Picking up Ben in Roan Mountain, TN

Thursday, May 25, 2011

On Friday, May 19, 2011 Hank, Tammy, Ellie, and Max headed south to pick Ben up off the trail.  We spent Friday night in Pearisburg, Va visiting with our cousins Dave and Tammy and their three children; Paige, Grant, and Hailey.  After a wonderful visit, we left Va and headed further south to Tennessee.  In the late afternoon we arrived and set up camp at Roan Mountain State Park and awaited a call from our hikers.  Ben was the first to call and we were off to pick him up.  We knew he was located on Highway 19e somewhere between Roan Mountain, TN and Elk Park, NC.  He was easy to spot sitting against the guard rail with a backpack at his feet.  Ben had hiked a total of 389.6 miles.  Next we programmed our GPS and went in search of Tom who had hiked to the 400 mile mark and was located on Walnut Mountain Road.  We drove until the very curvy mountain road turned into a dirt road and we continued on only knowing he was located somewhere along that road.  We first spotted his pack leaning against a tree and Tom wasn't far from it.  Apparently he thought we had left him there for the night and was worried that he'd have to set his hammock up soon.  We all finally arrived back in camp around 7 pm and we cooked up a bunch of steaks, fried onions, baked potatoes, and baked beans for our hungry hikers. 
On Sunday,  Tom babysat his younger siblings while Mom and Dad hiked with Ben to finish up his last 10.4 miles of the trail.  He was able to hike this last section without his pack!  And what a hike it was, up, down, switchback after switchback, a very LARGE snake, some friendly hikers to chat with, 2 beautiful waterfalls, and a friendly dog that tagged along for awhile before heading off with a hiker named "The Guy".  So Ben made his 400 miles and we were happy to have finished it with him. 
Monday morning we ate breakfast, and pumpkin pie to celebrate Tom's upcoming 18th birthday, and then we packed up camp.  We fed Tom lunch, grocery shopped with him, found more camp fuel, and then took him back to the trail and we all said good-bye!  And then he was off, on the trail again.  The rest of us, we turned and headed north as well, but towards home.  On the way home we stopped in Roanoke to visit with Mom's friend Kristen and her boyfriend Chris.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and evening with them before heading to Front Royal for the evening.  Traveling with little ones can be hard so we did the 9 1/2 hour drive in bits.  We spent Monday night in Front Royal and on Tuesday we visited the Appalachian Trail where we dropped big brother Nick off back in 2009 for his senior year hike.  And after a little jaunt on the trail to burn off some toddler energy we all headed for Delaware. 
So now Ben is back home, and Tom is hiking north towards Katahdin!  So please keep checking in on Tom's progress.  And if you would like to help Tom celebrate his birthday please check out the previous post of info on where to send birthday greetings!  Thanks.