update 5

6/25 (0 day  Franklin, NC)

GPS location

Just a day of chilling in Franklin North Carolina. The southern accents are awesome. And this dude at the hotel had a million 'special' stickers on his truck- redneck this, redneck that and lots of confederate flags. I'm kicking myself now for not taking a picture of it. He was also drinking beer at 9 AM. Another car in the parking lot had a bumper sticker that said, "I don't believe the liberal media"




6/26 (12:30-5:30  11 miles   Wayah Bald Shelter )

GPS location

I had breakfast, again, in town. Side note, no breakfast place yet has had cream cheese. I have been wanting to try cream cheese on french toast dipped in syrup. At our school store they sell french toast bagels, and the recent craze is to put cream cheese on it and dip it in syrup. Oh, its heavenly. And I haven't been able to have it yet so that's disappointing, but oh well. So anyway, then I arranged for a shuttle back to the trail. I had to do it (meaning pay for a shuttle). I predicted it would have been too difficult to hitch back to the trail. It was a couple of roads. I had a feeling that it would take a while. And I got a list of people who shuttle hikers back to the trail and they do it for very cheap, its more a donation to cover their gas cost. There is a big local hiking club that helps out hikers.


While hiking today there were amazing smells!!! Its one of my top 5 favorite things about being out here. The fresh, natural smells make me happy to be alive; and make me hate cities and civilized life even more, well the way we live anyway... At night when I met up with Tom at the shelter we got to talking about our 5 favorite things about being out here. Here are mine (in no particular order, it differs on the day) 1) fresh, cold mountain spring water. Its amazing how it can be so hot outside yet the water coming out of the mountain can be so cold. Its also amazing how water coming out of dirt is best tasting water you will ever taste. 2) the awesome natural scents of the flora, 3) the endorphin high of the great exercise, 4) eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at different spot everyday, 5) the victory views ... I call them victory views. It makes me think of the highly quoted line of Vince Lombardi- "A man's greatest hour is when he lays exhausted on the field of battle, victorious." It is such a great feeling to hike lots of miles through tough terrain to get a great mountain view. It feels like the Lombardi quote. You sit there tired, sweaty and smelly, but you get to sit there, take your boots off, eat some food, drink some water, feel a breeze and enjoy such a beautiful site. 


The view we got today was amazing. The summit of this mountain was called Wayah Bald. It was 5342 feet above sea level. Its called bald because the top of the mountain is barren, which allows for a 360 view. The mountains out here are awesome. This area has a lot more wilderness then I'm use to (being in the most densely populate state). The views are great because its layers and layers of mountains, wild mountains, no towns.


Its also amazing of how strong I feel hiking after a 0 day. Just goes to show how important rest and rebuilding is to fitness.


I also met 3 Amish dudes from Lancaster, PA. Dudes were awesome. So happy, so upbeat. hard workers and hard hikers. They were doing about 20 miles a day.





6/27 (9:00-5:20   15.5 miles   A.Rufus Morgan Shelter )

GPS location

I got an early start today because there were these dudes who tented near me and were being abnoxiously loud in the morning. I couldn't sleep through it. But it actually worked out to my benefit because its actually pretty cool in the morning, temperature wise, so it led to efficient hiking.


It got hotter and hotter throughout the day. I think that heat way is moving in. Sweating like a hog. Smelling ripe.


Tom once again pushed more miles than I think he should have to keep up with me. That guy is tough. I like him. One time I took a long break in shelter to escape the heat of the day. Apparently Tom didn't take any long breaks today, so he was ahead of me. I didn't know this until I snuck up behind and caught him at the perfect time. He was talking to a tree, "My knees are hurting. I wanna go home!!!" (he is getting off the trail soon. his daughter is going to pick him up) classic.


Dude! Tom and I slept in the shelter tonight, and we usually don't do that. We usually tent. But anyway, I actually woke him up in the middle of night because I thought I heard an animal approaching. It was a steady trot but something that sounded like a coyote. We never got to see it, but it was worrisome. When I fell back asleep, I caused me to have a nightmare about a wolf hopping up in the shelter and attacking me. In the nightmare, I wanted to defend myself, but for some reason I was paralyzed and it just methodically ate me for a midnight snack.




6/28 (9-9:20 and 4-7:35   8.9 miles  Cheoah Mountain summit )

GPS location

I kind of already blogged about this day (NOC), so I'll keep it short. We only had a 1 mile hike to the NOC- Nantahala Outdoor Center. It is this center of outdoor activities on the local river in the middle of wilderness. It is really cool. I stayed there for a while, eating, drinking, walking in the river. The water was freezing!


Tom and I tented at a small campsite on the summit of Cheoah Mtn. It was another bald mountain and the views were amazing. We saw the coolest sunset behind the backset of huge mountains.



