April 10: Deep Gap, TN

352.0 miles.

Whoa that mountain weather is crazy!

Sunday's sunny 70 turned into Monday's cold rain, and as we climbed higher the rain turned to sleet and then the sleet turned to snow. We hiked into Erwin late in the day with snow swirling down fast. Uncle Johnny's hostel was full since everyone was coming off the trail to get out of the storm, so we headed to the Holiday Inn Express for a night of luxury -two long soaks in the tub, individualized pillows with 'soft' and 'firm' embroidered on the cases, a huge comfy bed, and pizza delivery.

By the morning there was over two feet of snow on the trail, so we decided to stick around Erwin a few days and let our legs rest. We moved over to Uncle Johnny's -awesome place- where we had a little cabin to ourselves. We borrowed two bikes to ride to town, went to the library and the Choo Choo cafe, and got a good supply of easter candy so we can make easter baskets for hikers on easter morning. In the afternoon we dyed eggs and did some repairs to our gear -replacing gator straps, fixing the pot lid that snapped off, making a new journal out of cereal boxes. It was a wonderful couple of days.

Yesterday midday we got back on the trail and most of the snow had already melted and the sun was shining -feels good to be back in the woods. Last night we camped with a good crew of nobos (north bounders) -Phoenix, Crispy, Grayson, and Walkabout, hung out by the fire for a while, then slept soundly under the full moon in our Hubba Hubba. A full four weeks on the trail -we're really doing it!

Today we'll meet up with Jessie and Sunny who are coming down for a week to hike with us. I can't wait to see them! We meet lots of great people along the trail, but I miss our good buds back home, and I'm stoked to hang out with those two and share this experiences with them.

Gonna be awesome!!!