"The Fellowship of the Wine"

So on Memorial Day we were heading in the 6 miles to Erwin. We stayed at Uncle Johnny's-nickel-and-dime-you-bedbug-infested-shank-you-with-a-toenail Hostel. 

Sign out in front of Uncle Johnny's. Good to know Katahdin isn't too far! 

Our outhouse sized room had a private bed but one window didn't have blinds and we found a full beer under the bed with cobwebs. The only good thing was there were multiple shuttles into town so we could eat at a pizza buffet and then later resupply at Walmart (we even hit a liquor store).  We sat around that night drinking beer and whiskey and laughing with Trillium, Brian, Ryan, and Mike. Mike informed us that he bought 2 boxes of wine to carry up the next few days for the remainder of their hike. Ryan almost got shanked by a toenail of a grisly lady (we think.. Not entirely positive) Hiker who stood on the table to turn up her music. I guess she didn't like ours. It was kind of decided that we were all going to hike together.
The next morning we all set off to head to a random campsite about 13.5 miles away. We had thunder clouds circling around us but they were all mouth no trousers. We got some awesome trail magic from a Catholic Priest (BT) and onward we went to the campsite, Mike carrying 55# worth of pack and wine. While we were hiking, we were hiking in a single file line, cracking the jokes about looking like Lord of the Rings. When we got to camp we all assisted Winebag with lightening his load. Hey we all know it's not the best wine but when you're out in the mountains, it's pretty nice!! 

Onward and upward the next day for some rough elevation gain. Rob and I saw a white tailed deer that morning. 

We had to walk through a 'dense spruce forest' and the fog had rolled in. It made for a cool picture! 

We lost Mike somewhere on the trail only to have him turn up at the shelter ahead of us with stories of a 17 mile day and a half mile hitchhike. We got trail magic again from Rob Bird former owner of the Birdcage hostel. Super nice guy! 

Rob Bird's AT trail magic van! 

I built a fire and more people showed up and kind of took it over to make it a raging bonfire. More wine and off to bed!!!

5/29 - Up and over Roan Mountain where crews were putting in brand new switchbacks (which we later found added 2.something miles to our hike for the day) and we all had lunch at the Roan Mountain picnic area which had bathrooms with running water!! It's kind of funny that somewhere some jackass was complaining about his Starbucks drink and us 5 adults were SUPER excited about running water and soap!! After all the people that have walked the trail, it was cool to think that we were some of the first feet on that part of the trail. 

The clouds were starting to come in overhead and instead of going the extra 2 miles to a coverted barn shelter, the 5 of us spent the night at a smaller shelter, Stan Murray shelter. Luckily it didn't start raining until about 10 minutes right before we got to the shelter! We finished off the rest of the wine, shared food and whiskey and made the most of 'The Fellowship's' last night on the trail. (Brian, Ryan and Mike were leaving the next day). Ryan and I giggled our asses off at Brian's attempts to hang the food bags and successfully knock Rob's off the branch and pull the branch down from the weight. 

The next day, we had a guest at breakfast. A (we think) barn owl flew down and perched. It sat long enough for us to look and take pictures.

Then we were off, we hiked 0.3 miles off the trail to the converted barn and were slightly disappointed in ourselves that we didn't push to it. It says it holds 20 but could easily sleep 60 people. The views were incredible! We also finally caught up to the girls (Pickles and Skipper)! It was wonderful to see them and hug them and the puppies!

The view from the barn sleeping area

There was a ladder leading up to the top floor which was the main sleeping area

Sign explaining the barn's purpose from the revolutionary war and it's importance to the trail. (Hard to read I know)

Views of the barn from the mountains

The Appalachian Trail symbol on the top of the Mountain. 

Pictures from the top of Hump Mountain

Finally leaving North Carolina!!! 

Then we hiked up Hump Mountain and little Hump (both were huge humps). We stopped on the top to admire the views and take a trekking pole selfie of the 5 of us. Then we hiked down an ankle and foot killing rocky 3 miles to the Mountain Harbour Hostel (where their car was and we decided we would spend the night). The trio took showers before heading out (probably a good thing cause I'm pretty sure Ryan would have stuffed Brian in the trunk for their drive home). We bid farewell to them but we will see them soon when we get to Northern Virginia! We might actually get to drink wine out of real bottles together!!