6/29 (8:20-12:20 and 4:40-7:00    14.2 miles Cable Gap Shelter )

GPS location

Because of this heat wave, I've decided to get early starts and then siesta during the hot part of the day, so that's exactly what I did today. Its getting very hot.


I'm starting to hike pretty fast. It feels good.

NOC

I was gonna just chill at this outdoor center today because it was an awesome chill spot with lots going on- people kayaking, rafting, etc. lots of pretty ladies walking around, food and beer.  I got a bunk for $19. 

Tom and I got there after 1 mile of hiking this morning. I think we arrived at like 9:30. We had breakfast, farted around. And the longer we stayed, the more I knew I didnt want to leave so I got my bunk reservation around 11 am. Tom needs to get somewhere soon to meet his family so he decided to leave around 1:00 to hike another 8 miles. A tough 8 miles. Pretty much all up hill and a 3300 foot elevation gain. And I think it was close to 100 degrees today. 

So I hung out and hung out. And got drunk off 2 beers- either because I was dehydrated and a lightweight or that beer had some serious alcohol content. So at about 3:30, I had lunch and felt like a fat, lazy bastard. So I got a refund on my bunk, and hit the trail at 4 PM. Hiking drunk, classic!!

I made the tough 8 miles in 3 hours and 35 minutes. Tom was already at the top of the mountain. 

And the reason why I'm blogging out of turn is because this is the most beautiful campsite I've ever been at. We're at the summit of a mountain with amazing views and I just witnessed a breathtaking sunset!!

Landslide

I took my love. I took it down. I climbed a mountain and I turned around. and I saw my reflection in a snow covered hill until the landslide brought it down. oh mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above?  Can I sail through the changing  ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life? Well I been afraid of changing bc I've built my life around you. But time makes you bolder... And if you see my reflection in a snow covered hill, well a landslide will bring it down

Update 4

6/21 (zero day in Hiawassee)

It feels bittersweet to take a zero day in Hiawassee, because it feels so great to have a day off, but I'm missing out on 'hike naked day.' June 21st is summer solstice and to celebrate, hikers have made it officially 'hike naked day.' Just kiddin, I probably wouldn't have done it, but it is a real thing. In 2009, I was hiking with some thru-hikers in the NJ, NY area of the trail and those crazies did it, pretty much all day. And at the end of the day, one of the girls who was hiking naked said it was weird because everyones eyes were unnaturally looking away from her nether-region. And finally she said she had enough, and screamed, "JUST LOOK, PLEASE!!!"

Anyway, I ate breakfast at this cute little family owned restuarant with the most polite people and happiest waittresses. I spent most of the rest of the day chilling in my room with air condition and watching the History Channel's Swamp People and Mountain Men.

The market across the street had a great salad bar, so I loaded up with vegetables and fruits in an attempt to make this year's zero days restorative rather than destructive. The following was last year's zero day agenda- buy a bottle of wine and a block of cheese, consume as fast as possible, smoke some cigarettes and then fall sleep.

On a quick side note, I ate dinner at the Mexican restaurant again, and this lady that ate there brought in her own bag of Tostitos chips. That was hilarious to me. She was like, hiding them by her side and eating out of them sneakily. She was also a total bitch to her waittress. Boo this woman.


6/22 (11:00-5:00   11.8 miles Muskrat Creek Shelter)

GPS location

Tom, the retired principal, was also in Hiawassee yesterday and he decided to pay $15 to this shuttle service to get him back to the trail. I was thinking about going halvsies with him, but one, he left way too early in the morning for me and two, I think I'm going to pretty much refuse to pay for shuttles to and from the trail. Hitch hiking seems to work pretty well.

So I choose to hitch. I started walking out of town at 10 AM. I walked probably somewhere between 2-3 miles (in the blazing sun) of the 11 miles back to the trail and finally a dude picked me up. And this was probably my second coolest, weirdest, scariest hitch stories (back to back. The South. smh). Anway, this dude picked me up. His car was a total wreck. Crap every where and smashed windshield, but he seemed nice. Well he wound up telling me that he had recently got out of the hospital where he spent 3 weeks, because his ex-wife coaxed him into coming over and then she arranged some mountain hillibilly (his words) to jump out and stab him. He said he got the knife deep into his stomach and sliced from rib to rib. The knife got stuck into his rib cage. This was probably his saving grace or else the guy probably would have continued to stab him to death. He lifted up his shirt while he was driving to show me the damage. A horrid sight. The worst part for him was that his daughter was in the car and saw everything. Poor child. The worse part for me was I was now thinking this guy might not be right in the head and want to deal some pain to someone else. But it turned out ok and I got back on the trail at 11:00.

I felt great, rested. I walked the 12 miles with basically no breaks, well no long breaks. Sometimes I would sit down for a minute or two to rest the feet, but I made it the whole way without any long breaks or eating any food. Although, I felt very rusty. I wasn't reading the guiede properly and I missed some spots for water that I wanted to stop at. I guess it doesn't take long to get out of the swing of things.

