AT Thru-Hike 2008

This is Howard Carson reporting from Roanoke, Virginia for A.T. News. June 12, 2008.

Severe heat plaguing the east coast for over a week now is pushing hikers to the limit. Many have quit. Others limp on. Others take shelter in homes and hotels. What is uncertain is the extent of effect that this will have on the North Bound thru-hikers this season. Recently I interviewed three thru-hikers on their last two weeks of hiking and what they have been through.

Q: So where were you 2 weeks ago and what was the weather like?
A: Well, we reunited with our friend and family member PopTart in Bland, VA. The weather at the time was cool and rainy, very comfortable for hiking all day. We set out with a 3 day hike to Pearisburg, where we were going to the Holiday Motor Lodge to celebrate Machete’s birthday with his mother, sister, friends George and Adam, and whatever hiker trash we could cram into the rooms Mama Machete most graciously booked for us.

<- Trail Family at the Hotel in Pearisburg

The second day out from Bland we could start to feel the weather warming some. When we had arrived in Bland it was rainy and in the 50s-60s and now the sun was out with rising temperatures and humidity. A brief relief was found at Dismal Falls along the trail which was a beautiful fall with very frigid swimming possible. An afternoon was spent at this beautiful spot and the hike continued. This spot also marked our 600mile mark along the trail. Our friend Bigglesworth has a sweet picture that we will hopefully be able to share at sometime.

Q: How was the time in Pearisburg with your friends and family?
A: It was a blast. It is always nice to hear from and see those people that you care about. After a 120mile failed attempt to find a movie theater, loop drive around Virginia and dipping into West Virginia, we all settled back in at the hotel to celebrate. We later pounded a Chinese buffet. The party continued throughout the night and after Machete had breakfast with the family the visiting group was back off to A-town, a moderate 4 hour drive. It was especially nice for Machete to see his mother and sister before they left on their respective trips to Africa and South America.

Q: Good luck to them and happy travels. So did you hit the trail after that?
A: Actually, we ended up staying another night here for birthday recovery, then were convinced to stay another night from some other hikers rather than a meager hike out. The sun was hot on all these days and the swimming pool at the motel was convincing enough to keep us there a little longer.

Q: According to my notes here, after leaving Pearisburg is when the heat wave hit. Is that correct?
A: Pretty much Howard. We had one day of high 80’s when we left, which was hot, but we had no idea how much hotter it was going to get. The second day out was when the week of 97 degree temperatures began. Couple this with the reported 80% humidity and you receive a heat index over 100. This made miserable afternoon hiking and we realized something had to be done about our hiking schedule. Also, our companion Pemmy began to take ill and was having an even harder time breathing than the rest of us. Moral started to fade at this point and we were all wishing for a change from this heat and the bugs.

Q: Oh, I hadn’t received any information on insects at this time. Would you care to elaborate on this matter?
A: Absolutely Howard. There have been three distinct changes in insect activity ontop of your normal creepy crawlies. On the first day of the extreme heat we hiked into a roughly six mile long Gypsy Moth corridore. These cute bugs appear to be catipillars but in actuallity they are a plague of shitting bugs. Excuse my language but these things are nasty. This six mile tunnel of poopy doom was head to toe fuzzies crapping upon you. It was so intense and in such great volume that it sounded like rain. We ended up having to camp in this area and all night we were awoken by the sounds of much needed rain only to recall the moth problem. Dinner and breakfast even proved difficult to shield from this onslaught as poop had to be picked out of it. There have been a few other instances of the dreaded gypsy moth since then but nothing compared to this veritable gauntlet of shit.
In addition to the gypsy moths, black fly season is upon us. This gnarly buggers won’t leave you alone until the sun goes down. It doesn’t matter where you are after two minutes of not hiking you will have a swarm circling and attempting to bite at you. Your only defense to these pests is to swat with a bandana like a horse with his tail. Lastly, we have the No-See-Ums. Which are essentially flees that you can squish and make camping in some areas an itchy sleep. Paranoia that they might be taking refuge in your sleeping bag causes anxiety during the morning routine. We aren’t camels here. We don’t really want freeloaders riding our back.

Q: What are you doing to combat the increasing extreme conditions?
A: Well we have changed our entire hiking routine around this heat. Being the night owls that we are, we are acustomed to staying up to 11pm-12am and getting up between 9-10am and starting at noon. With these new heat conditions that isn’t the best plan as it starts you off in the hottest part of the day which is very demoralizing. So our new plan is to avoid the noon-4pm heat by waking up around 5am. Departing as soon as the sun is high enough to hike. We then take a break between 11-noon for a nap/rest/lunch. Then resume hiking when the afternoon heat begins to dwindle. With this schedule we will still be able to put in the miles and avoid the blistering temperatures. The first day of attempting this schedule we had logged 12miles by 11:15am. This was before we had even started hiking the day before and it felt so much better. If this system grows old we plan to try some headlamp LED night hiking.

Q: You mentioned that Pemmy had taken ill earlier. How is she doing now?
A: She is recovering quickly. Its kind of a long story met with kindness and some hitchhiking. Some other time maybe.

