It's chilly in the unheated bunkhouse, which also happens to be where the computer sits, so this will be brief. We made great time coming from Hot Springs. Out first 20 miler, which was actually 21.3 miles, followed by a 19 mile day made for some fatigued muscles. We continue with Red Ryder as the French Canadians stay about a half day ahead of us. Yesterday I nearly came to the breaking point. I had been having abdominal cramping, which means that my hip strap is useless and all the weight is on my shoulders. With nothing to do but contemplate for hours on the trail, I determined that I was suffering from insufficient sodium. I was craving pedialyte. It was only a 17 mile day, with the promise of a hot shower and warm food at the end of the day. However, the trail seemed to grow longer and longer as we passed hill after hill.
Our "final" climb out of the last gap was longer than expected, and then the icing on the cake were 4 PUDS (pointless ups & downs). At the bottom of the fourth I was furious, "There is no reason to make us to go up, only to go down again, why can't we go around!" Thankfully, that really was the last one, and led to a beautiful view of the Nolichucky River and the outskirts of Erwin below. With less than 3 miles to go we kept traversing in and out of view of life below as we drew ever closer. Adrenalin kicked in and I would incorporate sprints into my hiking pattern as the terrain allowed. This phenomenon is quite common when hikers can almost taste and smell real food that hasn't been freeze-dried.
At last, the final bend in the path and my feet were on solid asphalt. And there it stood, Uncle Johnny's hostel with the promise of 40 cent snickers. I made my way to the porch, sloughed off my pack, and collapsed into the lawn chair. Out came Uncle Johnny who asked if there was anything he could get me to feel better, "Pedialyte" I said, exhausted and somewhat dazed. I could tell he had no earthly idea what I was requesting as he continued with small talk about where I had come from and what the weather conditions were like. After Coyote & Red Ryder came up, we were given the option of the hostel, or "Granny's." We checked out both and opted for granny's, which I do believe was his mother-in-law's house, as the decorations and furnishings scream of an earlier era. Everything in the trailer was free game, so we chowed down on peanut butter and jelly from food left from the previous hikers.
That night I was snooping around and found a goldmine--Eeyore pajamas (sorry, no footies) and a cotton warm-up suit. I claimed the PJ's for the night--anything to get out of hiker-smelling clothes that have been worn on and off for over 20 days now. Real bed with real sheets. I slept great & woke to the smell of Red Ryder making caramel sticky buns, biscuits, and gravy for breakfast.
It's a beautiful, sunny day without a cloud in sight. 60's with a slight breeze. Nate and I purchased a knitted frisbee and have been pleased with its functionality. Nate's in town buying more food (his stomach has no bottom) and I'm just catching up on my blogging and reading from the library for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we will set out for Roan Mountain, the last leg of our journey. The zero days have made this trip...wonderful...
~Peach
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Goodbye, Great Smoky Mountains!
At most amusement parks you will find at least one ride that has a shirt, "I survived ___." After finishing our 5-day trek through the park, I feel that at the very least we deserve shirts that read, "I made it out alive...Great Smoky Mountains National Park." In all reality, it's all about luck with the smokies. Just a few days earlier, there were guys in 5 feet of powder, post-holing all the way without snowshoes. We experienced patchy snow with up to 4 foot snowdrifts and escaped without any significant weather issues. Praise the Lord!
Day 12: 11.3 miles. Fontana Dam-Mollies Ridge Shelter. First day of the Smokies. After hitching a ride into Fontana Village from the shelter, we retrieved our packages from the Post Office. This consumed the morning necessitating a late, 11am start. As it neared noon, I noticed a fire tower a few peaks beyond and asked Nate if he'd like to have lunch there at 1pm. "Nah, it looks too far," was his reply. We were at the base of the fire tower at 1:05 pm. We ate below, then made the climb. Nate made it half way up a flight of stairs, as I reached the top, 8 flights higher. It was on of those really old ones where you could feel it swaying in the wind. It was great! I had a beautiful view of the dam below and a full 360 degree view of the mountains. We had planned to make it to the second shelter, which was an extra 3.2 miles (an eternity when you have climbed over 2000 feet in elevation and the sun is quickly setting), but opted for the first one we came across. Inside we met our first thru-hiker since Gooch, 10 days earlier. His name was Red Ryder, a 49-year old gentleman who coincidentally was from Champaign, Ill, where I was born. Inside the shelter, we were treated to a nice warm fire. One of the perks about the Smokies is the amazing shelters. All of the ones we came across were made of stone, had a fireplace built-in, and tarps on the open side to help break the wind. While this is a nice convenience, it can also cause a lot of wild dreams during the night as visions of wild beasts tearing at the tarp run through your mind from the noise of the flapping tarp. Just as we had finished dinner, we were joined by three French Canadian hikers, who we had heard about, but not yet met until this point. They continued with us through the park. This first night was one of the loudest we had experienced. We had our food secured in a black plastic trash bag and hug on the bear cables, but I was unsure of the reliability of the material with the weight of our 15 pounds of food. Suddenly I heard a sound that I believed was the thud of our food hitting the ground from 15 feet above followed by scratching and crunching that sounded like animals were eating away at our supplies. I was so disturbed that I actually got out of my warm sleeping bag, slipped on my shoes, and ran out to the bear cables to investigate. To my relief, all of the food bags were still hanging and the noise was a huge tree that was on its last leg, leaning 45 degrees on a nearby tree for dear life, creating all kinds of ambiguous sounds. I stared at the beautiful night sky with the moon glowing and the twinkling stars, then quickly tip-toed back into the comfort of my feather-filled sleeping bag.