There were 3 section hikers at the shelter when I got there. At first I wasn't happy to see them because they're usually loud, take up a lot of space and have all kinds of nice stuff that I wish I could carry, but is not sensible when you're doing long distances. However, they wound up being great guys, but they did have all kinds of things hikers shouldn't be carrying- chairs, radio, speakers, saws, kettles. For dinner they cooked steaks and mash potatoes. But they started a fire and cut wood, so that was nice. Another dude, a college student, came in late to camp, and we wound up having 6 dudes by the camp fire talking and sharing stories and stuff. it was nice.

6/23 (12:00-6:00   12.5 miles  Carter Gap Shelter)

GPS location

I got a really late start today. I slept in pretty good. One of the guys had tobacco and he offerred me some. I gave in and had some. It made me sleepy.

I felt strong again. I feel like I'm getting my 'trail' legs, unfortunately, my feet are getting pretty sore. Looks like they'll be my weak link once again.

6/24 (10:20-7:30   15.9 miles  Winding Stair Gap)

GPS location

It was 16 miles to winding stair gap from where we camped last night, so the plan was to hike 15 miles so that I could wake up and only have 1 mile to get to the gap. At this gap was a main road that would lead to the town of Franklin, which was my next resupply point. I wasn't sure whether I'd just go in for supplies and head back out to the trail, or spend one night in a motel or maybe even spend two nights in a motel to have another zero day.

There was this awesome fire tower today that was about a mile high from sea level. It had a great 360 view of the awesome mountain range around here. Also because it was Sunday, there were a lot of locals hanging around. They had such a thick southern accent and the stuff they were saying was so stereotypical southern, it was hilarious. I wish I could have remembered some of things they were saying, but it was great.

Tom has been trying to keep up with me since Joel and Ben left, and he has been doing a great job at it. He cannot hike as fast as I can, but he makes up for up by hiking longer (starts earlier and finishes later). I think its taking a toll on him, because he's getting very tired and run down. I get the sense that he doesn't want to be alone out there, and jerk me, isn't helping. I do like being around him at campsites and break spots to eat meals. He is an awesome guy and must have been an awesome principal, but I do not want to 'hike' with someone.

Tom really didn't want to push on today. There was a shelter that was 12 miles from last night's camp and he really wanted to stop there, but I metioned the 15 mile plan and he got down with it. Then as we got closer, I said I was going to go the whole way. Also, one of the locals at the firetower said there was an 8 AM free shuttle bus from that gap to the town of Franklin. I liked the sound of that, so I wanted to get as close to the road as possible so I could make the 8 AM shuttle. Well I still felt strong hiking, so I decided I was going to get all the way to the road to see if there was a bus stop or shuttle schedule to confirm and tent somewhere near the road. Well I got to the road at about 7:30 and Tom made it there a bit after 8. He was exhausted and I was craving beer, so it didn't take long for us to decide to hitch into town and split a motel room. So we got this awesome hitch from a 1960 something land rover from this cool family, got a room at the budget inn and headed to the local bar. It was a great night.

Back to the decision of hiking all the way to the road- it was a play it by ear decision. It all depended on how I felt. If I started to get tired, I was just gonna tent there and wake up earlier to make the 8 AM shuttle. The day ended with a decent little climb and I was uncertain of how I would feel during and after. And Tom is always around and always asks my plans, so he can meet up with me. I told him that I wasn't certain of where I'd camp because of what I just mentioned above, and he asked, "well what if you camp somewhere and I can't see you?" I said, "If I camp some where I think you wont be able to see me, I'll put my hiking pole on the trail, so you'll know." He also kept throwing in hints that he wanted to stop at the top of the mountain to camp, hoping I'd agree and join him. And he also asked me to wait when I got to the top of the mountain for him to catch up, so he could see how I was feeling so he'd know what I was thinking as far as where I'd camp for the night. There was no way I was doing that. I almost feel bad, but I don't. I came out here alone. He came out here alone. Anyway, as I kept hiking, I kept feeling good so I knew I was going to make it to the road. But it was funny because all along the way there were all these great little camp sites that I knew Tom had been wishing I stopped at. It was classic! and when we got a little tipsy at the bar, I got it out of him about how every time he passed a camp site without seeing my hiking pole, he was cursing me out. haha.

 

Update 3

Yesterday, I crossed into North Carolina, and today I passed the 100 mile mark!!

Update

6/17 (10:00-3:30  10.5 miles  Mountain Crossing Outfitters)

GPS location

The hostel served breakfast at 8 AM, it was part of the stay. The whole stay was only $17. Not bad. However, if I wanted them to shuttle me back up to the trail which was 6 or 7 miles, they would have charged me $12, so I decided to try my luck at hitch hiking it up there. I had left the hostel at 9 and after catching two rides, I got back up to Woody Gap at 10:00.