Q: Oh feel free, you can ignore that 30minute time limit on the hotel lobby computer. Please continue.
A: Okay Howard. Well, Pemmy began to take ill the day after the gypsy moth tunnel. She felt generally ill and was having a hard time breathing especially going uphill. Being the determined girl she is we pushed on not heeding her body’s warning. After two days of hiking with it we came to our next scheduled resupply town of Newport, Virginia where we were fixin’ to get hitchin’ and there was a previous hiker named Longhorn there offering us soda. We inquired if he was heading the way we were going and he said he lived there. We hopped in the back of the pick up and headed the 8miles to the store. When we arrived there Longhorn propositioned us with an offer we could not refuse. “How bout y’all come back to my house and do some work splitting and stacking wood for me and I’ll fix you lunch, dinner, and breakfast and you can shower,” he said. We replied in unision, “hell yeah.” So after picking up our groceries it was back to Longhorns humble chateau. We started right off with lunch then got down to work. I will spare you all the details of this stay but let me break down some highlights. We stayed two nights, split probably 10 cords of wood, celebrated our friend Cornbreads birthday the first night we were there and Pemmy was able to rest there for two and a half days. Longhorn treated us with fresh vegetables from his garden, a delightful assortment of beer, big breakfasts, lunches, and dinners including pasta, red beans, turnip greens, pancakes, apple cobbler, ice cream, fruit salad and so much more. He even drove into Blacksburg where Virginia Tech is located so we could rent a movie. We worked hard for him but it felt great using our upper bodies and having plenty of water to drink and a shower right there. We were there over three days but only zeroed one between the hike in and out. This was a much needed moral booster and we left feeling great mentally.

<- Working at Longhorn’s House

However, Pemmy continued to cough. We hiked out 9miles from Longhorns leaving Pemmy not feeling very well. The next day we woke up at our scheduled 5am time with big miles planned. After two miles Pemmy doubted her ability to go on feeling the way she did. Being the chivalrous men we are, we accompied her on her hitching campaign to get to Daleville to take sanctuary at a motel. After hours of beating her over the head about going to a doctor she conceeded and agreed we would find medical facilities the following day. No facilities were available in Daleville which is a large town that the trail goes through, so it was off to the busy metropolis of Roanoke to seek out the Valley View Urgent Care. While Pemmy sought her medical attention it was up to us to locate lodging for the night at the best price. After talking to receptionists at four different hotels the shining star who could not be an ounce sweeter, Bonnie at the Main Stay Suites offered us a whopper of a deal. Her manager even gave us bottled water. Basically the cheapest we could find was the best hotel room available in the area. Complete with kitchenette, living room, and double bed bedroom, and an outdoor pool. Essentially, this place rocks at half price. Thank you again to the Main Stay Suites. Pemmy rang us after her doctors visit and yes it was a good thing she went as she had a ’severe upper respiratory inffection.’ She is doing much better now that she has antibiotics, inhalers, and cough medicine. Recovery time also included us going to the movie theatre and seeing a matinee of Indiana Jones, followed by sneaking into Kung Fu Panda (which was awesome and hence the title) and then 10 minutes of Sex and the City because Pemmy wanted to watch it, but it made us want to vommit… I still don’t feel clean.

Q: Wow, that sounds like quite the adventure and good luck. Where to now?
A: Oh you bet. The stars have really seemed to align for us on this trip and we thank everyone so much who have been willing to help us out. We don’t often mention the people who give us rides but they are always some of the kindest and most interesting people you will find in this world and we thank them too. Actually, we are off to find a hitch right after we finish with this interview. It is back to Daleville where PopTart, who was seperated on extreme heat day 1, has made it. He has passed us by 40 miles during our down period and we plan on skipping that section for now so we can hike out with him. Leaving this section gives us a great excuse to come back out here and hike again in the future. We recognize the importance of taking care of ourselves mentally and physically. We plan on getting back to Daleville, hitting up the outfitter and hiking out some minimal miles for the still aching Pemmy. Well, it is about that time and PopTart is in Daleville waiting for us so we really should be going.

I want to thank these hikers for their time during this interview and wanted to share a quote from seasoned thru-hiker, No Pain, who is currently on his fifth thru-hike attempt. No matter what you are doing, sitting at a pool, walking ten feet to the store closer to the trail or just making it a mile to the stream that you want to play at for the day, No Pain says, “Now that’s how you get to Maine!” Thank you for those encouraging words, No Pain.

This is Howard Carson signing off for the A.T. News. Happy Hiking.

(deleted inane ipod rant)

Since celebrating JJ’s birthday the boys have been taking it slow. Covering 40 miles on from Pearisburg they hit the summer heat wall. Due to scorching days and marauding Gypsy Moths their spirits were a bit low and they decided to take up a kind man’s offer for free room and board in exchange for splitting a sizable amount of his firewood. This puts their aggressive schedule to be at Harper’s Ferry by the end of the month in doubt, but I think it’s good move to make sure they don’t get entaggled in any heat related mishaps. They said they were about to hit the trail again and hopefully were going to hike around the heat in the mornings or evenings.

