$2.50 breakfast in Erwin, $1.39 for the biscuits and gravy plus an additional egg and sausage (Lee: I was not brave enough to eat this, picture of another hiker's food)
When he made it to Erwin, I was feeling a lot better, though not great, so we slackpacked for a day. Slackpacking is when you either have your pack sent on ahead or you get a ride up the trail and walk back, with only the water, extra layers, and snacks you should need for however many miles/hours you will be out instead of your whole pack. This is a great system when you want to make a lot of miles in a day or want to take it easy but still get some miles in. I still wasn't feeling as good as I'd hoped, but I really wanted to keep going forward on the Trail.
Slackpacking - we borrowed small packs from the hostel for the day to carry the necessities
We took off the next morning from Uncle Johnny's hostel in Erwin towards the Greasy Creek Friendly, a hostel 16 miles away (after our slackpacking was accounted for). I realized a couple miles into the trek that this was not working and that it was my last day on the Trail for a while, probably for the entire summer. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, no way was this from low iron, and I was feeling slightly feverish (again). We made it to a road about 4 miles from the hostel when it started to rain and at the rate I was going, there was no way we'd make it to the hostel before dark. We hitched a ride in the back of a pickup and he took us all the way to the hostel, a big help for me. Hitching is a lot easier when there's a female around; no cars stopped for Lee, who went on ahead to the road to look for a ride, but the first car that passed stopped when I was there even though I wasn't trying to catch their attention.
Greasy Creek was packed with hikers (the owner said it was a record), everyone trying to make it to Damascus for the following weekend for Trail Days or at least as far as they could get before finding a ride in. We were on the floor the first night due to the 21 other hikers who got there before us. Greasy Creek Friendly had a TV plus DVD/VHS player and a large selection of videos/DVDs for hikers coming through, so there was entertainment, and hot food was imported from a local restaurant.
Lee considered continuing on with the AT, since he pretty much had his trail legs by then and was easily doing 20 mile days. He decided that while finishing would be great, there was no guarantee he'd finish and since we started together, he wanted us to finish (or not) together, which ended our 2012 Thru-Hike attempt, because even if I felt better in a few weeks the schedule would be shot.
My symptoms were similar to Lyme's Disease, so we went to Johnson City to get tested. The following weekend was Trail Days in Damascus, Virginia, a place where past, present, and future 2000-milers join up and have a parade, a talent show, and a huge marketplace for gear where companies show off next year's models. I was feeling a bit worse, and staying in our tent in a huge field surrounded by the hikers who would be continuing when we wouldn't be just didn't sound like a fun time. We stayed at the hostel for a few days and then rented a car to drive the 14 hours to NH, the cheapest and fastest option for getting home.
Pretty good barbecue in TN to fuel us for the long trip ahead
As it turns out, I didn't have Lyme's, and a few days after getting from New Hampshire to Indiana to start setting up our new house, Lee got quite sick with all the same symptoms that I had and a higher fever. I think it is safe to say that whatever this is, it is a disease and it is contagious - probably a virus (Lee: whatever this is sucks, and it doesn't go away quickly). My deepest, most sincere apologies to any hikers I may have accidentally infected! On the plus side, we can now set up our house and hopefully get some of the planned renovations in before classes start and things get crazy, even if we're not finishing the Trail due to illness. We have plenty to do and this will make our fall a LOT easier.
Now we may be AT Section Hikers (walking the Trail over multiple years), or we may try for a Thru-Hike some other year if we have the opportunity to do so. Either way, we had a lot of fun, we learned a lot about extended backpacking (how to pack our stuff, what we actually want/use, what and when to eat for maximum performance, etc.), and we plan to go back again. We will finish it someday, but not this year. The sorted and organized Flickr set is up, please see that for more pictures.
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