February 14, 2008

Today’s miles: 6.1

Last night there was this weird, slow flashing light that would illuminate my tent, then fade, then reappear. At first, I didn’t investigate – I figured it was a spotlight or a blinking light nearby at the USFS helicopter base. But after a while, I decided to check it out, and it was the moon! Just a half moon too! And the wind was so strong, it was blowing wispy clouds across the moon’s face and away, causing a slow strobelight effect.

I hitched into town this morning with a cop (the “sheriff” as they call them down here). Who asked me if I was “wanted.” My first stop in town was the Bi-Lo (Buy Low?) grocery store, to resupply. I was asked by the woman behind me at the check-out, “Are you doing okay?” in a concerned voice, fingering the cross around her neck. I sat for a little while in the store, eating fruit and granola bars and watching the pajama-d clientele coming in to buy big balloons and flowers last-minute.

After, I have moved on to my second stop – Dutchy Deb’s Donuts (and expresso bar) for my second cup of coffee and a donut. I asked the cashier, “What’s the best type of donut?” and he said, “I don’t like donuts.” I almost replied, “I don’t like donuts either, but I have to get my sugar and fat fix while I’m in the land of plenty,” but instead I ordered a crème-filled chocolate-covered one. I talked with and then hitched a ride with a 70-year-old man at the shop. Very endearing. He’s heard of the MST! All of these folks have! Not all, but a LOT more since I’ve gotten to these mountains. I guess that makes sense – the trail is completed here, so everyone is more likely to know it.

I ate gargantuan amounts of food today – I have a full little pot-belly from all of it.
Fruit bar, granola bar, 2 cups coffee, banana, apple, 2 donuts, a carrot, a large handful of chocolate-covered pretzels, a big platter of cheese enchiladas, chips n’ salsa, rice, & pinto beans. Back on the trail, I tried to eat dinner (cheese and bread) and could get down less than half of it. That’s a lot of food, especially when my stomach has been shrinking this last week with food deprivation.

At the library book sale, I procured a book called Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ With Mother Nature. I read the first section of it, which is actually about fasting and eating only fruits and veggies and weighing 97 lbs in his case (a good thing?). I had some good talks with intelligent, curious women at the library. I stopped at the Huckleberry Farms Natural Foods Store on the way back to the trail, with a small selection of natural foods, mostly bulk-purchased and repackaged, and run by an Amish family. Very curious. I then hitched back to the trail with a man from Florida in a rental car going to visit his daughters at Sugar Mountain.

I hung a bear bag on an almost fallen (uprooted) tree, with the hopes that if a bear tries to get my food, the tree will fall and scare it off. Tricky, eh?

Tomorrow: some climbing to make headway towards Mt. Mitchell!