Roan High Knob Shelter 1815.3 to Iron Mountain Gap 1829.8 (14.5 miles, 1829.8 total miles)
It was a very strange night at camp for me. My last evening on prednisone, and it was almost impossible to fall asleep. This time I didn’t fight it, though, entertaining myself with Hulu downloads, audiobooks, and the scant internet I was getting from my tent.
The medication had also caused a weird fluid retention affect where I could drink water all day and almost never have to stop, but at night would have to empty my bladder practically every hour, even without drinking anything.
There was a strange comfort in being awake long beyond the time everyone else was asleep. I’d spent years with full on insomnia, to the point where I’d stay awake days at a time. Nighttime would feel safe, and like it belonged all to me, free to use the extra hours for whatever I wanted.
I spent a lot of time thinking and considering my options post trail while I stayed awake. The strong emotions and mood swings the prednisone had caused were allowing me to tap into feelings I’d been unable to face yet.
This ended up being a very cathartic experience, with me making some preliminary decisions that I hoped would help keep me on the best path for myself from here.
I already knew how difficult it could be to reintegrate into the world after a long hike, and wanted to make sure I could have as smooth a transition as possible, and honor who’d I’d become out here.
I slept from 11:30-3:30, then drifted off again around 6AM. An hour later, I heard Bears say my name softly from outside my tent, but by the time I stirred she had walked away. I fell back asleep, before finally getting myself up around 9:30, when everyone else had hiked out.
I really didn’t care what time I was up because I’d managed to string together enough hours of sleep to run on, and was only hiking 14.5 miles to meet Miss Janet, mostly downhill, for the day.
I felt exhausted still, and loopy from days of sleep deprivation, but knew I was done taking prednisone after my morning dose. I found the two strips of gear tape that Bears had slipped under my rain fly while I slept. I was very grateful for that, as my puffy had sprouted a couple holes that down was leaking out of.
It was perfectly peaceful in camp, the whole spruce fir forest and shelter to myself. I listened to Harry Potter as I packed up, got changed, and took my things down to the shelter to eat poptarts and drink cold coffee for breakfast.
I was feeling much better emotionally after sorting my mind out overnight and knowing I would see Miss Janet today. It had been six years since I’d seen her in person, and I was excited to be around a woman I’d thought of as a mentor to me, and experience her company again.
I struck off back onto the trail around 11:15AM, hiked a little downhill, then a little up toward the Cloudland Hotel Site, past a large chimney leftover from the hotel, saying hi to an older couple I passed.
It was quite cold to start the day, still up at 6,000 feet in my regular hiking clothes, passing regular ice on the ground. Things began to warm up once I’d descended over a mile, leaving the spruce fir forest behind for rhododendron foliage, and leaves that crunched under my feet once again.
Squirrels and chipmunks raced across the trail, climbing trees, and at least two or three grouse jumped up from tree branches and flew away, loudly and unexpectedly as I approached.
I stopped at a tent site to apply sunblock, then climbed one little uphill before continuing 3 more miles off Roan High Knob, the trail curving around many ridges, some sides with leaves still on the trees, but many with trees totally bare.
I arrived at Hughes Gap Road at quarter after 1:00, and saw I was probably going to arrive at the pickup point around 6PM, as I had 9.6 miles to go still and wanted to eat lunch.
I’d only been sitting and eating actual lunch again instead of only snacks while I hiked for a few days, but it made a big difference in improving my energy levels. I sat on a log and spread everything out to make a tuna and cheese tortilla.
As I was getting ready to begin packing back up, I heard the noise of something large moving down the mountain. A hiker popped out of the forest, with a light gray streak in his brown beard, about to walk by me back into the woods.
I’d learned a bit about closed off and open energy from an audiobook the night before, so took the opportunity to practice openness. I’d been doing this a little as well on my own the last few days.
I’d gotten tired of dealing with social anxiety this whole hike whenever I met new people. It always ended up unfounded, and I usually made new friends. I thought I’d try to skip the anxiety part and just do my best to think I was about to make friends when I talked to new people.
It was definitely a work in progress, as I do not have anything like an unlimited social battery or ability to pretend that I can. I struck up conversation with the hiker, though, asking him if he was thru hiking.
