April 10, 2011

Goodbye Te-northcaro-see

We started the weekend (our 4th on the trail) with a minimal 3 mile walk to Iron Mt. Gap where Mimi, Papa, & OD were scooping us up. We sat snacking, sun-bathing & catching up with our long lost friend TreeFrog for a short bit & got picked up .. with a Wendy's frosty for each of us! (Yumm...real restaurant food! Haha) Mimi found a cabin at Roan Mt. State Park, so that's where we headed. And..an added bonus -- Matt, Amanda, baby David & friend Heather were on their way through TN so they joined us for lunch at the cabin! Such a treat (: It is always so refreshing to see family & friends, and this weekend we gotta double shot. We sat around enjoying grilled pimento cheese sandwiches, Cheez-its, & fruit for the majority of the afternoon. Matt & Amanda even brought us a treat - donuts from Ike & Jane's & a Hemingway book for Mike. After our (wonderfully) lazy afternoon that included rocking in the chairs on the porch, smoking pipes, & reading, Mimi fixed a dinner of veggies, bbq chicken, & sweet potatoes! We finished off the evening with a game of Scrabble!

We woke up on Saturday to a huge breakfast (again fixed by Mimi) & all headed out to Carver's Gap. The gang hiked up to Roan Mt. with us (our last 6000ft peak until the White Mts) . Carver's Gap was 14 miles above where we got picked up Friday & since we were staying at the cabin for another night, we got to slack pack. This means that we literally took nothing but our water filter & some bars & were able to cover the same amount of ground in less than 1/2 the time! Oh my goodness it was so nice & we even did a little trail running (for you Ben!) Since we were heading South, we passed all of our friends & were met with jealous looks. I think it was mostly because we got to go about 12 miles downhill instead of uphill! Once we made it back to Iron Mt. OD & Papa picked us up, took us to get cleaned up, then out for BBQ! Bless you Mimi, Papa, & OD (Cathy, we missed ya!) We'll be able to push on now...onward to Damascus!

*if you're going to send a package to Damascus, we'll be there this coming Friday...please put the date on the box. The PO address is on an earlier post.

Miles from Springer: 374.0
Miles to Katahdin: 1805.1

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