In other news, I’m also joining them at Harper’s Ferry to complete the half of the trail I never did. If anyone needs cheap labor, computer hardware or networking work, or wants to buy any of the electronic gadgets I’ve dumped on craigslist drop me a line. I’ve got a decent war chest ready for when I join them, but as their unexpected misadventures show it is always nice to have a bit extra.

Well we have really mounted the proverbial hiking horse since leaving Damascus. We didn’t end up hiking out until visiting Dots Diner one last time which put us around 4pm exit. We hiked out on the Creeper Trail which runs directly through Damascus for 10miles that night and found a beautiful campsite under a bridge in a pine forrest. We decided to do the Creeper trail based on the advice from others that it was right around the same milage as taking the A.T. but was apparently very pretty. It was a pretty hike but boring since it was flat. The Creeper trail is an old railway that is just gravel now. The highlight is that it followed a gorgeous stream and had around 30 trussels that crossed it over the 10 mile period. That was our warm up day to get back in the swing of things. All in all we have acomplished 120 miles in 9 days compared to the 460 in 2+ months prior. I don’t have a calculator on me but I think that is a slightly better average.

Leaving Damascus it was just Machete, Pemmy, and myself. PopTart left trail days on Sunday to go attend his girlfriend Lilly’s graduation in Charlottesville, VA. He successfully made it there in just 3 hitches. Two Beers if off the trail for 4-6 weeks with brucitus (basically a big nasty blister under the skin) in the knee.

Our second day out we started to pour on the miles and did around 15. We had a serious climb that day up Mt. Rogers which had an elevation of 5400+ ft. We ended up camping ontop of the knob there and it turned out to be an extremly cold and windy night. This would not been so bad except for the fact that Machete and I bought 45 degree summer bags at trail days and sent our cold weather ones home with my mother. Needless to say it was a great place to camp and we had a nice night.

On our third day of hiking we ran into some awesome trail magic after 13 miles of hiking. TurboJoe was set up with his van at a gap where VA Rt. 603 runs through the trail. We met Turbo at trail days where he entertained many with fire breathing and a light up diablo yoyo at night around the large bon fire. He was sitting there with vegetables, cereal, cookies, beer, sodas, and more. In addition to this he had a guitar and a drum and music going in the van. Here we ran into our buddy Shine who we had been looking for since Damascus and finally caught up to him. We ended up staying the night at the campsite right next to this gap with Shine, Turbo, and a dude we just met going by the name of The Mayor. By the way this was also a gorgeous day of hiking. We went through an area called the Grayson Highlands which was very much like Roan but speckled with oodles of wild ponies. It made for some gorgeous hiking.

The next day we caught the scuttlebutt about hiker feed going on in the community of Troutdale, VA so from there it was misssion free food. We hiked 8.5 to the gap which leads to the town where we ran into the someone dropping off hikers at the time so we jumped back in his car and he took his to his store. Guess to our surprise who we ran into here but none other than TurboJoe again. We sat down with him and ate pre-hiker feed burgers and shakes. Then after getting some showers and MP3s from Turbo we headed up to the hiker feed which was led by the Baptist Church in the community. This was an AMAZING feast thank them all again so much. I would describe in depth what we ate but it would just make me miss it more and probably make you hungry too. After dinner we had a brief sermon from the preacher and then played volleyball until dark. I have to say non-hiking exercise while on the trail feels odd but very refreshing. We met a bunch of new hikers here and really enjoyed the Vball and are looking forward to finding another sandy court in the future. After volleyball Turbo shuttled Machete, Pemmy, Shine and myself back to the trail where we night hiked 4.5 miles are so. The highlight of this was seeing a very large cat which we think was a mountain lion but could have been a bobcat. This was both exhilerating and frightning but really made the evening. We stealth camped up a blue blaze and set back out the next morning.

This day was reserved for hiking and we did about 19 miles. It was a beautiful day nothing too exciting until the evening where a half mile before camp we saw a baby bear. Our first bear of the trip which was very, very awesome. We camped 3 miles outside of Atkins, VA and headed in the next morning. Another hot and beautiful day which made about 5 in a row at this point. We had Chinese buffet for lunch, resupplied at the dollar store and at Ingles, did laundry, took showers and headed back out after dark and night hiked until we found a suitable campsite. We then hiked 2 and a half more days and rolled into Bland yesterday soaking wet. To our amazement we reunited with PopTart who had a hotel room waiting for us. Just what the doctor ordered yesterday I tell you. We got fed at DQ and watched Knocked Up last night and just chilled. We also ran into a few other hiker friends we hadn’t seen since trail days at the motel. Today we’ve resupplied and will be heading out to the trail as soon as I post this. It has been a great 9 days of hiking and we are so glad to be back in the woods. We are attempting to do a no zero days push through the 550 miles of Virginia. It will be hard but we still can go in and out of towns.

Oh on a sad note our buddy Shine got off the trail 2 days ago. This is the first person we have really known well that has gotten off permantely. He had been fighting with his wife and left to try and patch that stuff up which I guess is a good thing but we are still sad to loose him. As Machete said “we have needs too.” He was deemed Cousin Shine while we were in Damascus.