I felt very strong. I really think doing the Insanity workout for 8 weeks really helped my anaerobic endurance, meaning the ability to endure during high intensity, high heart exercise, aka hiking up hill.

The weather has been absolutely amazing. It hasn't been too hot and it hasn't rained since wednesday night. It even gets a little chilly at night which is great for sleeping.

Today was a sunday and I hiked over Blood Mountain which is a great overlook of the region, so needless to say I saw a lot of weekend hikers today. On my way up to Blood Mountain, I talked to some people that were able to take some pictures of a bear. It was small, but still cool. There has been a lot of reports of bears, rattle snakes and copper head snakes in this area. Blood Mountain was a very nice view and area to chill out in and eat lunch. It started to sway opinion about the beauty of Georgia.

I finished at Neels Gap which is famous for the Outfitters that is directly on the trail. Its about  32 miles from the start of the AT on Springer Mountain and they are famous for saving and teaching newbie hikers by mailing home their crappy gear and restocking them with good gear. They also use their basement as a hostel for a $16 fee. Even though I had spent the previous night in a hostel, I again choose to spend a night here. Mainly because before I left Jersey I had picked this location as my first resupply point. I figured 32 miles at 8 miles a day, bring four days of food and send a mail drop of food to the outfitters. So that's what I did. However, the hostel was absolutely gross. The bunk area had some serious mold issues. I wrote in their register that its a cool place but it needs a dehumidifier. The guy that was in charge of this hostel was a total character. His name was Pirate. He had been doing that job for 22 years (or at least thats what he says. his answers are short and elusive and probably a mix between truth and wanting to mess with people) I asked him if he was a hiker and he simply replied, "I walked through here." He was the typical weirdo, southern dude that likes to stay quiet and avoid social encounters. Someone told me that they don't pay him. He just gets to live there and they buy him food. He also told someone else that he thru-hiked the AT 11 times. Who knows. (I should have taken a picture of the dude. its classic. i gotta start doing that) Anyway, I was the only one at the hostel, so I didn't even wind up sleeping in the bunk room. I just slept on the common room floor, not as much as a mold smell.

I happened to drink coffee that morning at the hostel so it was hard for me to fall asleep. They had a VCR with VHS tapes in the common room. I watched Jeremiah Johnson for the first time. My kind of movie. Anyway, I tell you this because it was late, maybe 11:30. It was dead silent around, but all of the sudden I heard this loud crunching in the other room. Previously, I had seen what I thought was dog food left out on this table in 3 different bowls. They had 3 dogs running around the area (3 mangey, ragged dogs. this place and the people working at this place were pretty special), so I had thought they were setting them aside for them, but at 11:30 at night I had heard something crunching on it. I was like, "damn, that must be a huge rat." So I got up and slowly made my way to the room with the bowls, and it was a freaking cat. Where the hell this cat came from, I have no idea?


6/18  (9:30-4:30    11.5 miles  Low Gap Shelter)

GPS location

Today was another awesome day of hiking. I felt great. I caught up to the principal and the father and son team that had planned to be out for 10 days. They were 3 cool people that I didn't mind being around. The last time I had seen them was I left Tom (principal) to turn back for water (the bee sting day)

I saw a wild boar!!! it was awesome. it ran away very fast, very scared. Animals don't mess with humans. They know better. We are the most dangerous animal on this planet. However an exception to that, sometimes, is snakes. Sometimes they will sit in the middle of the trail and no matter how much you poke them, throw stuff at them, they won't move. They shouldn't be allowed to live. Its bad for natural selection and future generations of aggressive snakes. There's a reason why bears, boars, deer, coyotes and animals are afraid of humans, its because we've hunted and killed them for 1000's of years. I'm not a fan of sport hunting but honestly, I'm quite happy that all of those animals are afraid of me because of our ancestors hunting them.

Ok so I had a Bruce moment today. As I got close to the shelter I heard this loud voice, too loud for being in nature. (strike one) I got down to the shelter and this guy wouldn't shut up. (a 60 year old, over weight man. a volunteer ridge runner. a ridge runner is a policeman for the trail, however they have no authority and can do nothing to you) He was a know-it-all. He always had to know something or tell you about something he did. He also had a very slow, deep southern accent. (strike two) I really wanted to punch him in the face, badly. What made him worse was a women who was also there. Those two would just be in competition with each other about what they had seen in their life and what they have hiked. And some of their stories just seemed down right lies. It reminded me of when Billy Wengert was in a pissing contest with my brother when they were like 5 about how many movies they had. Billy said something to the effect of- "oh yea, well we have 300 movies and I watched them all in one day." haha. classic. So anyway I was preparing and eating dinner through this nonsense, hating every second of it, and I was thinking well I'll just tent far away from these jaggaloons. Then some dude came down and said a group of boy-scouts were coming, a group of 20+. Well my friend, I just got boy-scoutted again. There is no way I could stand being around 20+ noisy adolescent boy scouts or that annoying ridge runner. So even though I was pretty tired and wanted to stay there, I decided at 5:50 to put my boots back on and walk another 1.4 miles to a campsite to have some peace. So I did and it was great. The sounds nature makes are awesome. I had about 1.5 hours by myself at this campsite. Tom, Joel (father, lawyer) and Ben (his son, 11 years old) also choose to leave that shelter and wound up camping with me.

