April 5, 2000

Nolichucky Hostel,  Erwin, TN · 0 Miles Hiked Today · 339 of 2167 Miles Hiked Total

Spent a zero day hanging out. Post office, grocery store, pharmacy, outfitters, Pizza Hut, cleaning of equipment, reading in the warm sunshine on "the patio," and eating as many calories as possible. Today I ate: 4 oatmeal bars, 2 candy bars, 6-8 brownies, 2 Cadberry Eggs, 6 snicker doodles, about 72oz. of soft drinks, some vegetables, 10 pieces of pizza, 4 pieces of dessert pizza, 1/4 gallon of milk 2 rolls, mashed potatoes, green beans, cole slaw and country fried steak. How many calories is that? 5,000 or more? The roomful of hikers thinks its 10,000.

More hikers I know came in today. Its fun to see people you haven't seen and hear news come up the trail. For instance, I thought for sure that Puddin' would be off with a bad ankle, but he showed up today with Goof, Special Agent, and Two Stepper. It's also amazing to hear how interrelated all of our lives are. Example: some puppies followed some hikers up a mountain and eventually came down and turned them in. The next day, a different set of hikers go off track and got a ride. It turns out that the ride-giver was the dad of the guy who lost the dogs and all of the hikers either knew each other from earlier on the trail or met here. Nuts!

Tomorrow I'm off again. Good weather is expected for at least two days -- sunshine and 70 degrees. It could even be too hot.