He said he was, and introduced himself as Homework, sitting down to join me for a break himself as we continued chatting. He’d hiked around the Mob for most of his SOBO, but also had been with various other hikers.
He was 29 years old, and we had a level of common ground related to being surrounded by almost exclusively young college graduates lately, and were both currently on more solo journeys while finishing up our hikes.
A few section hikers came by from the south while we were talking, all from the Midwest, and we talked with them for a bit, too. I packed while we chatted, until I was ready to head out again around 2:00.
Miss Janet had told me I could invite other hikers, but everyone else was a few miles ahead of me now. I also knew they were more likely to want to stick together as a group, but on impulse I asked Homework if he wanted to come to Miss Janet’s with me.
He seemed interested right away, and I we exchanged numbers so he could let me know for sure. I hiked on, up an easy 2 mile climb with a view off Little Rock Knob vista as a reward up top.
I descended 900 feet over 2.3 miles next, listened to some Disney and Halloween music and had a nicely cathartic time cruising down the golden hued forest between approaching golden hour and all the orange leaves that were strewn about.
Down at Greasy Creek Gap I was starting to get tired. I’d had a little caffeine with lunch, and it had started to wear off, my need for sleep coming back with a vengeance. I knew I could possibly sleep well tonight without steroids in my system, and just had to make it through a few more climbs and 3.9 miles to the road.
They were small but tough climbs for my tired body. Homework let me know he wanted to join us, and would hustle to catch up to me. I consumed peanut butter crackers and skittles, trying to keep my blood sugar up, but I still slogged up the climbs.
I was delayed a few times when I needed to call REI because my grid fleece had busted the bungee cord on the hood, something I definitely needed in cold weather. I had to buy another one over the phone, have it shipped to an outfitter, and have a return label emailed to me.
The call took half an hour, with me stopping and stalling so the representative could hear me over my loudly crunching footsteps. I started to get a little chilly as the sun sank beyond the opposite ridge, on my last mile downhill.
For a bit, I could see the windy road beneath me, as I dropped ever closer to it. When I was coming off the trail, I saw a white crossover arrive in the lot as I walked across the road.
Miss Janet usually drives a big van, but when I saw her name on the white car, I rushed over to say hello. Her little dog, Dexter, full of puppy energy at less than a year old jumped up to greet me as I got in the passenger side with him, while Miss Janet opened Halloween candy and poured it into a bucket emblazoned with the words Trick or Treat.
We started to catch up for a few minutes, until Homework joined the car, and we set off down the windy mountain roads toward Erwin, Tennessee, making lively conversation about the trail l as we went.
After a 20 or 30 minute drive, while Dexter sat on my lap calmly like the perfect car pup, we arrived at Food City for groceries. The plan was to slackpack a few days with Miss J, so I grabbed trail food and food to eat at her place as well.
I’d spent a lot of time with Miss J prior, but not at the hiker hostel she’d used to run in Erwin because I had started hiking north of there, and so I would see her in the van she’d live in seasonally while on trail. This was my first time at her family house in town.
Her house was a very comfortable ranch, where Homework and I each got our own rooms, and were urged to do laundry and shower whenever we wanted. Since I’d just showered at 19E, I let Homework go first while I baked a pizza in the oven and put some salad in a bowl, because I really needed my veggies.
We all sat and talked while Homework and I ate dinner, Dexter particularly taken with Homework, bringing him toys and his bone over to play. After dinner, I took a very hot and needed shower, as I’d been sweating quite a bit in 67 degree weather the last couple days.
We stayed up late talking and watching a bit of TV, before turning in around 11:30. I was intensely excited to sleep like normal again, though in the end my adventures in insomnia had been enlightening and nostalgic.
I’d also had good talks with Miss Janet and Homework this evening about life post trail, how to handle the loss of this life, and how my revelation from the wee hours of the morning for future plans had been confirmed in a couple ways today.
I was really looking forward to the next few days with such a kind trail angel, and marveled how it could feel like six years absence was nothing to the right people. Like we could pick right up where we left off, and that was a beautiful thing.