Starting mile 68.1
Day 7 was a Nero day. This means you get up and walk a few miles to town. Today I did 1.2 miles from Moreland Gap to Dick’s Creek Gap. I had to wait until 10 when the shuttle came but that was alright. People kept coming down the mountain to catch the shuttle.
We ended up with a full van of people excited to get into town. I got dropped off at the Green Dragon at my home for the night. I grabbed my bunk and then went and took my first shower in a week. It was glorious. After my shower I rested until the next shuttle into town was ready to go.
When I got into town the first thing I did was go straight to a restaurant for lunch. 10 wings and a large coke later I was ready to explore the town. I found Ingles, the locale grocery store, and the local outfitters. I went there a looked around but didn’t see anything I needed so I went looking for meal number two.
I found lunch number two at a barbeque place and got some pulled pork and fries along with some sweet tea. I found a seat with another thru hiker and devoured my food. I don’t know the last time I had two meals that close together.
The last thing I had to do was go to the grocery store. I picked up another two days of food and since I was going to have a couple of hours wait I visited the salad bar.
While I was waiting I ate my salad drank a Gatorade and checked my phone to see what’s been going on in the world. Then I was joined by a father and son that were doing the trail. The son was 12 years old and having a blast. I’m kind of jealous that he is able to have such a great adventure at his age.
Back at the hostel everyone was relaxing and enjoying their NERO or ZERO day. It was a really great group of older hikers. Out of the fifteen people there probably eleven of them were older than me. This made it a lot quieter than a lot of other hostels out there. By 9pm everyone was in bed.
End mile 69.3