Fully Belly 400

All right, it is Friday, April 26, and I’m in my tent on the side of the trail at around mile marker 413, according to the Far Out app. I'll get to why I'm on the side of the trail in a minute. I woke up this morning at the Mountain Harbor Hostel and B&B, and as you might remember from yesterday, I stayed here partially — or really, for the most part — because they’re famous for their elaborate breakfast spread. [Wife note: Seriously, I insisted!]

It did not disappoint. I went up to the main house of the B&B at about 7:50, went in, and got myself a cup of coffee. The proprietor was busy setting up the buffet for breakfast, and then at 8 o'clock, she went down the line, introducing the different offerings to everybody. We all grabbed plates and just went to town. Everything was fresh and homemade, and there was apple strudel and tomato pie and a vegetable quiche and a Hatch chili egg souffle and — their specialty — French toast and cinnamon rolls and biscuits and all the various breakfast meats, etc., etc. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I got a little bit of everything and demolished it all. I easily could have eaten more, but I had a reasonably big day of hiking ahead of me, and I was concerned about striking the right balance between gorging myself on breakfast and still being able to hike afterward. So I had one giant, full plate and left it at that. And now that I am sitting here in my tent, I wish I'd eaten more.

At about 9:20, I was back on the trail after my very nice stay at Mountain Harbor, and about two miles in, I saw a figure standing up on the top of a hill. It was “other Rob.” I seem to keep bumping into him even after we separate for a few days. He’d hiked ahead by a few miles so he could get into town for a resupply. I thought I might see him in Erwin, but I never did. And now here we were, a few days later, bumping into each other on the trail. So that was kind of funny.

I’d reentered the trail this morning at mile marker 395.5, so it wasn't long before we got to mile marker 400. I could see that a little bit ahead of us, a couple guys were just standing there on the trail, so I kind of suspected that that was where the mile marker was. I was right, but that wasn’t the main reason. As I got closer, I noticed that one guy was standing off to the side, and the other was on one knee in front of the sticks on the ground that mark the 400-mile point.

And as I got even closer, I could see that he had put down some mementos by the 400. I caught a glimpse of what looked like a pin, a ribbon, a necklace. They all looked like they might have some military significance to them. I stepped back to give him space, because he was clearly having a very private moment. When he realized I was there, he got kind of apologetic, and I was like, ”No, dude, stay as long as you need to.” And as he was gathering his mementos, he turned back and looked at me, and his voice cracked a little bit. “This is all I have left of him,” he said.

That was a pretty powerful moment. I said that I was really sorry for his loss, and he kind of sheepishly put everything away and headed off. I saw him later on down the trail about four or five miles, and he seemed to be in a good mood again, which was nice.

[Wife note: Loving the exclamation point!]

Interestingly, I passed yet another memorial not too long after that. This one seemed to have been there for a while. No idea what the story behind it was, though.

At about mile nine, I came up to a shelter, and a few people I'd never met before were there, just having a snack. We started talking about the weather and the fact that the forecast said there was a 10% chance of rain after 5 o'clock today. And while our words were still hanging in the air, it started to rain.

So, we all put our pack covers on and moved along. As the afternoon progressed, the rain just kept coming and coming and coming. There's not a lot to discuss when it's raining like that, because you just kind of put your head down and keep marching along. You don’t really get any good views, and if you pass a waterfall or something, it’s not nearly as impressive when it’s downpouring. Difficult to get good pictures, too.  

Anyway, I had targeted a campsite that was at mile marker 412. Apparently, though, it was not obvious where that campsite was, because I blew right past it. I pulled over on the trail to look at my Far Out app, because it tells you what mile marker you're on, and I had totally missed it. At that point, I was about a mile away from a shelter, but camping at shelters when it's raining is often suboptimal. Personally, I don't typically use the shelter itself if I can help it — and given the weather, it was probably full anyway — but the tent sites tend to be very well worn, which means that in the rain, they get quite muddy.

So I was like, You know, I'll just pull over on the side of the trail as soon as I find a level spot. And that's what I did. It was still pouring, and it was bound to happen that at some point, I’d need to put up my tent in the middle of a rainstorm, so I guess that time had come. Thankfully, I managed to get it set up and keep it totally dry on the inside. Very happy about that.

I climbed in, changed out of my wet clothes into some dry ones, and ate a little dinner. And that was it!