An American tries Vegemite

Hot Springs, North Carolina to Erwin, Tennessee

You know you are a thru-hiker when... You follow a sign posted on a gate for free food at someone's house.

We left Hot Springs a few days later in the poring rain, but made it no further than a hamburger shop on the edge of town. After procrastinating for a few hours we decided not to do the planned 13 miles and instead to head to the next shelter 3 miles away. We arrived at the shelter to the sound of guitar music. Goldfish was showing off his latest purchase, a hiking guitar.

It was still raining the following day, and we decided to try another 20 miler to pick up the lost miles from the day before. That plan quickly changed when we found a sign directing us to "trail magic" at the home of some former thru-hikers about 1/4 of a mile away. On the walk to their house, we were imagining everything that could possibly happen and we decided that if there was any sign of a shotgun and a rocking chair on the porch that we were out of there. We were greeted at the door by Hercules and Fal. They ushered us to the table and promptly fed us everything in sight. We started off with waffles and bacon, then had homemade bread and apple butter followed by a BBQ pork sandwich and pear crumble for desert, all washed down with coffee and iced tea. Just when they'd filled us so full that we couldn't budge from our seat, they began piling numerous books onto the table and offering to send them to us chapter by chapter. "We think these will help you question the truth. Jesus said that the only way to heaven was through him... And Jesus wouldn't lie, would he?"

We arrived in Erwin soggy and ready for a break. After dumping our gear at the Motel, we decided to take care of business by doing the laundry and the shopping. On our way back from the shopping, we noticed that people kept honking their horns at us as we walked down the street. Just as we were wondering if we were walking down the wrong side of the road or whether we were breaking some other law, a police officer pulled over beside us and rolled down the window. We looked at each other as if about to yell, "RUN!!", when he asked if we wanted a ride. "Um... Sure," we replied and piled into the back seat with our groceries. "There's a big storm coming. They say about 100 mile winds. I thought I'd save ya'll from getting wet and take you back to your motel." As we pulled up in front of the glass doors to the motel, he said, "the doors don't open from the inside. Ya'll'll have to stick your hands out the window and open them from the outside." With many thanks we waved him goodbye. Strolling into the lobby, we were met by the impressed looks of some other hikers, "How in the hell did ya'll pull that off?"

Davenport Gap, North Carolina to Hot Springs, North Carolina

You know you are in a trail town when... There is a tent pitched next to the historic train monument and the pub's been drunk dry.

We emerged from the smokies eager for food that was something other than gravy, rice and tuna. We had heard from other hikers about a little place called 'standing bear farm' that was rumoured to sell pizza. Needless to say when we got to the road crossing we took the 0.3mile detour to the store and spent the next 3 hours gorging ourselves on pizza, milk, soft drinks and ice-cream. We made the hard decision not to stay the night and trudged our way back to the trail nursing our full stomach until the next shelter.

As we approached Hot Springs a few days later we decided to set up camp 6 miles out of town. We spent the evening swapping stories with Windtalker and Mom. Just as we were settling down for bed we heard a strange, tortured, inhuman howling coming towards us from up the mountain. As we froze, Windtalker had already pulled out his knife ready to attack whatever was coming towards our campsite. A human figure emerged from the trail looking disoriented, exhausted and frantic. Looking out the window in our tent, we saw the figure slowly look around and then sit down facing our tent and pull something from his pack. We were petrified. We spoke in whispered voices, "what's he doing??" "I think he's eating a snickers bar." With that, he set up a tent and went to bed. We slowly zipped up the tent, careful not to make too much noise and went to sleep ourselves.

It was raining in the morning when we woke and the tent was still there. Just as we were about to sneak away quietly, a bleary-eyed figure emerged. It was Cash, another hiker we'd met at standing bear farm a few days earlier. "What the heck happened last night? We heard you being chased down the hill by something." Laughingly, Cash explained that he'd been doing some night hiking when his torch had failed. Remembering stories about hikers being harassed by bears, hillbillies and other creatures at night, he began to hear them around every corner. He'd started howling to scare off anything that may be watching from the woods. It certainly worked on hikers anyway.

In Hot Springs the trail goes right down Main St. There are two things by which a hiker rates a town. A good town has an outfitter and a great town also has a pub. This town had both. We were promised a selection of beers from around the world and after perusing the menu for several minutes we were ready to order. "I'll have..." We were cut off mid sentence. "Just so you know, the pub's almost out of beer, but I might still be able to dig out a few Bud's from out the back." We looked dismayed and glared at Fish, who was sitting in a corner of the room drinking the last Newcastle Larger with a knowing smile.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

You know you're a thru-hiker when... a perfect stranger becomes a good friend when they're trying to lighten their pack of food.

We hopped into the car for a ride from our motel back to the trail. On the way there, we were given an exhaustive list of things that could and would kill us in the Smokies. As we watched the car drive away we were certain that we were going to die a horrible death sometime in the next few days.

As it turned out the Smokies were not as terrifying as we were expecting. We never did see any bears or copperhead snakes. There were no freak snow storms and the water was safe drink.

We spent five very enjoyable days walking through the national park including our first pine forest and the tallest peak on the trail - Clingman's Dome (6600ish feet). We also had our first wildlife encounter of the trail (not including squirrels and smelly hikers). We saw a deer running lazily south down the AT towards us. Hunting is illegal in the national parks here so the animals are not afraid of humans so we were able to get to within a meter of the deer.

Due to the large number of bears in the park some of the shelters have a mesh cage on the front. It would be impossible for a bear to nibble on one of your limbs while you sleep. Unfortunately for us the shelters were all full so we had to put up our tent outside the shelter. Thin wire mesh may not seem like much when faced with a bear but it is a lot more comforting than a sheet of nylon.

The only other event worthy of note is that we did our first 20 mile day (32kms).

We've done about 500 miles and finished

We've done about 500 miles and finished 3 states. We're staying the night in Marion, virginia but unfortunately there's not a computer to be found. The photo is of our tent with one of the trail shelters in the background. Unfortunately we can't do a more complete post until we find an internet cafe, which may not be for another week or more.

We've met three other aussie hikers from Perth and we both got a package sent from home containing vegemite, tim tams and other australian stuff. It's always funny to see the look on the face of an american trying vegemite for the first time.

We plan to hike on for about another week before hitching a ride back to Damascus for 'trail days,' a hiking festival where there are free equipment give aways and lots of beer (even if is only the american stuff).