Monday, May 27th, 2019
Frisbee’s knee was feeling better in the morning and the swelling in his foot went down. It looked like it might have been a spider bite.
On our way out of the woods, we saw a bear running down the hill from us and passed through some mountain laurels. The residential neighborhood we passed through had some really pretty real estate! We’d cross over and along roads for a while, and pass a good looking shelter before we reached US 76.
We caught a hitch to the town of Blue Ridge with a lady whose son and husband both hiked the Appalachian Trail. Her son also triple crowned and now lives in California growing pot legally. Between her and her second husband, they have a total of 7 children! Quite the big family!
She dropped us off at McDonald’s where we ate lunch and resupplied. We bought some McDoubles to pack out, then walked to Walmart to get a few extra things. We were still hungry, so we got milkshakes at Dairy Queen before returning to the road to try to hitch back.
While dancing for a hitch at an intersection, a guy in a pickup truck that drove by started hooting and hollering at us. We laughed and continued our attempt to catch a ride. The same guy ended up turning around and told us he’d take us to the trail.
“You’ll have to sit in the bed though, I got my kids in the back.”
Nothing new to us! We hopped in and thanked him and his wife for helping us out once we reached the trail crossing. We crossed the highway and took a gravel road passed a bed and breakfast, then entered private property with a sign stating, “Hikers Only”.
After filling up on water, we found ourselves walking through a field, parts of which looked like was in the midst of constructing houses, then we re-entered the woods.
There was a steep climb up to Scroggin Knob at mile 243. We had planned on hiking further that day, but we decided to stop there.
We didn’t have to be in such a rush anymore. We had plenty of food, and there was limited mileage left until the end of our journey. Given that our ride out wouldn’t be arriving for another three days, we desperately needed an excuse to slow down.
Frisbee started a fire, which we enjoyed at first. Then it started raining wood roaches! I suppose the smoke from the fire was disabling them in the trees. They began falling on our heads, and would continue falling on our tent early in the night.
The roaches weren’t the only gross thing attracted to us that evening. We had a mouse scurrying along the perimeter of our tent. At first we thought he smelled our McDoubles. Frisbee threatened death upon the little vermin. You don’t get between a hiker and their food! You…will…lose! Then we realized we must have been blocking his usual route. After a few warning blows to the base of the tent, he started leaving us alone.
15.6 miles (25.1 km)
Stubbs Rambles On 