Day 13: 17.2 miles. Mollies Ridge-Silers Bald shelter. As we continued to climb, we got a few glimpses of the Fontana Dam and lake below, shrinking ever so quickly. Nate even noticed the fire tower we had stayed at for lunch the day before. During the late morning we spotted them: real bear tracks! They didn't follow the trail, but crossed coming up from downhill. No sign of the bear but the tracks looked pretty fresh. It was a long day with out first experience with deep snow. When the trail went around the north side of the mountain, we would be knee deep in snow, then half a mile later on solid dirt. It was very frustrating as it wasn't worth the time and effort of putting on snow shoes. We did use them for about a mile, which helped mix up the day. Red Ryder had another fire waiting for us. I was beginning to like the rhythm of the smokies.
Day 14: 15.5 miles. Silers Bald-Icewater spring shelter. The highlight of the day was summitting Clingman's dome, the highest point on the AT at 6643 feet in elevation. A few miles in with no dirt in sight, Nate said, "If it looks like this is going to continue, do you want to pull out our secret weapon?" We were finally thankful to really utilize our snow shoes. It was a tough climb, although only 4 miles from our shelter. At the top we strolled up the spiral ramp to the observation tower. We have a habit of choosing very cold, albeit panoramic, places for lunch. We froze up there, but enjoyed the beautiful view. The descent was brutal on the knees. Snowshoes were still utilized for the most part. Three miles from the next shelter was Newfound Gap, where president Roosevelt gave a speech when opening the national park. I could hear cars, and seem something across the valley, when all of a sudden I came up on a parking lot full of cars and people! I hadn't seen this much life in days! At the monument we found Red Ryder waiting for us, cooking up a meal. Some of the visitors struck up a conversation as he ate and offered him chocolate cake, peanuts, trail mix, and Tim Tam's, Australia's favorite cookie. It was a real treat. We pulled out our stove, cooked up some mean macaroni and cheese, snapped a few pictures, and we were on our way to finishing the last 3 miles. Busiest shelter we had stayed in yet with a section hiker, Trail Dog, two of the Canadians (one had dropped), who Trail Dog had given the name, "BP," and James, a thru-hiker who had started in January.
Day 15: 12.6 miles. Icewater Spring-Tricorner Gap. The mileage was easy, but the going was not. Ice and snow the majority of the trail. It was very frustrating because it was foggy all morning as we passed Charlie's Bunyon (a great view on a clear day with treacherous rocks). I caught up to Nate and Red Ryder after 3 hours, just as the sky cleared up and a clear scene came into view. We took advantage of the spot and had our lunch. Favorite quote of the day came from Red Ryder as we packed up our lunch, "I've found that I can't take too long a break or forest gnomes come up out of the woods and add extra weight to your pack."The rest of the afternoon was spent walking on snow that was half melted, so every 10th step you fell through and your leg was past knee deep in snow. Very frustrating. If you followed someone else's steps you weren't guaranteed firm footing either, and made it awkward as you had to alter your stride.
Day 16: 15.7 miles. Tricorner knob-Davenport Gap. Finally out of the park! The morning began as the previous day ended. Deep, unstable snow that made for slow going. Hiked with Trail Dog today. After 2 miles, the snow finally let up and we felt the firm earth below with every step. At that point we made great time. We made bets on what time we'd get to Davenport Gap. I said 2:40, Nate said 2:50, and TD said 2:45. On the last climb before our long descent into Davenport Gap, I was moving along at a steady pace when Nate blazed past me muttering something about, "gotta just get up this hill!" When I finally caught up to him he was sitting on the side of the trail. He had seen a bear. But he'll have to tell you about that one. Only minutes earlier I was thinking how all we had to blog about were bear tracks. After we finally reached the summit (which seemed to never come) we made a hasty downhill pace and reached Davenport gap by 2:25. I won. When we got to the gap, Trail Dog asked, "If I got my buddy to pick us up, would you want a ride to the hostel?" Umm...ride in a car for 10 minutes, or hike another 3.5 miles. Well that's a no-brainer! Within 20 minutes our ride drove up and we were sitting pretty in a luxury towncar, on our way to Standing Bear Hostel, where pizza, hot showers, and a dry place to sleep awaited. It rained that night and I was thankful to be indoors. It was a neat set-up, with a loaded pantry of food and supplies to get us to Hot Springs, 2 days away.
Day 17: 15.3 miles. Standing Bear Hostel-roaring Fork Shelter. Pancakes for breakfast. Simply not having oatmeal made my day. We had a nice 2.5 mile initial climb, which opened up to a field at the summit. Beautiful view. We discovered today that "knob" is Latin for, "Strenuous hike ahead." Steep, steep climb whenever you're climbing to a knob. A few miles before our shelter we hit Max patch mountain with large open fields and beautiful 360 degree views. As we followed the signposts along the open field, a parking lot came into view. After all our hiking, you can just drive within 200 feet of this place and park your car!?! A little disappointing, but I fully appreciated what my eyes were seeing after having worked so hard to reach that point. Red Ryder found a Lego Ninja up on Max Patch. He is out Motivation Man. You will see him in pictures quite often. Spent the night with three weekend hikers and our favorite HOBO, Rufus. Now, please do not be confused with the Appalachian Trail acronyms.
NOBO: north bound hiker, traveling from Georgia to Maine.
SOBO: south bound hiker, traveling from Maine to Georgia.
HOBO: a person with no fixed residence for > 6 months.
