Trail Days Ep1
Miles: 9
I’m writing this post for yesterday 5/16/26 because I didn’t have connection or time to write it. The Hump Mountain area near Carvers Gap was very pretty. The short hike we did that day consisted of pretty much a single climb and a single descent spread over 9 miles. Met a hiker with the trail name No Dog because when he first attempted the trail he started with his dog but it was too complicated to keep hiking with said dog. So he returned and everyone pointed and was like “no dog?”. The last time I did this area a year ago I thought it was a bit difficult and I still thought so. The downhill was very rocky and rooty and didn’t really give my knees a break. Modelo started earlier so when we got to where the shuttle picked us up we just sat by the road doing the honk thing at the trucks. Modelo told us his Chinese/Taiwanese trail name meant “home is mountains”. The contrast between that and Modelo is funny. The shuttle driver was really cool. His name is Lost and Found because he lost a ton of gear and found it in a lost in found when he hiked years ago. He does trail maintenance now and he said after the hurricane it took 7 hours of sawing and work per mile. He told a story of hikers being caught amid the storm in a shelter. They survived by leaving the shelter and going between two fallen trees. It makes sense, the shelter can collapse but still, they had to brave the rain and flooding. Zero go us a jeep and we hit up Pals (a local fast food chain that’s become our favorite). They only do drive thru and the building has massive hamburgers and fries on the roof. First night of trail days was fun. We pitched our tent in a massive field of other tents. Then the celebrations and festivities is in the woods. The woods were decorated in lights and people set up little areas. It split up into factions or groups I guess. The drums were cool it’s just a ton of drums that are being slammed from sundown to 1am. There was a massive fire pit and a fire spinner guy. I’m enjoying my time here but I’m already kind of over it hate to say it. I’m just not really a hippie or a “not all who wander or lost” moid (lol). It’s like there’s a damn white person with terrible facial hair and earrings factory in town or something. I have nothing in common with the majority of people I meet but maybe that’s fine.