Three twenties and an eight! Hot Springs, NC to Erwin, TN

Coming out of Hot Springs we had a great idea that we would do three twenty mile days and an eight mile day to get us into Erwin. So day one we started out good. We had some light rain but it was warm enough where we didn't have to put on rain gear and just hiked through the mist. It was really nice because this was our first really humid day. A few of our Canadian hikers felt a bit overwhelmed and especially appreciated the rain. By mid afternoon the rain stopped and we started our last accent of the day. About half way up we all realized that we ran out of water so I volunteered to crawl down this ravine to retrieve some water from this trickle of a stream. Along the way down I took my first spill and landed flat on my face. Good thing I didn't have my pack on!! After that we pushed on and made it to the Little Laurel Shelter. It was getting chilly and dark so we pitched our tent, ate dinner and crawled in to bed. We quickly realized that we choose poorly on who we camped next too because the guy tenting next to us had a snore like a "dying elephant" to quote Paddy Cakes. We have now starting tagging folks that are the snorers so we know not to camp by them. I guess it's a good thing we are carrying ear-plugs. One Twenty Mile day down.

Day two we started out early in a fog and wind. We had some mixed terrain of downs, gravel road, rocks and lots of ups. About seven miles short of our twenty we hit a wall, literally. We climbed up a trail beside a beautiful cascaded waterfall with lots of trees, green moss, and every color flower in the rainbow. Along one of the descents I jumped out of my skin because a four foot long king snake had bedded in a tree just at face length and decided to say hi right as I walked past it. I screamed like a little girl! After the climb we had roller-coaster hills for what seemed like miles and miles. We rolled into camp dead, limping and thirsty. Paddy started to pitch the tent and I went to retrieve water which ended up being half a mile away. ( 22 blue blazes infact) Now to all our friends and family out there half a mile isn't long at all in the grand scheme of things but what started out to be a 20 mile day became a 21.6 mile day and a extra half mile there and back was just more than my poor feet needed. Second Twenty Mile day down.

Starting out on our third and final twenty we had multiple types of weather. Warm at first followed by wind, fog and then heavy rain. So lots of stops for wardrobe changes slowed us down. As we pushed towards our first up of the day the wind kicked up to the point where you could lean into it full pack on and not fall. As it continued to rain on and off we crested a few Balds that literally we so windy I almost got pushed down. At mile ten we hit our first shelter and decided to stop and dry out. As soon as we got under the canopy the bottom fell out of the sky. We then and there decided our three twenties were looking not so good. We set up out pads and sleeping bags and for the rest of the afternoon watched our crew drag ass soaking wet into the shelter. One by one they quickly followed our lead and called it a night. We had lots of day left so we ate and played farkle then ate some more. The shelter turned into a nine person clothes line. There we socks, underwear, pants, shirts etc hanging from anywhere and everywhere they could. We called it a night early and fell asleep to Swedish Dub Step House Music that our new friend Eddie from Israel or " the Wandering Jew" was playing. Third twenty mile day a flop.
As we woke up to freezing temperatures everyone quickly realized that wasn't the only thing that was cold. Over the night everyone's clothes had frozen solid. Our buddy Sleeping Beauty's socks were as hard as a rock. Everyone's shoes had frozen also. It was a hard morning getting everything packed up that was frozen, shoes on frozen and start hiking with frozen fingers and faces. Since Paddy Cakes and I were so cold we decided to run the remaining 16 miles into Erwin. Time and miles quickly swept by with the thoughts of pizza and clean clothes. As we crested one of the last ups with speed in our shoes we saw Erwin and were overwhelmed with joy we ran right by Sleeping Beauty's parents. But, they were quick to call us back for some wonderful and well needed trail magic of starburst, red velvet cake bites, sodas and juice. They are such great characters. We sat and talked for about 15 min about the trail and how everything was going so far. We thanked them and told them we hoped to see them soon again and with the thoughts of pizza still running through our heads we descended down onto Uncle Johnny's Hostel where we pitched camp and got three large hot and ready pizzas from Little Caesars. Clean clothes, clean body and hot pizza! What more could I ask for. 16.5 miles in 5 hours. A new record.
Sorry we don't have any pictures for this section because we forgot to charge the phone. But I did get a pic of Paddy Cakes double fisting some pizza. Enjoy!