Oh yea and another comment on boyscouts. And I hate to generalize, because there are a lot of cool, tough boyscouts, but there a lot of boyscouts that are down right pussies. When I left the shelter to move on, I happened to pass some scouts that were late making into that shelter. And I already knew what was going to happen before it happened. They were gonna ask -"How much farther to the shelter?" That's not the bad part. Its that they always seem to ask in the most pussiest of ways, with their head cocked to the side like they don't have enough strength to keep their head up, and in this slow, labored way. God I wanted to punch them in the face too, and be like ACT LIKE A MAN. we're all tired out. (I kept thinking about the part in Godfather 1 where Vito tells Johnny to ACT LIKE A MAN. classic line) And it happened a couple of times. So when the first kid asked me, I mumbled- "its right there". It wasn't right there, it was still at least 20 minutes away. I saw him stop and look puzzled. Classic. And honestly I forget what I said to the next two scouts that asked me but it was something evasive. I have to think of a good response to illicit a super-burn. I'm not sure whats a better burn- to tell them that is very close (when its not) or to tell them its very far away. I'm not sure what will crush their spirits more. (please comment on this post to advise me on how to best crush the spirits of boy acting like wusses) Last year at one of the shelters, there were a group of girls that were younger than these boys, they walked more miles in tougher terrain and they were nothing but smiles and joy. Girls may truly be the tougher sex.

Oh and today was the first time this trip that I had to dig a hole, poop in it, and cover it. (that's for you Russ, because I know you are curious)



6/19  (8:45-6:00   12 miles  Cheese Factory Site)

GPS location

Today was one of the top 5 most toughest days of hiking for me. When I woke up my butt and leg muscles were very sore, which was a pleasant surprise. Most of the time, my feet are my weakest link. But anyway, I was tired and sluggish all day. The miles were tough. And the end of the day was very tough- down 1000, up 1000, down 900, up 700, all back to back, no flat areas. I also woke up earlier than I wanted to, the other dudes were early risers and were noisy around the campsite, but it was ok, I wanted to experiment with waking up early to get more hiking time in. Well, I think the verdict is in, from now, I'm going to wake up when my body wants to wake up. Sleep is crucial for recovery and allowing the body to rebuild and restore itself. (tommy want sleepy... richard)

So I was the first one out of the group to hike. They woke up earlier than me, but I pack up way faster and I usually don't eat breakfast until about an hour of hiking. I'm just not hungry in the morning. The more you hike and the more you're out in nature, you get pretty good at associating movement sounds with what animal it is, and when I was hiking in the morning, I was pretty sure that I had startled 2 bears, however, I had no visual confirmation. But when I had stopped to take a break at a gap, Joel and Ben had caught up to me and were super excited that they saw a bear.

Today it either started getting hotter or all the ups had made me sweat way more, but either way, to me, it felt like it was finally starting to get hot.

From the beginning or actually when I had left Tom on day 2 to go back for water, he had been hiking with Joel and Ben. I think Tom is pretty nervous out here. This is his first time. And I also think he likes being around people. I guess most people are like that. (not me, I'd rather be alone) But anyway, Tom had told me he planned to part from Joel and Ben to give them some father and son alone time, and he started asking me questions hinting that he wanted to start hiking with me. I really like him and he must have made an awesome principal, but I do not want to hike with anyone. It makes me nervous to have someone around. I think I might becoming weirder and weirder. I have no shot at marriage and kids and all that.

Side note, Tom kept mispronouncing "the cheese factory site" This campsite use to actually be the location of a cheese factory. that's how it got its name. he did not know that. so he can't mixing up cheese site factory, cheese site, factory cheese site, etc. and one time he even called it "mouse junction." classic.



6/20  (10:30-6:30    14 miles   Hiawassee GA Mull's Motel)

GPS location

Well I slept awesome last night. It was chilly which was great and I was super tired, so 1 + 1 equaled 2 that night. I got almost 12 hours of sleep and felt completely rejuvenated. All of the soreness in my butt muscles went away, and I was killing the miles.I felt very strong. The plan was to hike 10 miles as a rest day because of how tough yesterday was, but as I got closer and closer, I still felt strong and fresh so I decided to push it another 4 miles to the road to go into Hiawassee. This is where I planned my second resupply. no mail drop, just shop in the town grocery store. That's really fun. Going from being in the woods for days with only a certain amount of food to being a grocery store with so many food choices, its like a kid a candy store. But its also a challenge, because you want to buy all kinds of food and lots of it, but you know whatever you buy, you'll have to carry on your back up and down mountains. So its pretty fun.