We will be in Pearisburg, VA on Saturday for Machete’s Bday. We are both looking forward to seeing his mom and sister and George… and Adam! again. It should be a fun night and it is always nice to get a taste of home whilst out here. Judy good luck at your art opening and we will see you soon

JJ’s lovely calamine tan with some unfortunate commentary

Due to an overwhelming amount of SPAM we have received we have decided to make it so only registered users can comment on articles. There is an absurd amount of comments from bots hitting the blog on everything from porn to music to food. It is very easy to do all you need to do is scroll down and click on register in the right hand column underneath the “meta” heading. After that you just have to put some basic info in and you are ready to go. Whenever you return to the site scroll down to the same area, click login, and enter your username and password. Sorry for the slight inconvenience but it will make the moderation of commments much easier.

Either Adam or George should be writting a post on their trip down to trail days some time soon so that will be the next decent comment update. We haven’t had very good web access of recent so thats why we haven’t really posted much. We will definitely have pictures and more to post in the future though.

By the way Trail Days = Awesome. We are leaving Damascus today after getting our medical care yesterday. We are going to head out on the Virginia Creeper trail which intersects with the AT about 15 miles up the trail and it used to be the AT.

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

 <- On top of Roan Mt… Still Friends… Awesome Mountain

 <- Also on top of Roan Mt. — Do some research on the Roan Highlands if you are feeling frisky. It is the most amazing stretch (9miles) of the trail that we have been through thus far. Here is one site http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/azaleas/other/roan2.html

 <- Hump Mountain in the Roan Highlands

 <- 400 miles down during our longest day of hiking thus far while coming out of the Roan Highlands (27 miles one day Woot Woot!)

 <- Overmountain Shelter… Old barn from Revolutionary War that has been converted and can sleep in upwards of 30 people

  <- View from Overmountain Shelter. Said to be one of the top 20 views in the nation. And here-say says the view has been used in a few motion pictures.

 <- View of Watauga Lake from a shelter which name I cannot recall.

 <-baffroom on Roan. Seriously though if you pack in food, drinks, whatever… pack the trash out. Nothing disturbs me more than finding a hole in a tree that someone has decided would make a perfect garbage can. Grrrr!

If our loyal readers would like a slightly different perspective of our hike you might want to read Pemmy’s Trail Journal. I’m not sure what she writes about so I hope it isn’t embarrassing for us but oh well. So if you want to check it out the URL is http://www.trailjournals.com/pemmy. We have been hiking with Pemmy since April 6 after leaving the NOC on my birthday.

Quote of the post - Geek - “You guys rock”
Geek is an awesome mofo and we can’t wait to see him again in PA.

http://traildays.us/

Currently in Damascus, VA. Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina have been obliterated by our massive hiking feet and raucous body odor. If you want to learn about what we are doing click the link. Oh and current milage under our belts is 461.1.

I’m seriously nasty at this game.

Well again it has been quite a while since our last post but we will do our best to fill you in on what has been going on. Since our last post we have covered 72 miles in a whopping 12 days. Despite the fact we haven’t made it far we have had tons of fun and are still moving here and there. Don’t worry about our health its not ankles or knees its just us getting distracted. Also, don’t worry about us moving it slow because all the old time thru-hikers are telling us we are the ones doing it right. The people we all should worry about are the ones that treat the trail like a job, have no fun, and burn themselves out before the end of Virginia.

Trail Family
First, lets talk about the trail family. What started off as two boys from Ohio, has grown into a family of five. So you hopefully already know Machete and Slap Happy so let us introduce to you Pop Tart, Pemmy, and Two Beers. Pop Tart, a native Virginian now calls his home Missoula, Montana. He just turned 22 on April 24 and enjoys such activities as hiking, ice climbing, kayaking, and long walks on the beach. He is a very funny guy and we know him as the captain of the raft. BLUE BERRIES! Next, we have Pemmy who has been traveling with us the longest although we met both her and Pop Tart at Low Gap, GA. She hales from Long Island, NY and went to school at University of Rhode Island on a pole vaulting scholarship. She is horribly addicted to coffee, chocolate, and ice cream and talks on the phone way to much. She is known as the prettiest girl on the raft (also the only one). She is our family medic and bird expert and advised Machete on his shin splints way back when. Last but not least, Two Beers from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She is the most proper member of our group and for this reason our official spokesperson. She gets apologies from owners of motels when we are breaking the rules. She, although I hate to admit this, is also the best cook in the family. Look aren’t we a good looking crew. Don’t act like your not impressed.

Dilly Dally Alley
The above picture was taken from Dilly Dally Alley, the newest and coolest place on the trail. Yes that’s right we created our own campsite about 200 yards off the trail with our own water source, fire pit, and signs. Here we celebrated Pop Tarts 22nd birthday with 2 & 1/2 cases of beer that we packed into the woods a mile away from the road. To obtain these tasty ice cold adult beverages Pemmy and Machete walked 4 miles to a gas station that ended up being in a dry county. From there, Pemmy smooth talked the attendant at the gas station who proceeded to offer his vehicle for their use. This entailed a 15mile drive to Mars Hill, NC where they purchased our beverages as well as an extra 12 for the attendant. The rest of the crew were quite shocked to find Machete driving a mysterious vehicle, but that’s the trail for you.

