that I would get done with the 14 miles when I could, but that I could not say with any confidence that it would be before 4:00. I was thinking there was no way in the world that I could hike 14 miles in 8.5 hours when in Maine my average pace was a mile and hour. But after three miles I felt good, and I remembered that if I did get to the hostel before 4 I could go to town for dinner. I picked up my pace. At 3:45 I called the hostel to let them know that I was at the Marina. It felt good. For the last three miles I hiked with a man named Martijn, his trail name is Holland. He is from Holland and just graduated and doesn't start at the police academy until May, so he is here to hike half of the A.T. He told me that in customs in Newark they interrogated him for three hours, causing him to miss his flight to Atlanta. He is a very fast hiker. Today while he was eating his lunch he saw a whole family of wild boars. I did not see them, and that is o.k. with me.
There was one other hiker at the hostel tonight. His name is Reuben, but his trail name is Chapin Lara. Chapin means Guatemalan, and Lara used to be his last name. He was born in Guatemala 69 years ago. In 1963 he moved to the United States under political climates that made it unsafe for him to stay in Guatemala. He has a son about four years older than me, and a daughter only three months older than me. I enjoyed dinner with him. We went to a Mexican restaurant in town and when I wasn't looking he paid my bill for me. The trail magic is wonderful.
The woods this morning when I started.
Holland at the shelter.
Moss on a tree.
Trail blaze.
More moss or lichen or something?
The view of Fontana Dam from the trail.
The Fontana Dam marina. Jeff tells me that in the winter the TVA lowers the water levels, resulting in the extreme looking shoreline.
My room at The Hike Inn.
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