I was pleasantly surprised of how fast I recovered. My body has not responded like that in years. I attribute it to the good sleep and not doing tobacco. For some reason, tobacco DEHABILIATES my body. I gotta kick it.

ALSO I saw a wild coyote for the first time today. It was awesome. He just happened to cross the trail 20 meters in front me.

So I got to the road that lead to Hiawassee. The town was 11 miles away. I called the hotel I was going to stay at the day before to ask if they would come pick me up if I stayed at their place, she said yes. But at that time I had told her that I'd be there Thursday morning, but I made it there Wednesday at 6:30 PM. So not to inconvenience her, I was going to try to hitch hike it in. The 6th car that passed me, picked me up. And it was probably the most interesting hitch story I have, even though, its not that interesting. Everyone seems to think hitching would lead to crazy stories, but it hasn't. Most of the people are normal and very cool. And this guy seemed very normal at first, but 11 miles can be a long ride. We got to normal talking and out of the blue, he said "I wasn't going to pick you up." And I told him that I was always curious of what goes through peoples minds when they pick up a hitch hiker. He said he wasn't afraid (he also kept finding ways to tell me that he had a gun on him as to warn or scare me. i did not take it as an offense, people probably are afraid when they pick up hitch hikers. it was probably just his way of making himself feel safe.) So anyway he goes on to say that he picks up hitch hikers in hopes of getting "Grass, Gas or Ass" And I was like hmmm. It started to feel weird. It got quiet. And finally he was like, I'm not coming on to you, but I'm gay. I was like, thats cool with me. And talk became normal again. I don't know how he brought this up again, but a little later he said- "yea, whenever I see a cute guy on the road, I usually pick them up." haha. classic. first i felt flattered, then i realized, dude, dudes will bang anyone, I was just that strange piece of ass. Then I thought about Stiffler in one of the American Pie movies when he was mad that the gay guy didn't want him and he did that dance. classic.

So the guy drops me off in front of the motel and I invited him in for some drinks. I mean, come on, the guy drove me 11 miles, I could at least give him.... just kidding. he just dropped me off. he looked a little disappointed. oh well. he'll get over it... the motel wasn't open. I called the lady again, she said we're out to dinner, do you mind getting something to eat and coming back in an hour. I didn't mind. So i walked about .75 miles to this Mexican restaurant that the guidebook had listed. boy, I smelled bad. haha. eat that you clean, civilized people. While I was waiting in line, I was talking to some people and the lady was from Morristown NJ. People always ask what you're doing, how long, where, etc. Its cool. People are usually so nice and helpful. So I drank a huge margarita, very fast, then a Corona. killed the nachos and salsa and had a chicken fajita taco salad for dinner. (off topic, but hilarious. I have to spell out dialogue between Russ and Amanda the other night at the dinner table while we're eating tacos)

• Amanda: I've never had tacos before.
• Russ: Oh so what do you get when you go to Don Pablos?
• Amanda: a salad
• Russ: Oh, the taco salad?
• Amanda: No... but its cool. it doesn't have a bowl. its in a huge taco shell.

Anyway after dinner I walked to the grocery store, bought chips, twinkies, 12 pack of corona and Copenhagen tobacco. Went back to the hotel and the TV shows were great- 2 episodes of South Park, followed by a new episode of Futurama and great episodes of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, love those guys. It was a great night. Also, after all these years, I finally almost drank dip spit. I have had close calls in the past where I pick up the spit bottle, but realize it before it gets to my mouth, but this time, I raised the bottle, put it to my lips, started to drink it, got a mouth full of liquid, but when it was in my mouth, it felt too warm and salty, and luckily I was able to spit it out before I swallowed. I do usually hold it in my mouth before I swallow.

Update

6/13 (7:00-7:20 PM  1.0 mile Springer Mountain Shelter)

GPS location

I flew from Atlantic City at 1:30 PM and touched down in Atlanta at 3:20. I arranged a shuttle from Ron Brown to drive me from the airport to top of Springer Mountain.

It was 96 degrees in Atlanta when I landed. In hindsight, that was kind of funny because before I actually knew it was 96 degrees, I was trying to convince myself that it wasn't hot. I kept telling myself, "This ain't so bad." But in the back of my mind, I was like, "Its kinda freaking hot. Maybe I should have hiked up north again." That was my one big fear for this trip- it being too hot for hiking. I looked at the weather forecast before I left and it predicted 85 degrees for a town near the trail.

