April 13, 2016 - Day 26

Ken called while I was at our church's Wednesday night free community dinner.  I put him on speaker so he could hear all of the well-wishers who ask about him each week and have been praying for him.  A few youngsters were VERY happy to hear from him and felt much better and finally believed me when I said he was doing fine.  He filled me in on the past few days and sent a number of pictures and videos.  With cell service so spotty along the trail, I only get periodic updates.  So thank you for your 'blog' patience! 

There are a group of 12-14 hikers who walk at different paces, but meet up at night at the campsites or shelters.  Today, 3 hikers dropped out.  Two of them stopped due to sickness.  Limey's travel partner dropped out due to weakness and loss of strength.  Ken described him as 'lean' with no body reserves to draw from.  When you are burning 6,000 calories per day, a little body fat is a good thing.   Ken is quickly using his 'reserves' and has dropped at least 20 lbs. so far.

He met up with a critter who was posing waiting for someone to take his picture, so Ken complied.

 

As he crested a mountain, he captured this breath-taking view.  When asked where he was, he was (once again) "on top of some mountain at some point along the trail."

 

He said what struck him was that as far as the eye could see, he would walk past that!

As you can image, after all the rain the day before, there were waterfalls along the trail.  He thought this was one of the prettiest.

 

Dennis (Southpaw) has been having issues with his heel.  He has no blisters but has a great deal of pain coming from inside (he thinks one of the bones).  He has a friend in the area and called him to pick him up at the I-40 crossing near Mile 239.  He has a doctor's appointment scheduled for the morning and will keep our hikers updated.  All are praying that he won't have to drop out of the hike.  Ken has truly enjoyed his company and experience.



Ken got to the Standing Bear Farm and Hostel near Hartford, TN.  This is a quaint gathering of buildings about 3 miles outside the northern limit of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  Visitors describe the owner, Curtis, in a variety of ways...grouchy, gruff, funny, humorous, helpful, not helpful.  So basically, if you are a jerk and treat him like a jerk, you won't get much cooperation from him.  Ken and his hiking companions are all great people people, so Curtis gave them his biggest cabin.  The rest of the jerk hikers got stuffed into the bunkhouse (at $15 per person), which houses 20 with a shared bath house.  Ken & Co.'s cabin has all the comforts of home, including kitchen, bathroom and free WiFi!  Curtis charged them $25 per person.  There are two queen beds and two single beds.  They had met up with a woman and her young daughter at their lunch break and offered one of the queen beds to them, after they arrived later in the day.  Ken and Limey are sharing the other queen and Jill get's a single to herself.

The goal for the next two days is to put in at least 15 mile days so they can arrive in Hot Springs, NC(Mile 273.7) in time for their weekend Trailfest celebration.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Mile 240
Elevation 1,800