Day 30 Uncle Johnnie’s

Writing from Uncle Johnnie’s hostel, charging up our phones before finishing off the last two miles for the day. 


Today went very well. I slept straight through the night and woke up feeling rested. I almost slept too well, waking up at 7:40. We ate breakfast and tore down camp. We started hiking before 9. The morning was quite chilly but we made decent time all day. The terrain was very flat, with a decent amount of descent and very little ascent. 


Most of the day was spent hiking through rhododendrons, so we didn’t have a ton of views, but occasionally the mountains would peak through. 



My legs felt great, it’s very nice hiking without pain. My stomach felt great as well, I ate without much discomfort at all. I’m still recovering, but feeling good overall. 


The descent down to the Nolichucky River and Uncle Johnnie’s had some pretty cool lookout points. Some of the flowers and trees are just starting to bloom. 


We leapfrogged a group of three hikers for most of the day. We would stop to eat or fill up water and they would pass us, then overtake them again shortly. 


Since the trail was easy and the weather was good we moved quickly through the 16.6 miles to Uncle Johnnie’s. The hostel owner was incredibly nice and let us charge our stuff and was very generous with his store prices. We also ran into Steve, the shuttle driver from Unicoi Shuttles. It was cool to see Steve again, he was incredibly helpful and kind. 


In 10 minutes we are heading out to go another 2-4 miles. We are debating going the whole 4 miles to make it to a shelter that probably doesn’t have anyone at it. This would be great because it’s supposed to rain a good bit tonight. But we don’t want to get there and have it be full. If that happens we would not have many options for camping nearby. If we just go 2 miles we would have plenty of camping but our tents will get wet in the rain. 


Anyway, we are heading out soon. I’ll finish the update tonight. 




Writing from Curly Maple Gap Shelter after hiking an additional 4.3 miles and making it to the shelter just before the rain started.


Not much more to add, we pushed the additional 4.3, which makes tomorrow a lot easier for us. We have a 10 mile ascent up Unaka Mountain tomorrow, so nocking out the first two miles and 1,500 feet of that makes a huge difference. 


Also a trail runner was incredibly nice and was planning on running 9 miles round trip from Uncle Johnnie’s to this shelter and back. He offered to tell us how many people were at the shelter on his way back so we wouldn’t get there and find it full. He ran the 9 miles in like an hour and a half. He was absolutely sprinting. But he stopped to let us know there were only three other people going to the shelter.


We hiked a total of 20.8 miles today with 4,000 feet of ascent and 6,000 feet of descent. We hiked from 9AM to 7:30PM but took about an hour at Uncle Johnnie’s to charge our stuff. The 20 miles felt pretty easy. Hiking the miles is so much more enjoyable when my legs aren’t hurting and my stomach is working well. I’m so grateful to be feeling well. 


We were really lucky with the rain holding out for us. It is pouring right now, but we are dry in the shelter. There are three other people here but we have the top section of the shelter to ourselves. I’m really glad to be dry in here and not getting my tent soaked. It’ll be pleasant to be dry in the morning as well as we eat breakfast. 


Tomorrow we will climb up and over Unaka, and probably shoot for another 20 miles. 


Goodnight,

Walker 


If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

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