Day 18: 17.6 miles. Roaring Fork-Hot Springs, NC. High mileage, wind, and rain didn't damper our spirits; we were motivated to get to Hot Springs as quickly as possible. A few hills here and there, but we made great time arriving by 3pm. When we reached the next shelter, 5 miles beyond, we were glad we had not tried to continue on, as the entire roof was gone and the privy box was 10 feet from the privy hole. The wind was howling and rain set in, so we continued on. We passed 2 more north bounders who had started in December. No that is not typo. December. They were also the first people we met with snowshoes, although they used them quite a bit more than we did. By 2:30 we could see it, the quaint little town of Hot Springs, North Carolina. We settled into Elmer's, a hiker's hostel for hikers coming from more than 100 miles. We enjoyed the "gourmet vegetarian" dinner that was so exactly described in the AT guidebook. We also shipped of 14 pounds, including our snow shoes, woohoo!
Day 19. Zero miles. After much consideration, we opted for a zero (rest) day. It is a sunny day, low 70's with a warm breeze. Perfect weather for lazing around. We have been catching up on the internet, re-supplying, and checking out the outfitters just down the street. On the trail hikers make Hot Springs sound like a city, when in reality you walk the length of the town in 5 minutes...strolling...but it is a very neat little spa town. Elmer's is a late 1800's Victorian style house that has been used for hosting guests and travelers since it was built. During WWI there was a German internment camp for 2700 German naval officers captured early on in the war.
Trail names:
First day in the smokies we got our trail names. Nate is Coyote, for obvious reasons if you read his blog. I was named Peach by Nate, which I just found out today was his attempt to get under my skin because he thought the name would annoy me. It was actually the what my grandmother used to call me, so I went with it. Nate's reasoning was, "Your cheeks always look like a peach." I'll take it. Better luck next time, Coyote.
We have planned out the next 190 miles to Damascus, VA into 11 days, with five 20+ mileage days. Our next beast is Roan Mountain, but after that the mileage dips to 15 & 16 mile days. With much prayer, sweat, and tears, we will hopefully arrive in Damascus by March 4th and return to Lynchburg that evening.
Happy trails,
Peach
Day 12: 11.3 miles. Fontana Dam-Mollies Ridge Shelter. First day of the Smokies. After hitching a ride into Fontana Village from the shelter, we retrieved our packages from the Post Office. This consumed the morning necessitating a late, 11am start. As it neared noon, I noticed a fire tower a few peaks beyond and asked Nate if he'd like to have lunch there at 1pm. "Nah, it looks too far," was his reply. We were at the base of the fire tower at 1:05 pm. We ate below, then made the climb. Nate made it half way up a flight of stairs, as I reached the top, 8 flights higher. It was on of those really old ones where you could feel it swaying in the wind. It was great! I had a beautiful view of the dam below and a full 360 degree view of the mountains. We had planned to make it to the second shelter, which was an extra 3.2 miles (an eternity when you have climbed over 2000 feet in elevation and the sun is quickly setting), but opted for the first one we came across. Inside we met our first thru-hiker since Gooch, 10 days earlier. His name was Red Ryder, a 49-year old gentleman who coincidentally was from Champaign, Ill, where I was born. Inside the shelter, we were treated to a nice warm fire. One of the perks about the Smokies is the amazing shelters. All of the ones we came across were made of stone, had a fireplace built-in, and tarps on the open side to help break the wind. While this is a nice convenience, it can also cause a lot of wild dreams during the night as visions of wild beasts tearing at the tarp run through your mind from the noise of the flapping tarp. Just as we had finished dinner, we were joined by three French Canadian hikers, who we had heard about, but not yet met until this point. They continued with us through the park. This first night was one of the loudest we had experienced. We had our food secured in a black plastic trash bag and hug on the bear cables, but I was unsure of the reliability of the material with the weight of our 15 pounds of food. Suddenly I heard a sound that I believed was the thud of our food hitting the ground from 15 feet above followed by scratching and crunching that sounded like animals were eating away at our supplies. I was so disturbed that I actually got out of my warm sleeping bag, slipped on my shoes, and ran out to the bear cables to investigate. To my relief, all of the food bags were still hanging and the noise was a huge tree that was on its last leg, leaning 45 degrees on a nearby tree for dear life, creating all kinds of ambiguous sounds. I stared at the beautiful night sky with the moon glowing and the twinkling stars, then quickly tip-toed back into the comfort of my feather-filled sleeping bag.
Day 13: 17.2 miles. Mollies Ridge-Silers Bald shelter. As we continued to climb, we got a few glimpses of the Fontana Dam and lake below, shrinking ever so quickly. Nate even noticed the fire tower we had stayed at for lunch the day before. During the late morning we spotted them: real bear tracks! They didn't follow the trail, but crossed coming up from downhill. No sign of the bear but the tracks looked pretty fresh. It was a long day with out first experience with deep snow. When the trail went around the north side of the mountain, we would be knee deep in snow, then half a mile later on solid dirt. It was very frustrating as it wasn't worth the time and effort of putting on snow shoes. We did use them for about a mile, which helped mix up the day. Red Ryder had another fire waiting for us. I was beginning to like the rhythm of the smokies.
Day 14: 15.5 miles. Silers Bald-Icewater spring shelter. The highlight of the day was summitting Clingman's dome, the highest point on the AT at 6643 feet in elevation. A few miles in with no dirt in sight, Nate said, "If it looks like this is going to continue, do you want to pull out our secret weapon?" We were finally thankful to really utilize our snow shoes. It was a tough climb, although only 4 miles from our shelter. At the top we strolled up the spiral ramp to the observation tower. We have a habit of choosing very cold, albeit panoramic, places for lunch. We froze up there, but enjoyed the beautiful view. The descent was brutal on the knees. Snowshoes were still utilized for the most part. Three miles from the next shelter was Newfound Gap, where president Roosevelt gave a speech when opening the national park. I could hear cars, and seem something across the valley, when all of a sudden I came up on a parking lot full of cars and people! I hadn't seen this much life in days! At the monument we found Red Ryder waiting for us, cooking up a meal. Some of the visitors struck up a conversation as he ate and offered him chocolate cake, peanuts, trail mix, and Tim Tam's, Australia's favorite cookie. It was a real treat. We pulled out our stove, cooked up some mean macaroni and cheese, snapped a few pictures, and we were on our way to finishing the last 3 miles. Busiest shelter we had stayed in yet with a section hiker, Trail Dog, two of the Canadians (one had dropped), who Trail Dog had given the name, "BP," and James, a thru-hiker who had started in January.
