Day 63 Mile 751

Well, we missed seeing you at Uncle Johnny’s Nolichucky Hostel last night.

The Nolichucky River runs right through Erwin, TN, and just 100 feet from Uncle Johnny’s hostel where we spent a night. It’s well reputed on the trail, and lives up to its reputation.

Lots of rafting and stuff goes down on the Nolichucky. Beyond being a fun name to say, the Nolichucky looks like a big summer destination for water enthusiasts.

Erwin itself is a big draw, and uniquely if a man is in the market for plutonium rods that run submarines.

Interestingly, lots of legacy WW2 nuclear business lingers in Tennessee, including Oak Ridge (aka The Secret City – where the atomic bomb was built under the Manhattan Project label), which is just on the yonder side of the mountain from Erwin.

Yee Haw!! These hills are filled with….no, not sound of music…

Notwithstanding that rare radioactive quality, the sights are quite serene and most people stay here, with nature the main draw, not the otherwise enriched landscape.

How could we resist a pic of the hostel cat?

Our shuttle driver even shared that maybe, just maybe, the loose radiation might treat some [existing cancerous] cells! (Well, if hospitals use radiation to zap stuff – at a premium cost I might add – then why not get some of that action for free, right?)

Naw…we’ll just keep moving…and quickly at that! Er…as quickly as our worn boots can take us anyway into (more) days of forecasted storms while hiking to the highest shelter on the AT.

Here’s a (partial) screen grab. The silhouette on the left = us, and the 5-mile climb to the little brown shelter icon at the top of the mountain on the right our destination. We’ll check in after we get to the other side!