Hot Springs Trail Festival
After our night at Dilly Dally Alley, we decided to Dilly Dally some more. We remembered hearing about the festival that was going on April 25-27 in Hot Springs, NC and decided since we were so close we might as well shuttle back for some hiker festivities. We arranged a shuttle from the Bluff Mountain Outfitters with a lady named Ruth who almost killed us 3 times. She was sweet as a bee and let us stop for milk shakes though. We camped at the Hot Springs Resort campground for three straight nights which is where we had stayed our first time through Hot Springs. Our second day there was a free rafting deal on the French Broad River (3rd oldest river in the world) through the Huck Finn Rafting Adventures. Heath the owner of the company arranged a trip where hikers volunteer to do river clean up for the day and get a free rafting trip, breakfast, and lunch out of the deal. Needless to say this was an amazing experience. We rafted 9 miles self guided by Captain Pop Tart. There were 14 hikers total that went and all of our family did except for Two Beers. We collected around a 2000lbs of garbage including some of the nastiest river trash you can imagine. We even went down a class 4 rapid which was awesome and we didn’t tip. After rafting we went back to the camp ground and met some really cool former thru-hikers who were down for the festival. Geek and Ziggy were EMT drivers from Pennsylvania very close to where Two Beers lives. Needless to say they had plenty to relate to. They really enjoyed meeting us and very much wanted to join our crew on the hike. Geek thru-hiked in 1990 and 2002 and Ziggy hiked in 2002. Sunday at noon, we left with them for a ride back to Sam’s Gap where we got off the trail. Geek piled all 5 of us in the back of his gutted minivan and we strapped our packs down on the roof.

Hemlock Hollow Hostel
After 16 miles of hiking leaving Hot Springs and getting rained and hailed on we discovered there was a hostel just .7 miles off the trail. We really wanted to dry ourselves and Two Beers was feeling ill so we walked down log cabin drive and stumbled upon the nicest bunkhouse/hostel we could have ever imagined. Hemlock Hollow, operated by Hattie and Fred, is a perfect retreat for anyone rather they be hiker, hunter, fisherman, or family. Hattie wanted us to talk up the services on the blog a little bit so here it goes. They have specialty imported coffee and teas from around the world. You can purchase smoothies, root beer floats, all kinds of food, some gear and fuels. As stated this place was great and Hattie and Fred were basically the nicest people ever. It was kind of like being at your Grandparents except they were hustling you and you had to buy everything. Nonetheless we had a great time talking with them and playing board games while Two Beers recovered.
 <- Hattie and Fred and their little shoppe

Yes, we have hiked
We’ve hiked through rain for 3 days one of which included hail. We have seen more amazing views which I am lacking pictures of at the moment (Pemmy has been declared official trip photographer although I bust my camera out when she is not around). Our favorite day of hiking was coming out of Hemlock Hollow. It was beautiful and we busted out 16+ miles. I even forgot my trail companion at a shelter and had to double back 2 miles to pick it up. We crossed the 300 mile mark at Big Butt Mt. and will have a rather amusing picture to share with you all once I get it from Pemmy. Any guesses? We didn’t start hiking this day until noon and made it into the shelter about 10min after the darkness set. It was a late dinner but well worth the day of dilly dallying. Also this day Machete and I came across some sweet cliffs that we decided to free climb on for a little while. This was a great mid day break after lunch. We saw large clouds of smoke on the days rocky ridgeline which we later learned came from a cigarette that someone didn’t put out and 200+ acres of woods burned
We also met two guys who went to school in Athens (one of which took 7.5 years, EEK). He was a pretty nice guy and apparently was bartending at the Junction before he hit the trail (not a bar we go to).
 <- Me wiped out in the mud and rain on top of big bald.
 <-Machete walking the “nice” part of the trail through Hot Springs.

Today, Tomorrow, the Future
We left Erwin, TN today to hitch hike to Asheville, NC where we are going to see Skeleton Witch tomorrow. We brought the whole family and we had all heard that Asheville is a happening town and all wanted to check it out. We got a ride with a very nice Japanese lady who took us all the way, gave us water, and offered to let us sleep in her yard. We are also starting to try and use a website called Couch Surfing where people offer travelers people to stay. We got an offer in Erwin but it was after we had already found a motel to stay at. There was only one person in the Erwin area but over 100 in Asheville so we will see if we get lucky the next two nights. After Asheville we are back on the trail with our next stop at Kincora Hostel and then Damascus. The biggest trail festival, Trail Days, is going on the weekend of May 16-18 and we should be right in the area and are very excited for it. Apparently over 3000 people descend on the city for this event and if you are a hiker it is a party not to be missed. Hopefully Patchfoot is going to make it down and give us a lift but if not we will work it out. Thanks for all the support friends, family, and everyone else who might be reading our blog.

Quote of the post
“While we are on the topic of decomposition.”

