That's a Big Pig
Day 32 of the Trail: Zero day
Day 33 of the Trail: 20 miles hiked
Today we SLACK PACK! I believe I already explained this concept but if you forgot it's basically us leaving our packs with someone then hiking with the bare necessities like a water filter and a couple of snacks. At the end, we get picked up or our bags are dropped off for us.
John had rented a car because Erwin, TN was as far as he planned on going. His flight leaves tomorrow, but in the mean time, it gave Thomas and I the opportunity to slack pack a big chunk off our week. John dropped us off where we last left the trail and we started. It took us about 7 hours to do the full 20 miles and to our excitement, John was waiting with large Gatorades! He knows how real the struggle is and hooked us up accordingly! Well done John boy!
Then it was back to the hotel. On the way there, I had noticed something peculiar when we drove by this barn on the side of the road. This time I had Thomas keep an eye out as well for it. Sure enough, he saw it too and was amazed like I was. What was this oddity on the road side that I found worth mentioning you may ask?
It was a hog. Yes, a pig to the laymen. Not just a pig. It was the biggest pig I ever saw! It shared it's space with a horse which made for great comparison. This pig was bigger around, and nearly as tall, as the horse. It validated a memory of mine when I was in the military. Basically, in a nutshell I was doing my summer training at Ft. Polk, Louisiana (I think) and my unit had all but been killed by "OpFor" and I was on perimeter duty. At night, with night vision goggles on, I saw the biggest pig in my life breach our defense and devour an entire box of MRE's. He ate the meals, the heaters, the little bottles of tabasco. Everything. I swear he was as big as a cow but I was never sure if it was possible, till now. I was vindicated looking at this monster of a pig.
After that nothing else interesting happen that day.
Day 34 of the Trail: 16.1 miles hiked
Lazy morning today. No rush to get to the trail cause we were so far ahead already. We hit up IHOP first and destroyed a huge omelet with pancakes on the side. After that it was a 30 minute drive to where we stopped yesterday. Once there,o we said goodbye to John, who didn't look to sad about not hiking with us anymore, and even peeled out a little trying to get as far away from the trail as he could. He was kind enough to send me a pic of a delicious looking beer he was drinking while at the airport and I was 6.5 miles into my hike. Thanks buddy. Enjoy watching Game Of Thrones in your cozy chair at home tonight.
Me and Thomas ended up at Carver Gap for the night and people watched most of the evening. It is a pretty popular gap for the locals to drive to and do a bit of day hiking. We even saw a nice, young couple taking what looked like engagement pictures. It's a pretty spot but I bet it's funner to just visit than stay the night like we are.
Something else I wanna share. While hiking more randomness ran through my head today. Apparently Thomas and I have made a name for ourselves. No, we didn't do anything crazy; we were just us. We are the Warrior Hike Twins and somehow we have a reputation; all good they say up and down the trail. People hear about us and look forward to meeting us. "Oh, you're the twins!" They say. It's neat the way the trail grapevine works. You learn a lot about other people and maybe even yourself.
