4/18

Iwas very lucky again to not have any shuffling to wake me. I cram my bag and everything other than my food in my tent, so space is limited though. Rolling over throughout the night becomes an interesting jigsaw puzzle with my bag and I. The night inside the tent wasn't cold. Unzipping the tent brought a rush of chill over me that quickly was battled away by layers and gloves.i packed my tent and with my friend (trademark) we hauled out. Our initials intention for the day was to pass over road mountain and secure something along the lines of another 20 mile day. Roan mountain is from what I have been told the second highest point on the trail behind Clingman's dome(will research when I have chance). We began with gusto and made very good time until we crossed a road and received trail magic. This stop was spent ingesting cookies and sharing conversation. As I have said before, trail magic is never unappreciated, today however it merely put us behind schedule. Our initial intention was to stop at a hostel that had been recommended by ya fellow thru hiker to trademark. The greasy creek hostel is run by a woman named Connie, and has a sterling reputation for being a more than welcoming hostel with food and attitude to match. After talking to the trail angel we learned that the neighbor to this hostel is not a huge fan of people and has been known to put up signs combatting the actual signs of the hostel in hopes to scare off business. We called just make sure we would be able to grab lunch and after a quick conversation with Connie we hustled to her.

We arrived in a clearing and noticed 2 signs for the hostel. The trail angel made sure to tell us than any signs hand written would most definitely be the work of the imposter, we took care to pull all of his signs down. As we continued along the trail we realized quickly that we had actually missed a turn as decided to stash our packs off trail and continue back for lunch without the weight. The hostel is located a half mile off trail down a steady incline. The incline itself was much easier to combat without the weight of our packs. There really is no point when I don't have it on now. Day in day out, I carry it. When it's time to take it off I walk just far enough to get water, use the restroom, cook, or get in my sleeping bag only to restart 

the process the next day. As we got closer to the hostel, we passed the angry neighbor's house. Nothing out of the ordinary there. With his reputation preceding him, the vicious property dog and the no trespassing/private property signs didn't surprise me at all. Another 20 or so yards led us to a cabin where our host welcomed us with a warm hearth. This woman is incredible. She has more energy than anyone I have met on trail and her service and dedication to making hikers feel welcome is unwavering. Now I said we went there for lunch, but to say we only ingested a lunch is to be understating it. My true hiker hunger kicked in days ago. For those who aren't quite sure what that is, it is exactly what is sounds like. There comes appoint where no matter how well you have planned for this trip you are continuously hungry even after eating. I sat and consumed half a box of instant oatmeal for lunch one day just because I was still hungry after the first and then second bowl. The "lunch" at greasy creek went as follows though. 

1 angus burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeños, spicy mustard

1/2 Red Baron pizza topped with mushrooms, jalapeños (split with trademark)

1 banana smoothie

1 snickers ice cream bar

1 banana

1 bag of Doritos 

2 drumstick ice cream treats 

1/3 pint of Ben & Jerry's scotchy scotch scotch (split with big spoon & toast)

The only problem with having eaten all of this is not that we were uncomfortably full(maybe a little) we just didn't want to march back up the hill. Now our initial plan was still 13 miles away, by this point there was no actual way that was gonna happen. After gathering our packs we settled on a shelter just a couple miles past the turn off for greasy creek.  We trekked the last few miles and let the night descend upon us as we watched the shelter began to fill up. All of the residents made for good company and conversation. It has truly been a great experience to come in contact with such great people and criss cross paths throughout the trail. After 2 hours I managed to eat again and feeling completely satisfied I laid down.