Day 80

Breakfast was on the table at 7. I joined Hollywood Tom and Mark from Texas for blueberry pancakes and hashbrowns. By 7:30 Mark and I were on our way to South Arm Road for our 10-mile slackpack. We received instructions from Hopper where to call for our shuttle pick up since there was no cell service at E B Hill Road. Hollywood would be hiking on. I needed to stick around town and wait for my Crocs to arrive so slackpacking is my best option to keep hiking while waiting. The package should arrive today.

Luckily, our first stream crossing was low enough that I could rock hop across without getting my boots wet. The trail continued up hill to a nice view on top Moody Mountain. I was still feeling pretty weak and tired so I call my friend Cecil who got off the trail because of a tick born illness a few weeks ago. Cecil told me his symptoms and to be on the lookout for pain on my left side. That would be the spleen enlarging. I hadn’t had any fever so that was a good sign but my fatigue seemed to match Cecil’s experience. After the call I decided I’d keep hiking but be vigilant about changes in my symptoms. I could just be tired from walking 800 miles.

I passed several hikers as I walked South including Black Widow, Small Slice, and Hollywood Tom. I had found a camp pillow in the hiker box at the hostel last night so I picked it up to give to Shepard as I passed him today which was about lunch time. We talked briefly about if our paths would cross again. The censuses was probably not. He thanked me enthusiastically for the pillow as we hiked on.

The hike was rather uneventful. I was kind of bored with the terrain. I met another slackpacker named Glacier who was hiking southbound. There were steep ups and downs but nothing like the Whites. The woods reminded me of North Carolina. There was a lot of moose poo around but I didn’t see any. I got a nice view on top of Wyman Mountain. I could see wind turbines in the distance. I reached the road about 4:30 right behind Mark. Hopper was already there to shuttle us back to town. I checked the tracking on my package when I reached cell service again and it said it would arrive tomorrow. So I would have to stay another day and slackpack again. We headed back to the hostel for a BBQ chicken dinner and I headed to bed early.