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- Hiked Today: 24.2 miles
- Appalachian Trail (320.4 – 344.6)
- Total Hiked: 2,269.1 miles
- Total Paddled: 99.5 miles
Weather: 60 – 80°F, slightly overcast haze, but sunny
Elevation: 1,680 – 5,504 feet
Spot North of Sam’s Gap to Uncle Johnny’s Hostel
The warmer mornings are nice for packing up. I’m less drawn to stay in my quilt. So this morning, I went through the steps efficiently and was on the trail at 6:45 am. It takes me about 40 minutes to pack up.
Happy Easter! By the time y’all read this it will have past, but for me, in the Stevie Wonder alternate universe timeline, I’m a few days behind y’all.
What I always think of when celebrating this holiday are bugs, especially millipedes. That’s right. Bugs are the fuel behind all the new life out there. Ok, I have no evidence for this, but makes just as much or little sense to me as a giant bunny and painted eggs, so here you go…
Sumi and I started climbing right away. It was about 1,800 feet elevation gain over a stretch of around 4 miles. We rose up through beautiful forests. The higher we climbed, the shorter the tree height seemed to get. At some point, the sun hit and we enjoyed basking in the long-shadow creating sideways sun rays.
Just in time for second breakfast, the trees disappeared and we trudged up the steep grassy slope to the top of Big Bald. A full 360 degree view up top there and a nice spot to hang and eat for a bit…
More Easter-themed things… Bright M&M’s thrown into my oatmeal blend and a Hostess treat that at one point resembled a butterfly.
Leaving the ole Big Bald, things stayed opened up for a while…
The trail went down and then back up to reach the top of Little Bald.
Late morning, I went through a section that had been demolished by Hurricane Helene. Before this, I’d seen some evidence of the super storm, but this was the first time I was taken aback. The devastation was truly remarkable and the trail work that has since been done maybe even more so.
Just incredible. Once through the onslaught of downed trees (to be clear, everything has been cut across the trail), I made my way down to Spivey Gap where for the third day in a row (I think), there was a cooler with some trail magic…
I still had some big mileage left for the afternoon. It was about 11-miles and overall downhill, although there were a few significant ups thrown in there too. That’s always a bit of a mind game, when you know you’re dropping down, but there’s humps that sneak up on you. Unexpected up is the worst.
I haven’t seen these since Florida (or maybe Alabama?), I have kept my guard up, but it’s about to get serious here on the AT. I’ll be considering a new outfit and preventative chemical treatment options if it starts to get bad. I hate ticks!
The last two miles were down, down, down to the Nolichucky River. There were some great viewing spots looking out over the river valley. I had to concentrate on my walking so as to not trip while looking out…
At the bottom, the trail hits a road that parallels the river. Right at that junction, looking to the left, is Uncle Johnny’s Nolichucky Hostel. I often feel like most hikers I come across know all the iconic AT features and hostels and traditions of the trail, and I’m out of the loop, but even I had heard of Uncle Johnny’s. Admittedly, part of my knowing about it was because it was essentially destroyed during Hurricane Helene.
For those who aren’t in the know about all the AT ongoings and weren’t planning an AT hike during Fall/Winter of 2024, the road bridge hikers use to cross the Nolichucky River was completely blown out during the hurricane-caused flooding! I could see giant chunks of the bridge still just strewn about slightly downstream. The power of that storm system was mind boggling to me.
As I approached the hostel front patio area, I spotted a hiker sitting out there talking on the phone. As we recognized each other, we exchanged the type of excited greetings that come when hikers reunite after weeks of not seeing each other on trail. It was Isaac, now going by the trail name of Gambit, who I’d met early on during the AT section around Neel Gap. He was the one who had the brilliant idea of eating his pizza inside the gear shop in one of the camp chairs for sale haha. After our very brief reunion (he was on the phone still after all), I continued to check in and reserve a spot to tent this evening.
What I’d soon gather is that it seems some of the original hostel buildings remained. The main building was completely gone and a beautiful new blue one had been constructed in its place! This was yet another example of how tough people are and how amazing the hiker community is when it comes to rebuilding around this trail! Super impressive.
The rest of the evening, rather than head into the nearby town of Erwin, I hung about at the hostel. I met Spud and Petroglyph and reunited with George and my fellow Grand Rapid’ian, Kanga. Stretch (formerly Avery) had pushed a marathon-sized day to get to the hostel in honor of his sister who was running the Boston Marathon. Burger Man had followed his lead too, so it was really fun to have a group of folks that I’ve been seeing for more than just the one and done meeting on trail. I got laundered and showered and all cleaned up in some loaner clothes and had a nice time feasting. Surprise, more pizza!
What a privilege it is to be able to hike this year. I’m grateful for all the hard work and incredible time and effort folks have put in to making this trail hikeable again in 2025! Today was a great day for me and I can’t imagine how it might’ve been without people’s tenacious care for the Appalachian Trail and it’s hikers.
If you’ve been enjoying following along, and also want to help kids get access to the outdoors, please help me in supporting Outdoors Empowerment Network! I recently added the “Tip Author” button below that will directly link to my fundraising page. My goal is to raise $2 for every mile I hike on the ECT, so around $12,000! I need your help to reach this goal. In an earlier post titled, “The Outdoors Are For All” I share why I feel it’s so important. Thanks for the support!
Album of the Day:
“Hot Fuss” (2004) – The Killers
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