May 9, 2016 Day 32 Overmountain Shelter to Campbell Hollow Road
33,125 steps Total Steps 970,757
Today started off with a mountain bald that kicked our butts, called Hump Mountain. The dirt trail through a grassy hillside reminded me of Scotland, or at least pictures I’ve seen of Scotland. If there were sheep openly grazing on the sides it would not have surprised me. It was one of the coolest walks we’ve had simply because we could see the whole trail from the bottom. We were rewarded with a 360 degree view near the Stan Murray plaque and the grassy ridgeline continued to offer us a view on our descent. About 6 miles into our hike, we crossed the TN/NC border for the last time! Sayonara North Carolina! It was definitely a tough state so I’m glad to have it behind us. Now a bit less than 70 miles until we can wave bon voyage to our third state! That will be a nice relief.
We stopped at Mountain Harbour Hostel for lunch and a small resupply before hitting the trail again. We got mainly snack foods and pop to eat, but some guy came with an SUV full of food to restock the store. So of course I had to get a BBQ Rib sandwich even though I’d already eaten what I was planning on. It was definitely the right decision to make. With everything I ate there, I actually am not hungry enough for a Mountain House tonight! That’s the first time that’s happened to me, but only 4 miles after the hostel wasn’t enough to bring the extreme hunger back. I’m sure I’ll regret not eating it later tonight, but I’m eating enough snacks tonight to get me through.
We had an interesting sequence of photos near the end of our hike. First, I took a pic of a cemetery, then Ziploc found a deer skeleton that he pretended to eat (kind of looks human), then we filled water at a church. So without context, the photos make it look like we went grave robbing to eat skeletons and then went to a church for redemption. It was a pretty funny realization after the fact.