Day 15: 12.6 miles. Icewater Spring-Tricorner Gap. The mileage was easy, but the going was not. Ice and snow the majority of the trail. It was very frustrating because it was foggy all morning as we passed Charlie's Bunyon (a great view on a clear day with treacherous rocks). I caught up to Nate and Red Ryder after 3 hours, just as the sky cleared up and a clear scene came into view. We took advantage of the spot and had our lunch. Favorite quote of the day came from Red Ryder as we packed up our lunch, "I've found that I can't take too long a break or forest gnomes come up out of the woods and add extra weight to your pack."The rest of the afternoon was spent walking on snow that was half melted, so every 10th step you fell through and your leg was past knee deep in snow. Very frustrating. If you followed someone else's steps you weren't guaranteed firm footing either, and made it awkward as you had to alter your stride.
Day 16: 15.7 miles. Tricorner knob-Davenport Gap. Finally out of the park! The morning began as the previous day ended. Deep, unstable snow that made for slow going. Hiked with Trail Dog today. After 2 miles, the snow finally let up and we felt the firm earth below with every step. At that point we made great time. We made bets on what time we'd get to Davenport Gap. I said 2:40, Nate said 2:50, and TD said 2:45. On the last climb before our long descent into Davenport Gap, I was moving along at a steady pace when Nate blazed past me muttering something about, "gotta just get up this hill!" When I finally caught up to him he was sitting on the side of the trail. He had seen a bear. But he'll have to tell you about that one. Only minutes earlier I was thinking how all we had to blog about were bear tracks. After we finally reached the summit (which seemed to never come) we made a hasty downhill pace and reached Davenport gap by 2:25. I won. When we got to the gap, Trail Dog asked, "If I got my buddy to pick us up, would you want a ride to the hostel?" Umm...ride in a car for 10 minutes, or hike another 3.5 miles. Well that's a no-brainer! Within 20 minutes our ride drove up and we were sitting pretty in a luxury towncar, on our way to Standing Bear Hostel, where pizza, hot showers, and a dry place to sleep awaited. It rained that night and I was thankful to be indoors. It was a neat set-up, with a loaded pantry of food and supplies to get us to Hot Springs, 2 days away.
Day 17: 15.3 miles. Standing Bear Hostel-roaring Fork Shelter. Pancakes for breakfast. Simply not having oatmeal made my day. We had a nice 2.5 mile initial climb, which opened up to a field at the summit. Beautiful view. We discovered today that "knob" is Latin for, "Strenuous hike ahead." Steep, steep climb whenever you're climbing to a knob. A few miles before our shelter we hit Max patch mountain with large open fields and beautiful 360 degree views. As we followed the signposts along the open field, a parking lot came into view. After all our hiking, you can just drive within 200 feet of this place and park your car!?! A little disappointing, but I fully appreciated what my eyes were seeing after having worked so hard to reach that point. Red Ryder found a Lego Ninja up on Max Patch. He is out Motivation Man. You will see him in pictures quite often. Spent the night with three weekend hikers and our favorite HOBO, Rufus. Now, please do not be confused with the Appalachian Trail acronyms.
NOBO: north bound hiker, traveling from Georgia to Maine.
SOBO: south bound hiker, traveling from Maine to Georgia.
HOBO: a person with no fixed residence for > 6 months.
Day 18: 17.6 miles. Roaring Fork-Hot Springs, NC. High mileage, wind, and rain didn't damper our spirits; we were motivated to get to Hot Springs as quickly as possible. A few hills here and there, but we made great time arriving by 3pm. When we reached the next shelter, 5 miles beyond, we were glad we had not tried to continue on, as the entire roof was gone and the privy box was 10 feet from the privy hole. The wind was howling and rain set in, so we continued on. We passed 2 more north bounders who had started in December. No that is not typo. December. They were also the first people we met with snowshoes, although they used them quite a bit more than we did. By 2:30 we could see it, the quaint little town of Hot Springs, North Carolina. We settled into Elmer's, a hiker's hostel for hikers coming from more than 100 miles. We enjoyed the "gourmet vegetarian" dinner that was so exactly described in the AT guidebook. We also shipped of 14 pounds, including our snow shoes, woohoo!
Day 19. Zero miles. After much consideration, we opted for a zero (rest) day. It is a sunny day, low 70's with a warm breeze. Perfect weather for lazing around. We have been catching up on the internet, re-supplying, and checking out the outfitters just down the street. On the trail hikers make Hot Springs sound like a city, when in reality you walk the length of the town in 5 minutes...strolling...but it is a very neat little spa town. Elmer's is a late 1800's Victorian style house that has been used for hosting guests and travelers since it was built. During WWI there was a German internment camp for 2700 German naval officers captured early on in the war.
Trail names:
First day in the smokies we got our trail names. Nate is Coyote, for obvious reasons if you read his blog. I was named Peach by Nate, which I just found out today was his attempt to get under my skin because he thought the name would annoy me. It was actually the what my grandmother used to call me, so I went with it. Nate's reasoning was, "Your cheeks always look like a peach." I'll take it. Better luck next time, Coyote.
