My apology for having no posts the past few days but it was mainly a function of having no cell service. That said, the past week has been a blur of challenging circumstances for our tramily. To summarize, Cobweb Rose and I caught norovirus last Thursday night in Erwin, TN. All four of us were planning to hit the trail on Friday afternoon after a quick resupply. Snapshot and Mountain Crusher did get back on the trail that afternoon. On Saturday afternoon Cobweb Rose got back on trail and managed to catch up with Snapshot and MC. However, I still felt too weak to start out and waited to do so on Sunday morning. On Sunday, Snapshot caught the virus on trail and yesterday Mountain Crusher caught the virus and is still feeling badly as I write this blog. Despite all of the chaos resulting from each of us getting sick, and the distance between us, I managed to catch up with my 3 traveling companions around 12:45 pm today and we all, broken as we were, made it to a hostel near Roan Mountain, TN. We will zero tomorrow to give everyone’s body (and mind) a chance to heal a bit, and then depart on Thursday morning.

On Sunday when I left Erwin, I felt pretty bad and had no appetite but I managed to get 17 miles in over pretty rough and mountainous terrain. It was very cold on Monday night (low 20s) and I had to resort to my winter sleep attire. On Tuesday, I still did not feel very well and still had very little appetite but again managed a 17 mile day including a climb at the end of the day to the top of Roan Mountain where I camped at a shelter site above 6,000 feet. It was brutally cold last night despite me having on 2 pairs of socks, insulated long johns, 3 shirts, a puffy jacket and my toboggan. I slept no more than 1-2 hours and tossed in the cold all night long. It took me a bit longer than normal to pack up this morning and I did not start hiking until 8:30 am. Today’s hike was just myself (as it was on Sunday and Monday) until I caught up with the rest of the crew just before 1:00 pm. Today was another 17 mile day for me and we ended up at Mountain Harbor Hostel just about 0.3 miles off trail. This evening we all showered and had a good dinner at a food truck on premise (except for MC who could only eat French fries). We look forward to a transition day tomorrow to try and get back to “normal” conditions. Today we passed over the North Carolina state line for the last time and will remain in Tennessee for the next 70 miles until we enter Virginia. Also, tomorrow evening my two brothers, David & Patrick (who live in NC) will meet me for dinner and it will be great to see both of them!

I have tried to be open and candid about the good and not so good aspects of this journey. Coming off of a bad virus a few days ago and hiking by myself for the past few days I have had a “battle royale” inside of me trying to decide if I want to continue this adventure or not. And, of all the risks I assumed could threaten my journey, this was never one that I considered. And it is simply the terrible sanitary conditions we live with every day on the trail. I have shared some of the milder hygiene issues we have been up against in prior posts but they are but a smidgen of what we deal with. While we all take as much care as we can to protect ourselves, viruses, infections, and poor hygiene conditions are rampant. Even when we get off trail the hostels are basically a Petri dish of germs and viruses from all the hikers passing through. Since I started this hike I have had 3 eye infections and norovirus and I feel lucky that this is all I have come down with. But, the daily reality of these hygiene conditions have begun to take a toll on my view of hiking the AT and I frankly do not know where I end up on this one. For now, I’m going to try to put the past behind me and continue on with the journey hoping that conditions may improve and that the next phase of our hike is more enjoyable. A special thanks to my wife and Doug & Derek Thomson for their counsel and encouragement over the past few days as I have wrestled with this topic.

A few pics from the past 3 days