Pukes with owls or, where did all this dirt come from?

So, if you had not heard through the grapevine, I got sick the other night. There is a wicked stomach bug epidemic moving up and down the trail hitting many hikers. One hiker heading up the trail warning hikers said that of every 20 hikers that get the sickness only 3 managed to avoid it. Our own estimates put the numbers closer to 50-50. Even so, the illness (an intestinal grenade) is rampant. Imagine half the people you see on a daily basis suddenly hole up and beg for you to not approach their tent. Several shelters and campsites became little quarantine zones with messages far ahead on the trail warning hikers to avoid them.

Regardless of the warnings the other night I woke up and began uproariously ralphing. I spent most of the night (11pm-7am) doing the same. The small consolation was that the local owls seemed to be having a spat, so I was serenaded by loud mouthed owls all night.

The next day after trying without success to catch up on sleep I though we might hike on. All I ate was a meager tortilla and we got going. It soon became apparent that even though I was no longer competing with the owls for decibel output, I was in no position to hike. My energy and appetite were gone. We turned around to the nearest road (an excruciating 5 miles), got a ride with the legendary trail angel Ms. Janet, and passed out at the super 8 in Erwin TN, where in the shower I realized that half my tan was actually dirt. I'm doing much better and well be returning to the trail tomorrow.

Also, I'm encountering some problems uploading my pictures to flikr, which I hope to fix soon. In compensation, here are some pictures of the smokies, max patch bald, and some other places.