Day 58: Dragon's Tooth and Four Pines
Day 58: Stream camp – Four Pines
In the morning, the food bags are still hanging from the bridge, untouched by the bear. Ash, Rob, and I pack up and get hiking, starting with a climb up and over the mountain with the Audie Murphy memorial. Then the difficulty of the terrain intensifies. In the heat, I feel almost nauseous with exertion for the first time on the trail. The ridgeline is rocky enough to limit tree growth, which allows for frequent views out over the valley, but equally frequent sun exposure.
Dragon’s Tooth is fun and impressive. I’ve been here on day hikes many times before, so I show Ash where you can slip through the crevice in the rock formation, dodge some pools of water, and then scramble up to the top. I don’t have the head for heights to then crab-walk up to the very top of the Tooth like some people do. This vantage point is heart-thumping enough for me. There are day hikers around, but they don’t stop us to ask the barrage of curious questions that we usually receive when we take breaks at popular scenic vistas. Maybe we are dissuading them with our smell, which is getting downright atrocious.
From Dragon’s Tooth, we head down the mountain until we reach the road to Four Pines.
This is among the most famous hostels on the trail, and I imagine that on a good day, it has the same welcoming, crunchy vibe as Standing Bear or Uncle Johnny’s. However, when we arrive, we find it crowded with hikers and a few carloads of people who seem to be driving up the trail corridor for the parties and cheap accommodations, with no hiking gear in sight. There are some familiar faces and everyone is friendly, but I am uncomfortable with the cramped, sweltering bunk space and the single, muddy bathroom where cigarette butts are floating around in the inch of water that won’t drain from the shower.
We decide to tent outside. As I wander the lawn with Ashley, scanning for flat spots, a large man sitting in a lawn chair calls out to us, “Hey, that Hyperlite tent is mine. Crawl in there if you get lonely tonight!”
His group laughs. He’s clearly just trying to be funny, and I force a grin, but the comment makes my skin crawl. I suddenly wonder how frequent these remarks would be if I hadn’t been hiking with Etienne since Georgia.
My sour first impression of Four Pines improves when a fellow thru-hiker F-ward, who’s moonlighting as the shuttle driver for a couple weeks to earn enough money to stay on trail, drives us to Home Place, one of the most famous restaurants on trail. Ash, Rob, and I gorge ourselves on delicious Southern homestyle cooking, exactly the kind of comfort food I need. I wash down the food with at least half a gallon of lemonade. Then F-ward shuttles us back to the hostel, with a quick convenience store stop to resupply for the two days of hiking into Daleville. While we plunder the Little Debbie aisle, we overhear another hiker from the shuttle mention ATM. That’s Etienne’s trail name, a result of everyone misunderstanding him when he pronounces his real name.
When I ask the hiker about him, he tells us that ATM was only a few miles behind, and that he was planning to push to Four Pines today.
Today! After hearing about Etienne’s illness early in the week, I wasn’t expecting him until Sunday night or midday Monday. He must have hiked three 20+ mile days in a row. “He clearly wants to catch up to you,” someone says to me, and I feel my face get warm.
Burdened with snacks and ramen, we pile into the van and F-Ward shuttles us back to Four Pines. When we pull up to the bunkhouse, Etienne is sitting on the grass outside with his pack at his side. I practically tackle him. He stinks as bad as I do, but it’s so good to see him. I avoid thinking about why he makes me this happy. I’ve been wrestling with various truths about my AT experience during my week of solo hiking, but I’m still not ready to put a name to this one.
Ash, Rob, and I decide it would be criminal to let Etienne miss out on the experience of Home Place, so we devise a plan to hitch there in the middle of tomorrow’s hike. Tomorrow is McAfee’s Knob, the most photographed place on the trail, and we might also catch up to Sam, Alex, and Mike again. My bitter frustration from two days ago feels distant and imaginary. I go to bed content and excited to be hiking the AT.