Again, how I found out it was 96 degrees outside is kind of funny. While I was waiting outside of the terminal to get picked up for my shuttle, I heard some lady say, "Dang, its 96 degrees out here." And for some reason I tried to block that from my memory. I was deep in denial about letting the temperature effect this hiking trip. Once I made the decision to hike down south, I was all in, so if I had to trick my mind into not thinking it was hot, then, well, thats pretty simple.

So anyway the guy that shuttled me to the trail had a thermometer in his car which confirmed the lady's declaration. I arrived at Springer Mountain at about 6:45 PM and luckily the temperature there was 85 degrees, which was a great relief. I have read that, on average, for every 1000 feet of elevation change, the temperature change is about 3.5 degrees and Springer Mountain is about 3700 feet above sea level, so from Atlanta that should be about a 12 degree difference which it just about was.

Ok so when I landed in Atlanta it was absolute clear skies and on the 2+ hour ride to the trail, it was clear skies. As we were approaching the mountain, there were a few dark clouds approaching Springer summit and the dude was like, "that might be a problem" As we started up the forest service road up the mountain, it began to drizzle. And as we went up farther and farther it began to turn into a decent rain. So I quickly got out of the truck, got my gear ready and headed off, hoping to beat the heavy stuff, because the shelter was only 1 mile away, which is about 20 minutes of hiking. Well, within 2 minutes of hiking, it turned into a torrential down pour. The trail turned into a creek, my clothes, body and boots were soaked. I stopped to put my water proof pack cover on my pack, so that didn't get too wet.

So I finally got to the shelter and there were 3 teen boys. Their stuff was everywhere and one dude was trying to make a fire under the overhang of the shelter. They were cool. At night while we were talking, they told me that they had just got arrested this week for possession of marijuana. They had bought a quarter ounce and parked in some desolate off road pull off to smoke and the cops were all over them. They found out later, that this spot was a popular heroine drug dealing location. The cops checked them thoroughly for track marks. They didn't believe that they weren't there for heroine. And in further talk with them, one of the boys revealed that he had also been arrested twice for shoplifting. The first time he stole a video game from Wal-mart. He got a small slap on the wrist and put on probation. Then the numbskull got arrested again for stealing some food from a convenience store, which is a total stupid move and almost seems like a cry for help or maybe he just has to steal stuff. I know you're probably thinking this kid was a total weirdo creep, but actually he seemed completely normal and a sweet heart.

Lastly for this day... I felt very excited getting on the plane. I love flying and I haven't flew since going to Colorado in April of 2009. However, I was surprised at how UN-EXCITED I was to be hiking. It was kind of scary because usually I live to hike. It was an eery feeling. As I was falling asleep, I thought this may be my last Appalachian Trail trip. . .

6/14 (11:45-4:00  8.5 miles Hawk Mountain Shelter)

GPS location

So because of how the roads work on the mountain, the guy had to drop me off already 1 mile north of Springer Mountain summit. So this morning I had to walk south on the AT to get to Springer, then retrace my steps back North, and the summit of Springer Mountain was very anti-climatic. We always see the pictures of the North End of the trail (Mount Katahdin) and they are majestic. Well Springer's summit was small and boring, so I just stopped to eat my breakfast (cliff bar dipped in nutella), sign the register and move on quickly.

It didn't take long for that feeling on not-excited to turn into joyousness. Simply, I just feel so good while hiking- the exercise, the fresh mountain smells, the pristine spring water fresh from the mountain. I feel completely at home out here.

I have no mileage goals this summer. Last summer I had a mileage goal with a deadline and it made it very stressful and I probably pushed my fat, out of shape body too hard. So this summer my goal is to enjoy each moment and be tobacco free.

There were a lot of people at the shelter tonight. A high school biology teacher, a retired principal, a medical student, a traveling actor, a college student, two father and son tandems, and some dude I didn't really talk to along with his dog.

Oh yea and two Army Ranger patrols passed us at the shelter. They were going through Ranger school. They looked very tired and hiked very slowly. And at night as I was trying to go to sleep, they were practicing ambushes and raids, so it was pretty loud, but cool. It reminded me of good times at Camp Buckner.

6/15 (9:00-4:10  9.2 miles Gooch Mountain Shelter)


GPS location



Well the retired principal, who is a pretty cool dude, is a first time hiker and he was a little nervous. He asked if it was ok to hike with me. I was hesitant, because I like to be alone, but I said, "of course," we started off together. Well I decided to hike out of camp without water, because there was suppose to be a stream 0.4 miles from the shelter.

