Day 8

11 miles.

Woke up feeling a little hungover this morning. Not bad but nothing the continental breakfast and some ibuprofen couldn’t fix. We request a late check out so that we could rest our legs and recover from the night before a bit longer.

Spend the morning hanging out and bullshitting with other hikers over breakfast and gave Two Tone a shakedown of her pack. I think we got rid of around 4 lbs of extra stuff that she had. An entire book, duplicate articles of clothings, and a few other odds and ends.

We got our permit for the Smoky Mountains printed out and headed to the store for a quick re-supply and lunch. I was bullied into eating a salad but I think my body was happy for it. It’s so easy to eat bad while on trail. We’re burning more calories than you could possibly imagine and the little comforts like a couple of your favorite candy bars do wonders for your spirit. That is one of the perks of hiking like this. I could eat nothing but Swiss Rolls for every meal and still lose weight. The hard part is adjust back to a normal diet after the trail.

We starting hitching out of town and Anvil gets picked up right away in a tiny Kia Soul. It was kind of amusing watching such a big guy squeeze himself and his pack into the front seat. Two Tone, Max, and I kept trying for a hitch for another five minutes until an older gentleman by the name of Bryan White pulled up in his truck. He can take us all but not in the cab. Nothing in usual until you see the back of his truck. It’s a flatbed with one 2x6 board in each side for walls, a square cut out of the middle to attach a fifth wheel, no tailgate, and tons of tools strapped down in the back. It was definitely one of the sketchier rides as it was about ten minutes up the highway with barely anything at all keeping us from flying out of the back of this guy’s pickup. Anyways, we made it their safely and as we are getting out Max jumps off the back and smacks his big head on the cross bar keeping 3 ladders securely fastened. And that is the story of how Max finally got his trail name “Cross Bar”! It’s ten times the other trail names we have been playing with for him over the past couples days. For example Baloo or my person favorite, Vajanckle.

We finally cross the border into North Carolina today as well! Our first milestone. 1 down, 13 to go. We are camped next to a spring at the top of Bly Gap. Two Tone taught us how to play a card game called “Shithead”. We play a couple rounds as the sun goes down and all is well in the hiker world.