We have planned out the next 190 miles to Damascus, VA into 11 days, with five 20+ mileage days. Our next beast is Roan Mountain, but after that the mileage dips to 15 & 16 mile days. With much prayer, sweat, and tears, we will hopefully arrive in Damascus by March 4th and return to Lynchburg that evening.
Happy trails,
Peach
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Something's Out There....
Well, it started just like any other day I suppose. We woke up, ate breakfast, then started our short 4 mile hike down to Dicks Gap where we were to be picked up and brought into town by a man who ran a shuttle service. This way we wouldn't have to deal with people worrying about us hitch-hiking. We got into town and shopped, shipped unnecessary weight off, then strolled over to the local library. I hopped on facebook to update my status and check in with friends.
I need to hold off on that story for a second and address this issue. This blog was origionaly tittled, "So Then, We Walked". Why is it now "life as we know it"? This isn't about or outlook on life, there isn't some apocolypse happening, this isn't life as we know it, it's not a blog about life, it's about a hike from Georgia to Virginia, life for everyone else isn't changing, and our lives aren't either. Life as we know it is a dumb name for a blog about hiking. This isn't about life as you guys know it, you guys know life.
Well I got on facebook and had a discussion with my friend about the stories I'll have to tell once I return. I thought about it for a second and realized, well, nothing exciting or epic has happend. All we've done is hiked over a dozen hills, no one has been injured, although one guy did die on Blood Mountain, but we didn't know him, and how could I make that an epic story? "There we were, hiking up BLOOD MOUNTAIN and a guy just DIED!". Because that's epic. This hiking isn't very tough, well, physically it isn't tough. Mentally it's a nightmare, everyday feels like an on going week, days last forever, but nights are never long enough.
We road back into Dicks Gap, finished our chocolate glazed gifts from heaven, and took off for Plum Orchard Shelter. It was the single nicest shelter we have been to yet, it had 3 levels, the bottom was full sized and the top 2 were half sized. The plan was for me to be alone on the top level and Petra to be beneth me on the second level, but the wind was blowing in hard so I let Petra up on the top level with me. I made a fire while Petra planned the next few days. We started diner as the sun was setting and when we were finished, the sun was gone and our head lamps on. We put all the food into a large Hefty trash bag, planning to hang it up in the bear cables that were 100ft off into the woods. Diner time finished up, dishs were clean and food was stored. Petra proposed the idea that I was to run out with the food bag and hang it up on the cables, I had done it the past night and asked that since I was already in flip flops and warm that she could take care of it this night. Neither of us wanted to run out into the woods with no source of light or warmth, so we agreed that, because we had had no need to use the cables prior to this night that, we would hang it up on what looked like a metal coat rack not 10 feet from the shelter.
The bag was hung, and we fell fast asleep. "ding, ding ding". Now usually I am oblivious to the sounds outside my sleeping bag, I keep my hat over my ears and eyes along with my hood, the sleeping bag, and my Buff. Few noises can penetrate my serenity inside my cozy Halo bag. This sound happened to be one of them, the sound of something scraping, and banging a metal coat rack. I thought, "It's ok, it's just the wind blowing the food bag against the pool", but wind makes a sound when it blows, this did not. The sounds of foot steps caught my ear as they trotted about through the waste land of dead leaves. The sound grew closer and closer until the noise changed to the pitter patter of paws on rock. "It's just a small wolf" I told myself over and over again, "He's too short to reach the bag, besdies, I haven't heard anything loud hit the ground". Pitter patter, from stone to hard wood, wood that felt like it had been petrified, the same hard wood that our picnic table was made from, the same picnic table that was closer than a foot from the first level of the shelter. From hard wood to soft wood, soft wood is what the first level was made from. "Small fox, small fox" I repeated until they were the only words I knew. It was close, the sound of heavy breathing became all I heard. "Take a look Nate, come on, prove that it's just a small harmless fox". Uncovering the hat from my eyes and loosing the pull strings of my sleeping bag, I peeped my shaky head through the banaster to catch a glimpse of the fox.
Foxes are red, his fur was dark, dark enough that light couldn't reflect off it. All I saw were his eyes, eyes lit up by only moonlight, but fogged up by his breath. It wasn't a fox, no, it was much to large. I slid back away from the banaster, the moment our eyes lost connection I bundeled up in a ball, pulling my sleeping bag strings so tight that air wouldn't make it through. Minutes turned into a half hour before he left our shelter, but he didn't leave completely until he had tried and tried again to get at the food bag. Finnally he was gone. I didn't dare wake Petra up, especially after what had happened with mice the night before. The night kept in suspense as the howels of coyotes out sounded the wind.
-SleepyHead
I need to hold off on that story for a second and address this issue. This blog was origionaly tittled, "So Then, We Walked". Why is it now "life as we know it"? This isn't about or outlook on life, there isn't some apocolypse happening, this isn't life as we know it, it's not a blog about life, it's about a hike from Georgia to Virginia, life for everyone else isn't changing, and our lives aren't either. Life as we know it is a dumb name for a blog about hiking. This isn't about life as you guys know it, you guys know life.
Well I got on facebook and had a discussion with my friend about the stories I'll have to tell once I return. I thought about it for a second and realized, well, nothing exciting or epic has happend. All we've done is hiked over a dozen hills, no one has been injured, although one guy did die on Blood Mountain, but we didn't know him, and how could I make that an epic story? "There we were, hiking up BLOOD MOUNTAIN and a guy just DIED!". Because that's epic. This hiking isn't very tough, well, physically it isn't tough. Mentally it's a nightmare, everyday feels like an on going week, days last forever, but nights are never long enough.