So we're hiking and hiking, no sight of a stream. Actually let me tell you something else first. I noticed there was a bee's nest (maybe hornet, i have no clue) on the trail that seemed to fall from a tree. I slowly walked around it, but a bee had latched onto my left calve and did its work. I swatted it off and kept on hiking. It wasn't bad, it didn't really swell up, but I kept a close monitor on it because of a past incident I had with a bee sting. So back to hiking and no sign of a stream. We finally make it to a road and I'm getting thirsty. No water. So I look at my guidebook and the stream is suppose to be before the forest road. So I think of just pushing on to the next water opportunity. I look at the guidebook- next water source- 6.4 miles. So I'm like shit, I have to go back. The hiking sin- back tracking because of a bad decision. So I start walking back to look for the 'stream.' The principal hiked on, which was cool with me, because, again, I like to be alone. So I'm looking, looking, looking for this steam, and I eventually found what was suppose to be the stream. It was a little flow from the mountain side, and it was dry as a bone. So now, I had to walk all the way back to the shelter's water source. I wound up walking 1.4 miles extra because of this bad decision to not get water at the shelter in the morning. But that's not the worst part of it. On the way back, I got stung by those bees again... in the same calve!! rascals! (You know what they say- "Fool me once, strike one. Fool me twice, strike three") So after running like a screaming, fool away from the bees this time. I turned around and memorized some landmarks so when I had to cross that nest for the 3rd time, I wouldn't stung again.

I hiked on while monitoring my body for effects from the bees' stings. It seemed to be ok for a while. After a few hours, I noticed something weird. I had a huge knot of swelling in my right forearm. How the heck could getting stung in your left calve cause swelling in your right forearm?? At the same time, I did start to swell up in my left calve a little too, but my forearm was much worse. So luckily there was a forest road nearby. I hiked there, took a benadryl and chilled for about an hour. The swelling got better so I moved on... (Side note- there were more Ranger patrols)

I got to the shelter after hiking for a few hours after taking benadryl. I felt like crap. I was very tired and had a headache. (I'm guessing a side effect of benadryl) However, when I got to the shelter, there was a snake eating a frog. Pretty cool looking.

6/16 (9:00-11:30  5.5 miles Woody Gap- Hiker Hostel)


GPS location



When I woke up, there was a little swelling in my calve, but I felt well rested and when I started hiking, I felt very strong. I was pounding out the miles.But as I hiked more and more, the swelling got worse and it started to itch pretty bad. I had stopped at this populated gap with a road crossing for lunch and the more I had thought of it, the more I knew I should take another benadryl. Then I thought about how crappy I felt yesterday when I took a benadryl, so I started thinking about a way to stay in town. I looked at the guide book and there was a hiker hostel 7 miles down the road. I stuck my thumb out and the first car that passed me, picked me up and took me there.

This hostel was very nice. It was a super clean log cabin. It had Netflix and a Chinese restaurant delivered to it. So I ordered some Chinese and watched episodes of The Office. It was nice.

There were other people there with cars. Some of them were bikers and some were day hikers. I was hoping one of them would ask if they could give me a ride to town for dinner, but no one did. I'm not salty. I guess I probably should have asked if I really wanted to go. But I hate being a burden to someone or making them feel uncomfortable. I mean, even if they didn't want to take me, they probably wouldn't have said no, and I didn't want to put someone in that position. So for dinner, I looked in the hiker box and had some oatmeal and peanut butter. (A hiker box is a box in a highly used hiker area where hikers drop off stuff that they don't want anymore that they think other people may want)

The guy who worked the hostel was interesting. He was quiet and reserved. My kind of guy. Well after hours of people coming in and out and asking questions, I came to find out that he was an ultramarathon runner. A little while ago, he entered a 500 mile race. 5 people entered, 2 people finished. He was one of the 2. It took him 5 and a half days. So basically this job was perfect for him. He lived for free, got paid a small wage, only had to do a little baby sitting work and he got to run the nearby mountains all day for training.

Another guy at the hostel was there for a special bike route. There is a race around this area called "The 6 Gap ride" I think its about 100 miles, but it goes through 6 mountain valleys or 'gaps' which means its a lot of ups and downs. He didn't do the race, because its not this time of the year, but he rode the route, tough stuff.

I also found out later that the travelling actor guy that I had meant at the shelter the other night had also got stung by the same bees as me. He reaction must have been worse, because when the Forest Ranger saw him at Woody Gap, he used an Epipen on him and sent him to town for supervision of the town doctor. Apparently he had swelled up very badly.

Update

I am going to blog, eventually. Knowing that people actually read my blog last year, I'm going to attempt to have it be better written this year.

Last year, I typed on the Notes App on my iPhone at the end of each day. I was rushed because it was killing my battery. This year I brought a journal type book. I write stuff in there about each day and then when I get into a town where I can use a computer, I plan to type it up and upload it to the blog.

1st day. 1st 5 mins. Pouring rain. Soaked

The Appalachian Trail goes from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine (~2180 miles). This summer I am starting at Springer Mountain on June 13th. Flying to Atlanta, getting a shuttle to Springer Mountain and then hiking north for hopefully about 8 weeks. I do not have any goals of mileage. My only goal is to enjoy each moment.

"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A bird will fall frozen dead from a bow without ever having felt sorry for itself." -D.H. Lawrence

Last years blog (link)