We are at the library and there are people waiting so I just wanted to make this brief. Even though we said we weren’t going to Zero anymore we ended up staying at Standing Bear another night because it was such a perfect day. We then did 30 miles in 2 days to a shelter that was just 3 miles outside of Hot Springs. We came into Hot Springs this morning and had a big breakfast, did laundry, hit up the outfitters, resupplied, and we will be gettting showers on the way out of town. Our next stop is Erwin, TN and we should be there in 5-6 days so hopefully we will be able to make an update there.

Beware the trail menace.

 <- Another view from Albert Mountain Fire Tower (Old but New2You)

 <- Trail Magic from the ‘Blessings Princess’ at Garenflo Gap, 7 miles from Hot Springs

We’ll it has been quite a while since we have been able to update. That is because we have been hiking many miles. We are starting to get our trail legs and still loving every moment out here. We haven’t been able to receive any cell phone service for a while so please don’t be alarmed. Also, the screen on my phone (Ryan) has busted so I can’t really use it too well. From today we will be moving on to Hot Springs, NC where we will roll through on Thursday. Hot Springs is a epic trail town where the trail goes right down main street with all the hiker amenities on both sides of you. So I am going to give a brief day by day recap of the events since our last post.

Also, since we have been going on about other peoples trail names I guess it is time to unveil ours… drum roll please. MACHETE (JJ) and SLAP HAPPY (RYAN) the dynamic duo known as BEAR WATCH and the FIRE STARTERS!!!!!!!!!

April 6 - 10.5 miles to Locust Cove Gap
This day started out with a wicked 8.1 miles climb out of the NOC. It was all uphill until we reached the beautiful Cheoah Bald (5,600ft elevation plus). On top of Cheoah we had great views. We could even see part of The Smokies and Fontana Lake. We hung out on the bald which was the end of the 8 mile climb then proceeded onward to our campground which was a very nice spot surrounded by rhododendrons. We had a great fire, played some Euchre, and camped with Pemmy, 2 Mile, Guns, and Cool Breeze.

April 7 - 14.6 miles to Walker Gap Campground
Great weather started this day and an even better surprise awaited us 2.5 miles down the trail. Coming down out of the hills into a gap we ran into some serious trail magic. Bare Bear who hiked in 2006 along with his buddy Shuffle Foot were at the road side with quite a smorgasborg.  Hot dogs, chips, cookies, bananas, Ibuprofen (Vitamin I), and much more were sitting there available to hikers. Needless to say we stuffed our faces. As we sat there chatting we started to notice a funny odor. Upon investigation we found that next to where we were eating was a large, dead goat. Shuffle Foot, who is an ex-marine, dragged the goat by the hind legs down the hill (pretty bad ass). After getting fed we marched on with our day (a little slow at first). Upon walking some ridges we could see better views of Fontana lake and even the dam this time which was starting to get us pumped for The Smokies. There we camped with Freebird and Sherlock who we had just met and have seen many times since. Pemmy was also there at our unmarked campground that we are referring to as Walker Gap. This was a great campsite and even included 2 snakes in the stream, one of which we believe was a copperhead. This night ended with a great and entertaining two hour task of trying to throw the bear bag. JJ and I set our sights on a certain tree and didn’t give up until we got it. Great weather for camping again that night.
<-Bare Bear flashing the Metal Horns with trail magic and Pemmy the hungry one

April 8 - 2.5 miles near-o day into Fontana Village (Start of Smokies)
This was our pre-Smokies relaxation day. We have decided not to do any zero days for a while, but near-o’s are okay! We had lunch a great restaurant at the resort and ended up running into Bigglesworth who had a room down the hall and put us up for the night. We picked up our mail drop (food and whiskey) at the post office then spent some time in the pool and sauna. There was a computer here and we tried to update but it was old, crappy, and immensely frustrating. Had a great night of rest, a shower, and did our laundry in the bathtub/ pool. Our buddy Freebird scored about 10 free hot dogs and buns from the gas station and he brought them to the pool so we could eat them. Sherlock brought the 12 pack. Pemmy had a great bottle of wine in her mail drop and some homemade pecan bars which were extremely delicious.

April 9 - 11.5 miles to Mollies Ridge Shelter (Smokies)
Back to business with great weather to start The Smokies after watching our morning Tom and Jerry cartoon. The day began with a killer 4 mile uphill climb of 2000+ feet which brought us to a Shuckstack Mountain fire tower with amazing views. We also passed our 5th Sassafras Gap on this day. We made it to the shelter around 6 and there were plenty of other thru-hikers there. The Smokies have strict rules for backpacking and camping. If shelter spaces are available you must use them. If the shelter is full only thru-hikers are allowed to tent near by the shelter. Section hikers must make reservations and stay in the shelters. There were still spots open when we got there so we stayed in the shelter. There was a dwindling fire upon arriving there but after dinner the FIRE STARTERS got it raging for our BEAR WATCH. Of the people we knew that were there include Sherlock, Freebird, 2 Mile, Pemmy, Bigglesworth, and Ravon.
<- Start of the Smokies
<-Shuckstack Mountain Fire Tower

April 10 - 17.2 miles (biggest day yet) to Siller’s Bald Shelter (Smokies)
This was a serious business day. We divided the day into three 5-6mile sections. The middle section after lunch proved the most difficult. The views and weather were all great this day. When I was trying to capture one of the views, I learned my phone was broken. When we arrived at our shelter it was full but people started to make room for us. Then right at dusk a group of 4 touron (Tourist Moron) section hikers showed up after walking 7 miles and we got booted out of the shelter. At this point all we wanted to do was cook dinner but we had to set up our tents. Upon setting up in the gale force winds JJ broke a tent pole. We rigged it for the night but it was still in need of repair. JJ, Pemmy, and I hung out in JJ’s tent and played rummy.