We road back into Dicks Gap, finished our chocolate glazed gifts from heaven, and took off for Plum Orchard Shelter. It was the single nicest shelter we have been to yet, it had 3 levels, the bottom was full sized and the top 2 were half sized. The plan was for me to be alone on the top level and Petra to be beneth me on the second level, but the wind was blowing in hard so I let Petra up on the top level with me. I made a fire while Petra planned the next few days. We started diner as the sun was setting and when we were finished, the sun was gone and our head lamps on. We put all the food into a large Hefty trash bag, planning to hang it up in the bear cables that were 100ft off into the woods. Diner time finished up, dishs were clean and food was stored. Petra proposed the idea that I was to run out with the food bag and hang it up on the cables, I had done it the past night and asked that since I was already in flip flops and warm that she could take care of it this night. Neither of us wanted to run out into the woods with no source of light or warmth, so we agreed that, because we had had no need to use the cables prior to this night that, we would hang it up on what looked like a metal coat rack not 10 feet from the shelter.
The bag was hung, and we fell fast asleep. "ding, ding ding". Now usually I am oblivious to the sounds outside my sleeping bag, I keep my hat over my ears and eyes along with my hood, the sleeping bag, and my Buff. Few noises can penetrate my serenity inside my cozy Halo bag. This sound happened to be one of them, the sound of something scraping, and banging a metal coat rack. I thought, "It's ok, it's just the wind blowing the food bag against the pool", but wind makes a sound when it blows, this did not. The sounds of foot steps caught my ear as they trotted about through the waste land of dead leaves. The sound grew closer and closer until the noise changed to the pitter patter of paws on rock. "It's just a small wolf" I told myself over and over again, "He's too short to reach the bag, besdies, I haven't heard anything loud hit the ground". Pitter patter, from stone to hard wood, wood that felt like it had been petrified, the same hard wood that our picnic table was made from, the same picnic table that was closer than a foot from the first level of the shelter. From hard wood to soft wood, soft wood is what the first level was made from. "Small fox, small fox" I repeated until they were the only words I knew. It was close, the sound of heavy breathing became all I heard. "Take a look Nate, come on, prove that it's just a small harmless fox". Uncovering the hat from my eyes and loosing the pull strings of my sleeping bag, I peeped my shaky head through the banaster to catch a glimpse of the fox.
Foxes are red, his fur was dark, dark enough that light couldn't reflect off it. All I saw were his eyes, eyes lit up by only moonlight, but fogged up by his breath. It wasn't a fox, no, it was much to large. I slid back away from the banaster, the moment our eyes lost connection I bundeled up in a ball, pulling my sleeping bag strings so tight that air wouldn't make it through. Minutes turned into a half hour before he left our shelter, but he didn't leave completely until he had tried and tried again to get at the food bag. Finnally he was gone. I didn't dare wake Petra up, especially after what had happened with mice the night before. The night kept in suspense as the howels of coyotes out sounded the wind.
-SleepyHead
North Carolina
As we crossed the official border between Georgia and North Carolina, Nate commented, "NC doesn't seem that much different." Little did he know what was lying in store for us just a few hundred meters beyond Bly Gap. I can sum up the difference between GA & NC in one word. Snow. Not the flurry fake stuff that melts within a few hours, but real, knee-deep snow that lingers for days, even in the sunshine-filled parts of the mountains. Now we didn't feel like total fools carrying around snowshoes.
Plum Orchard Gap shelter was our last Georgia shelter. Nate had quite the experience here, but he'll have to tell you about that himself. Our ride into Hiawassee was right, GA maintains its shelters better than NC, or at least Georgia's shelters have the feeling of security because the majority are above 1 story high.
Day 7: Plum Orchard Gap shelter-Standing Indian shelter, 12.2 miles. Met snow-and lots of it-steep climbs, and bigfoot today. Once past Bly Gap it was straight up. Nate and I used to joke and point to the tallest mountain within sight and say, "You think we're climbing that next?" Inevitably that was the case, so it became less of a joke and more of a reality, "Well, I guess that's our next point." Bigfoot was the first SOBO (south bounder) we met. We chatted with him for a few minutes about our snowshoes (this has been the #1 conversation topic thus far) and their usefulness in the Smokies (yay!). We followed his tracks all the way to Standing Indian shelter, where we bedded down for the night. No bear cables. No second floors. Nothing between us and the wild. Great. We named him bigfoot because he had to have at least at size 15 shoe. I could fit almost two of my shoes in his footprint.
Day 8: Standing Indian shelter-Silers Bald Shelter, 16 miles. Blueblazed 12 miles off of our total mileage. Blue blazing is when you take a side trail that is not part of the AT. In most cases this results in cutting mileage. This would provide us with an extra day, but proved to be a more difficult experience than we had imagined. The day began with a 2 mile climb to the summit of Standing Indian Mountain. From there, we picked up the blue-blazed trail down to the SI camping ground. The problem was that no one had gone on this trail since the snowfall, so it took cunning land navigation, expert eyesight, and a little bit of luck to make our way from blaze to blaze. It must've taken us 20 minutes to find the fourth blue blazed tree, but after that the trail was easily identifiable, although still slippery with the steep descent and heavy snow. 6 miles of detour later, we were back on the white-blazed Appalachian Trail. Our shelter seemed rarely used as it was on a 1 mile off-trail loop and the bear cables were so rusty, I was surprised we not only managed to get our food up there, but also back down in the morning.
