Stopped to eat and then six more miles to Erwin. My heart says haul ass – hope the body will listen! Manchester, Moose, and Ponch were here when I got here. They just left. Jiff and Julia are just ahead. Nice gentle rain last night under the pine trees. I was just happy I didn’t have to set up or take down my tent in the rain. Not only do I have the usual hiker stinkies, but most of my clothes have that wet "soured" smell from being soaked in the rain a couple of days ago. Haven’t had much luck drying it out. Two more pressing reasons to get to Erwin: (1) I’m out of chocolate, and (2) I used my last toilet paper this morning. This has been a tough stretch – mentally and physically – because it’s been so long. Six days is a lot of food to carry. The first two days were so terribly hot with few good water sources. Then getting caught in the thunderstorm and taking a short day. But, as Sugar Daddy says … "It’s all good." Looking forward to a fun night in town with everybody.

My, how things do change. I told Julia this morning we had only 11 miles to do today! It was a very nice hike. I was here before 3:00 p.m. The section between Sam’s Gap (that included Big Bald) and here would be a perfect weekend backpacking trip. Moderate terrain with several road crossings. There were about three miles along the trail that had been burned, and some spots were still smoldering. It was eerie. Turns out the fire was just last weekend. Quite a contrast to the spring green.

I thought I was never going to get down off the mountain this afternoon. You can stand on top and look down on the river and the town – a beautiful view – and you want to be there. But you’re still a mile away! I think if this little town was really hiker friendly, there would be a chair lift with a white blaze at the top and the bottom to take us down.

Best shower! I left conditioner on my hair for the whole shower. Lots and lots of hot water!

I spread everything out to dry. Bought some baking soda to put in my boots and on my pack to maybe help not to smell so bad.

Uncle Johnny and Charlotte and Claire (her daughter) drove some of us to dinner. It was good. They are nice people and I enjoyed hearing about the local town stuff. Uncle Johnny says a mile from here you can get on a single track trail and mountain bike to your heart’s content. This is another pretty place I’d like to come back to. We had the best time tonight. Topher (Sugar Daddy) is back. I bought ice cream and cupcakes (there is no bakery here) and put a candle in it and we sang Happy Birthday to Sugar Daddy. It was BYOS (Bring Your Own Spoon). It was good to have this night all together. Farmer Bob had to skip a few miles and come into the doctor. Something had caused his foot (actually more his shin) to swell and become red. They think maybe he had some kind of bite that was irritated by the top of his boot they gave him a shot and some drugs. He’s got to take it easy a couple of days.

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