April 11 - 15.5 miles to Ice Water Shelter (Smokies)
We woke up to fog, drizzle, and deer. Clingman’s Dome (the highest point on the AT) was 4 miles after our shelter. It was a big bummer to get there and not be able to see any views because of the fog but oh well. To add insult to injury, the fog broke 45min after we left the top of Clingman’s. The weather was beautiful for the rest of the day and we reached Ice Water Shelter which was packed and had to tent in some nasty rain and wind. JJ’s tent held up barely and I learned that mine is not water tight. We ran into more Tourons this day that took our picture after we walked by like we were some zoo exhibit. We met Brown Bag and Clothes Line who have both proven to be cool dudes. We also passed the 200 mile mark this day.
<-200 miles WOOWOO

April 12 -  12.6 miles to Tri-Corner Knob Shelter (Smokies)
This was our easy day of the smokies.  We woke up to great weather and had great views all day. We knocked out over 8 miles before lunch and breezed the other 4 into camp afterwards. This was our best shelter experience yet. We stayed with one of the volunteer Ridge Runners named Jim. They basically hike the trail and maintain it kind of like a park ranger. This shelter had a fireplace which they only have in The Smokies and team FIRE STARTER made a bad ass fire of course. The shelter was covered in tarps and it stayed toasty.

April 13 - 14.8 miles to Davenport Gap Shelter (End of Smokies)
We woke up to light snow and cold temperatures. It was a cold but beautiful hike because all the trees were dusted in snowy wonderness. It was an easy 15miles almost entirely downhill and we moved to stay warm. At the shelter we stayed with Double D, Upwardly Mobile, Tie-Dye, T-Bone, Pemmy, and Two-Beers. Good shelter. Good people. Good times and we beat ass in Euchre.

April 14 - 3.3 miles to Standing Bear Farm Hostel
This place is basically the most awesome place in the world. It is very primitive but many people are still waiting to use the computer. Cool Breeze hooked us up with a ride into town and we bought him dinner. We stayed in a cottage and made an awesome breakfast this morning. JJ got a new pack and has new tent poles in the mail which we are picking up at Hot Springs. Oh and by the way everyone thinks Spartacus (the guy who yelled at us on Tray Mountain) is a jerk.
<- Cottage at Standing Bear Farm

We are currently over 10% done with the trail.

Silly Mice.

Well we are back out on the trail and making good miles. On Sunday, Baltimore Jack was getting a ride back through Hiawassee with a guy named Squirel who works at Neels Gap and is heading out for the PCT in late April. Thanks so much to both of them for helping us out with the ride. After getting to Hiawassee we had another 9 miles to go to get back to Dick’s Creek Gap where we had left off the trail. After about 15min of unsucessful hitching, Sam from the Hiawassee Inn drove by (as I actually predicted he would) and picked us up. He promptly stated, “what are you boys doing back here, I didn’t think I’d see you again.” I told him that I had thought that he would pick us up and after a minute of pondering he goes, “well I can’t argue with that.” So around noon we made it back on the trail for an easy half day to get us back in the swing of things.

We walked 4.5 miles to the Plum Orchard Shelter, the nicest one we have seen yet. It was a beautiful 3 decker with room to sleep nearly 20 people. We ended up only having around 8 people and 3 dogs in there that night though. There we met Rainbow who is hiking with her two girl dogs, Adam from Penn, Aaron with his dog Jinx, the Bama Brothers Clay and Eric, and a guy from Tennessee who ended up dropping out the next day. We made it there around 2 and decided to get a fire going with our ample time left in the day. It was cold, dreary, and foggy so a fire was just what the doctor ordered for everyone. We kept the fire burning until 9 and went to bed and still had coals left in the morning. Other than shooting the shit around the fire for hours our primary form of entertainment was Jinx teaching Rainbows puppy Journey how to hump. So basically these dogs (both girls) humper for hours off and on. It was nice to be back out in the woods and spending the time at the best shelter we have seen yet.

<- Plum Orchard Shelter

The next day, March 31, we decided to try and cover some real miles again. We hiked 12.1 miles and crossed into North Carolina. Woohoo, one state down!