Day 9: Silers Bald shelter-Wesser Bald shelter,18 miles. 9 hours 40 minutes. Very long day. We were motivated by the fact that the next day would be a low mileage day topped offwith a hot shower, food, and warm place to sleep. On the approach to Wayah Bald, we utilized our snowshoes for the first time (and our packs felt as light as air!). Nate, who had been lagging behind a bit, took off like a rocket and I didn't see him again until we reached the summit. A beautiful view aided by an observation tower. It was neat sighting the mountains we had just come from (Standing Indian) and the ones we would reach in the near future (Clingman's Dome). With two climbs standing between us and our shelter, we reached Burningtown Gap. Nate and I noticed a huge tent that looked like a military tent. As we drew closer, we were greeted by a man named Apple, and a sign that read, "Trail Angel, free hot dogs." We were welcomed into the heated tent and given hotdogs, chips, and cookies, as we discussed our journey thus far, trail conditions, and our future plans. This was Nate's first experience with a trail angel, and later that night at the firetower, Nate told me, "If he wasn't there, I wouldn't be here." It's funny because after our experience I remembered Nate Jones talking about the same man who had been there last year. With our last climb to go, we opted to take the road as the sun was quickly setting (I assumed it would be a more direct approach). Just before sunset we hit the summit of Wesser Bald with an old firetower. It was a beautiful view and a great way to end the day.
Day 10: Wesser Bald Shelter-NOC, 5.7 miles. After a restless freezing night, I awoke Nate a little earlier than usual (shh, he doesn't know that). We were on the trail by 8am, enthusiastic to have less than 6 miles between us an the NOC, where my old high school friend, Anne, would pick us up to take us to her home in Andrews, NC near Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, the youthcamp we used to attend when we lived in Savannah. It felt strange, but good being back after nearly 6 years. We have since showered, laundered, and refueled, ready to take on the Smokies. We will have a short hike tomorrow, and reach Fontana Dam on Monday, February 14th.
Blessings,
Petra
Plum Orchard Gap shelter was our last Georgia shelter. Nate had quite the experience here, but he'll have to tell you about that himself. Our ride into Hiawassee was right, GA maintains its shelters better than NC, or at least Georgia's shelters have the feeling of security because the majority are above 1 story high.
Day 7: Plum Orchard Gap shelter-Standing Indian shelter, 12.2 miles. Met snow-and lots of it-steep climbs, and bigfoot today. Once past Bly Gap it was straight up. Nate and I used to joke and point to the tallest mountain within sight and say, "You think we're climbing that next?" Inevitably that was the case, so it became less of a joke and more of a reality, "Well, I guess that's our next point." Bigfoot was the first SOBO (south bounder) we met. We chatted with him for a few minutes about our snowshoes (this has been the #1 conversation topic thus far) and their usefulness in the Smokies (yay!). We followed his tracks all the way to Standing Indian shelter, where we bedded down for the night. No bear cables. No second floors. Nothing between us and the wild. Great. We named him bigfoot because he had to have at least at size 15 shoe. I could fit almost two of my shoes in his footprint.
Day 8: Standing Indian shelter-Silers Bald Shelter, 16 miles. Blueblazed 12 miles off of our total mileage. Blue blazing is when you take a side trail that is not part of the AT. In most cases this results in cutting mileage. This would provide us with an extra day, but proved to be a more difficult experience than we had imagined. The day began with a 2 mile climb to the summit of Standing Indian Mountain. From there, we picked up the blue-blazed trail down to the SI camping ground. The problem was that no one had gone on this trail since the snowfall, so it took cunning land navigation, expert eyesight, and a little bit of luck to make our way from blaze to blaze. It must've taken us 20 minutes to find the fourth blue blazed tree, but after that the trail was easily identifiable, although still slippery with the steep descent and heavy snow. 6 miles of detour later, we were back on the white-blazed Appalachian Trail. Our shelter seemed rarely used as it was on a 1 mile off-trail loop and the bear cables were so rusty, I was surprised we not only managed to get our food up there, but also back down in the morning.
Day 9: Silers Bald shelter-Wesser Bald shelter,18 miles. 9 hours 40 minutes. Very long day. We were motivated by the fact that the next day would be a low mileage day topped offwith a hot shower, food, and warm place to sleep. On the approach to Wayah Bald, we utilized our snowshoes for the first time (and our packs felt as light as air!). Nate, who had been lagging behind a bit, took off like a rocket and I didn't see him again until we reached the summit. A beautiful view aided by an observation tower. It was neat sighting the mountains we had just come from (Standing Indian) and the ones we would reach in the near future (Clingman's Dome). With two climbs standing between us and our shelter, we reached Burningtown Gap. Nate and I noticed a huge tent that looked like a military tent. As we drew closer, we were greeted by a man named Apple, and a sign that read, "Trail Angel, free hot dogs." We were welcomed into the heated tent and given hotdogs, chips, and cookies, as we discussed our journey thus far, trail conditions, and our future plans. This was Nate's first experience with a trail angel, and later that night at the firetower, Nate told me, "If he wasn't there, I wouldn't be here." It's funny because after our experience I remembered Nate Jones talking about the same man who had been there last year. With our last climb to go, we opted to take the road as the sun was quickly setting (I assumed it would be a more direct approach). Just before sunset we hit the summit of Wesser Bald with an old firetower. It was a beautiful view and a great way to end the day.
Day 10: Wesser Bald Shelter-NOC, 5.7 miles. After a restless freezing night, I awoke Nate a little earlier than usual (shh, he doesn't know that). We were on the trail by 8am, enthusiastic to have less than 6 miles between us an the NOC, where my old high school friend, Anne, would pick us up to take us to her home in Andrews, NC near Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, the youthcamp we used to attend when we lived in Savannah. It felt strange, but good being back after nearly 6 years. We have since showered, laundered, and refueled, ready to take on the Smokies. We will have a short hike tomorrow, and reach Fontana Dam on Monday, February 14th.
Blessings,
Petra
Updated Itinerary/Mail Drops
Nate & I have managed to get ahead of schedule thanks to beautiful weather and a good gene pool. Courtney is planning on picking us up from Damascus, VA on March 4th.
