BUSTED!

So I'm going to start with our rude awakening from last night's camp session:

We come into Hot Springs, NC. A quaint little hiker friendly town where the trail literally follows the sidewalk. We grab some food, pieces of this and that, and get our bearings straight. We check out the hostel, but at $20 per person without laundry, we decide to find an alternative around the $0 range. The hostel owner, and some former hikers tell us if you cross the bridge downtown and follow the river to the left for a bit, there is some open space that people camp at pretty often. We decided this sounds like a fine idea, tenting by a river is always nice. So we eat our dinner, pack up, walk down to the river and set up camp.

11:36 pm rolls around, and I wake up before Ashley to some brilliant blue flashing lights, accompanied by a spotlight, and a stern "This is the police, come out with your hands up!".......oh no. I would rather it have been a raccoon trying to steal my stinky long johns than have to go through this. Flashes of scary corrupt southern cops in suspense movies race through my imagination as I stumble out of our little tent in my boxers, trying to make sure I don't accidentally expose myself to the Sheriff.

I put my hands up high, and he asks "is there anyone else in there?" "Yes, my girlfriend is coming out right behind me." "Is she dressed?" "Yes officer" (I imagine he was hoping for a different answer.) Ash comes out, hands up, in her fleece and long johns. He asks me my name, home state, am I a hiker, and if we have any weapons on us. I didn't mention the camp knife, because I figured it was packed up and is just a tool. Then he asks me specifically if I've ever been in trouble for anything before. I tell him I was busted in California 2 years ago, and here's the kicker, for camping without a permit. Hahahahah, old habits die hard I guess. So he asks me if it's been taken care of, I tell him yes, charges dropped, yadda yadda yadda. Then he runs Ash through the same motions.

He explains that we were on some women's property, although where we were there were no signs indicating no camping. He told us we could stay as long as she didn't call later and ask we be removed, and I'm thinking to myself, 'shut off your damn flashing lights and drawing attention to us, and you won't wake her up.' So we tell him we'll be out of the site bright and early, and he takes off.

Typical cop rundown, could have been worse, could have been better. This kind of thing happens when you take chances like stealth camping. I'm just glad this instance doesn't come with a year-later court date thousands of miles away.

That said, trail life is going great, pretty much in the groove of things, bodies feeling great, routine down to a T. My legs feel so strong right now I think I could kick a hole through a brick wall. The Smokies were not that great to us. 'America's Most Visited National Park!' and all we saw was fog for 76 miles. We got out right before the big snow storm and hiked in a bit of the aftermath of the cold, but nothing too terrible. One night we had a lightning bolt strike within 50 feet of our tent during a thundersnow. I'm loving the trail life, some days now we're going all day without seeing a single person on the trail. The isolation is nice, and it definitely strengthens the comradeship when we do in fact see familiar faces at camps.

I figured out that putting the high end batteries in the GPS tracker is the way to go, so bear with us as we work with that. I the total journey map just now, and Ash is putting up some great pics. Other than that, we're going to be heading off in a bit, fully loaded, and excited to push on.

I'll leave you all with a hiking gear tip. It may seem humorous, but it is just as dangerous as it is funny. When you buy a top of the line sleeping bag, that comes with a 32 page pamphlet on how it incorporates the newest age space technology to trap in warm air to keep you comfortable in extreme temperatures, that may sound alluring, but it means something hidden: when you fart in that bag, it will stay in there with you FOREVER, and you will smell the cheese and taco sauce wrap you ate for dinner, ALL NIGHT. So be careful.

-Cole Bear (now Crazy Goose) out