<- GA/NC border

It was another foggy and cool day which was actually a nice change of pace for hiking. You don’t end up getting dehydrated or too sweaty. The only thing that stinks about it is with a 20ft visability you don’t get any views, but that is okay because there are plenty to come. We had lunch at the Muskrat Creek Shelter which was about 7 miles into the day and then made it our other 5 miles to the Standing Indian Shelter. Rainbow, her dogs, and Adam had already made it there and everyone from the night before ended up at the Muskrat Creek Shelter. We started this day pretty late (noon) so we didn’t roll into camp until slightly after 6. Just after getting there some heavy rain came in and we set up in the shelter, hung our bear bags, ate dinner, and set up our sleeping gear. This shelter prooved to be not very good as in the morning, everything we had was pretty much soaked. The wind blew right in through the the opening. So this was our first real wet night.

<- cool tree right after we crossed into NC

April 1 - 14.4 miles to Big Spring Gap and check out this picture from Albert Mountain where we have seen our best views yet

<- view from Albert Mountain Fire Tower

April 2 - 9.1 miles to Winding Stair Gap which is the gap closest to Franklin. We were greeted by a nice church group who gave us some trail magic (soda, Pringles, pudding, slim jims etc…) We stayed the night in Franklin that night at the Budget Inn again, even the same room (11). We did lots of errand running around and sent off a mail drop to Fontana Dam.

April 3- We got a shuttle ride from Ronnie’s wife back to the trail. I was frantically trying to update the blog before we left but couldn’t due to some internet issues. We hiked our biggest day this day 15.8 miles to Cold Spring Shelter. It was rain all day soaking all of our possessions. We met Poptart this day and he stayed at the shelter with us. He is a real cool guy from Montana who we are still on pace with.

April 4 - This was my birthday and we hiked 11.5 miles out of Cold Spring into the Nantahala Outdoor Center (The NOC). After getting our bunks set up at the visitor center and settling in we headed out to a cookout hosted by our buddy Forge’s parents. Forge’s folks came down from Pennsylvania with their camper and set up at a campground about 10min outside of the NOC. They made us hamburgers, hot dogs, potatoes, and brownies. After dinner we came back into the NOC and celebrated my birthday at the Paddler’s Pub with Poptart, 2 Mile, and Pemmy. It was a blast none the less.

April 5 (today) - We are zeroing out in the NOC in our room from last night which no one ever came to check up on so we are just squatting in it another night. It has been a very relaxing day and we really enjoyed the 40 Greatest Metal Songs Countdown on VH1. We are sad we missed the Witch last night in Athens but found that they will be in Virginia and North Carolina later in the month so we might try and see them. Still having a good time and we are heading out for our big run through the smokies tomorrow.

I just borrowed a laptop from this guy in the pub so I don’t want to use it too long. We will upload more pictures and tell more stories once we get to another public computer. Out of contact for the next 9 days or so so you stay classy San Diego.

• Well we have been taking zero days (no hiking miles are accomplished) since Thursday so JJ can heal up his leg and we can get back out there. We started to feel bad about not hiking like it is going to impede our progress but the advice we have received by many experienced hikers is to take the rest just don’t get off the trail and that “Maine isn’t going anywhere.” The first day we zeroed out at the Haiwassee Inn again. We made it to the grocery store and to the library but other than that just hung around the Motel. Chuck, whom we had met at Low Gap, was celebrating his birthday there so we hung out with him.

• After checking out of the motel at 11am we made our way to the other side of town to start hitching towards Franklin, NC (39 miles away). This weekend there is a hiker festival being thrown by Ronnie Haven, a good friend to all hikers. It is called Fool’s Bash and signifies the start of the AT season. It took 3 hitches to make it here, one of 3 miles, one of about 10 miles, and the last one we met a fellow hiker (Chair) who was even headed to the same motel as us. Upon arriving at Haven’s Budget Inn, Chair found out that his reservation was made for the wrong night and didn’t have a place to stay so we roomed with him since we had two double beds. I think it is very neat how the stars align sometimes. He ended up having a reservation tonight so he is putting us up tonight.

• The big bash is going on in the parking lot of another of Ronnie Haven’s motels called the Saphire. It is about a mile down the street. Last night was a big hoot, there is TONS of amazing food, a live country music band, moon shine and beer to boot, and even a hiker who did a comedic act for about 15 minutes. It was a good night and tonight is set to be even better as more hikers are expected to show up today. We had originally inteded on hiking here and making it in time but we are glad we got the oppurtunity to make it by other means. Tomorrow, we are either getting a ride back with Baltimore Jack to Dick’s Creek Gap which is where we last got of the trail near Haiwassee or are just going to try to hitch back if there isn’t enough room in the car. We plan on taking some easy days and getting everything going at a steady pace so we can plow through the Smokies.

• So all is well, despite the fact that we are not hiking, we are still enjoying the trail life and trail community. Everyone is so awesome that we have met. One of the guys who was working at Three Eagles Outfitters who we met at the party last night even drove us around today to run errands. We are having fun doing this but are really looking forward to getting back in those mountains. Within a few days we will hit our first 5000+ feet eleveation on Standing Indian Mountain. Peace, Love, and take care everyone.

 Zero Day at the Haiwassee Inn (Icing the ankle)

 Day One at Fool’s Bash

 <- Chair picked us up hiking and roomed with us in Franklin