2/14: Fontana Dam
*Mail drop
2/21: Hotsprings, NC
*Mail drop: c/o Sunnybank Inn, 26 Walnut St., Hotsprings, NC 28743
2/25: Erwin, TN
3/1: Hampton, TN
*Mail drop: c/o Kincora hiking hostel, 1278 Dennis Cove Rd, Hampton, TN 37658
3/4: Damascus, VA
*Courtney is picking us up; no mail drop necessary*
2/14: Fontana Dam
*Mail drop
2/21: Hotsprings, NC
*Mail drop: c/o Sunnybank Inn, 26 Walnut St., Hotsprings, NC 28743
2/25: Erwin, TN
3/1: Hampton, TN
*Mail drop: c/o Kincora hiking hostel, 1278 Dennis Cove Rd, Hampton, TN 37658
3/4: Damascus, VA
*Courtney is picking us up; no mail drop necessary*
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Amicalola to Hiawassee, GA
I had a long update typed out and it all got deleted. I will try to give you a make-shift shortened version.
Day 1: Amicalola Falls to Stover Creek, 11.6 miles. made it to the summit of Springer by 2pm so we added an extra 3 miles (Nate was thrilled).
Day 2: Stover Creek to Gooch, 12.3 miles. Rained ALL day and night. Quickly got over the infatution phase of the AT (I'll expand more on the phases later). Met up with 2 thru-hikers and 2 Atlanta friends section hiking to Hiawassee.
Day 3: Gooch to Neels Gap, 15.6 miles. Motivated to get dry clothes and a shower, we hiked 11 miles to the base of Blood Mountain, the highest point on the AT in GA, 2 miles up, and 2 miles down. Made for a long day. The weather cleared and we had a beautiful view from the top. Met Pirate, the man who runs the Neels Gap hostel and had a black tie gala (we were given neon orange trail marking tape for ties).
Day 4: Neels Gap to Blue Mountain, 18 miles. Mixed up Blue mountain and Tray Mountain shelters. Added 7 miles to the originally planned 11 miles. Made for a long day, but we had a fire by our Atlanta friends.
Day 5: Blue Mountain to Deep Gap, 15.3 miles. Lost and gained 1000 feet within the first 3 miles. First 7.5 miles took forever to Tray Mountain. Finally made it to Deep Gap as it started heavy snowing. Had mice troubles. I freaked out a little bit envisioning they were eating away at my pack (they didn't).
Day 6: Deep Gap, 3.5 miles to US 76. Hitched in to Hiawassee. Resupplied at Ingles. The bakery people must have thought we were nuts as we salivated over the dougnuts and other junk foods we had been craving. Mailed off a few pounds of unnecessary gear--extra pot, waterpoof bags that were too small, sunglasses, first map (woohoo!), towels, etc.
Will hit Bly Gap, the boarder of GA, NC tomorrow morning. 4.5 more miles today.
I had more humorous stories in my other post. Sorry for dumb internet.
Petra
Day 1: Amicalola Falls to Stover Creek, 11.6 miles. made it to the summit of Springer by 2pm so we added an extra 3 miles (Nate was thrilled).
Day 2: Stover Creek to Gooch, 12.3 miles. Rained ALL day and night. Quickly got over the infatution phase of the AT (I'll expand more on the phases later). Met up with 2 thru-hikers and 2 Atlanta friends section hiking to Hiawassee.
Day 3: Gooch to Neels Gap, 15.6 miles. Motivated to get dry clothes and a shower, we hiked 11 miles to the base of Blood Mountain, the highest point on the AT in GA, 2 miles up, and 2 miles down. Made for a long day. The weather cleared and we had a beautiful view from the top. Met Pirate, the man who runs the Neels Gap hostel and had a black tie gala (we were given neon orange trail marking tape for ties).
Day 4: Neels Gap to Blue Mountain, 18 miles. Mixed up Blue mountain and Tray Mountain shelters. Added 7 miles to the originally planned 11 miles. Made for a long day, but we had a fire by our Atlanta friends.
Day 5: Blue Mountain to Deep Gap, 15.3 miles. Lost and gained 1000 feet within the first 3 miles. First 7.5 miles took forever to Tray Mountain. Finally made it to Deep Gap as it started heavy snowing. Had mice troubles. I freaked out a little bit envisioning they were eating away at my pack (they didn't).
Day 6: Deep Gap, 3.5 miles to US 76. Hitched in to Hiawassee. Resupplied at Ingles. The bakery people must have thought we were nuts as we salivated over the dougnuts and other junk foods we had been craving. Mailed off a few pounds of unnecessary gear--extra pot, waterpoof bags that were too small, sunglasses, first map (woohoo!), towels, etc.
Will hit Bly Gap, the boarder of GA, NC tomorrow morning. 4.5 more miles today.
I had more humorous stories in my other post. Sorry for dumb internet.
Petra
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The weigh-in
The final weigh-in results are in.
Baseweight:
Nate: 22 lbs
Petra: 17 lbs
Total:
Nate 34 lbs
Petra 27 lbs.
Total includes 14 pounds of food for a week for both of us and our 4lb snow shoes. Hopefully we will be able to wear these instead of carry them the whole way.
Nate Jones, you probably consider this heavy, but I do not have any cans of fruit with me this time.
Baseweight:
Nate: 22 lbs
Petra: 17 lbs
Total:
Nate 34 lbs
Petra 27 lbs.
Total includes 14 pounds of food for a week for both of us and our 4lb snow shoes. Hopefully we will be able to wear these instead of carry them the whole way.
Nate Jones, you probably consider this heavy, but I do not have any cans of fruit with me this time.
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