Day 28 – Working For The Weekend

I’ve decided zeros are the equivalent of a long weekend in the thru-hiking world. You are generally just pushing through the work week until that next resupply or town day. This weekend was a good one, as they usually are.

Ian and Jenn decided to stay another day and took the time to explore our immediate surroundings. We had a fantastic breakfast at the Smoky Mountain Diner in town. The establishment appears to be a fixture in town amongst locals and thru-hikers alike.

After that, we proceeded to explore the grounds of the hostel we were staying at. It was surprisingly quite extensive. There was a koi pond that was also home to several different types of frogs. After feeding the koi we walked down to a walking maze made out of rocks and gravel. I nearly walked right into a birds nest settled on a branch in nearby weeping willow tree, which about gave me a heart attack.

We got caught in a small rainstorm and retreated to the relative safety of the van. The rainstorm was actually pretty peaceful and we watched it with doors open and the awning out.

We had dinner at Vinyl Pies Pizza. There’s a bit by Comedian, Louis CK, in which he says “The meal is not over when I’m full, the meal is over when I hate myself”. I definitely ate enough pizza to hate myself. It’s really more a compliment to the establishment than an indictment on my own self control (which is also poor if we’re being honest).

I walked off my pizza shame to the Dollar General for my resupply. Erwin TN is roughly 5-6 days away, as is next weekends Trail Days in Damascus, so in either situation I needed that many days worth of food. The store had been picked through fairly thoroughly and my usual resupply of chicken/tuna packet options and protein bar selection was thin at best. I found one singular box half full protein bars and I took them all. I also grabbed some heavier preferable meatball meals. Protein is hard to come by on the trail and my normal goal of 150g per day is just not realistic on trail and I’m lucky if I get 100g (protein is an anti-catabolic macronutrient and spares muscle loss in high enough quantities).

After getting back to the bunkhouse we had quick commiserations before heading to bed. Once in bed I had the treat of watching the Lakers game on my phone. For those who care they’re moving on to the Western Conference finals after beating the Warriors in 6. A great end to the night (which was definitely after midnight, west coast games finish so late). Tomorrow is an easy 6 miles to the start of the bear-restricted part of trail.

Stow away in my pack for day 29 on the Appalachian Trail.

 

King Kydle

Hey brother, hope things have been well with you and yours. You’re one of the smartest people I know and I miss our nerding out sessions. Next time I’m in CA let’s get together. Wishing you all the best!