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The Appalachian Trail
here's the deal, man The Appalachian Trail (AT) is a big long walk, and I walked it. This is my journal that I writed. So here it be:
3/14/01, day 0 - traveling We left of the Manchester airport at 4:30 in the AM, flew out to Nashville, and rented ourselves a car. I had real grits for lunch, from a woman that used no consonants when she spoke. We drove past 3,243 chevys and 2,436 fords on our way to Georgia, where the "boiled peanuts" signs and the confederate flags competed with the beautiful rock ledges and fluorescent green pine trees. Right before we hit the trailhead, we picked up Yogi on the side of the road. Yogi likes to talk. He was so psyched that I was doing the AT. He had just finished SOBO and this was his third trip. Dad described him as "quite a character." He got a word in edgewise; I just sat there and said "uh-huh," "yeah"... After finding out at Amacalola falls SP that there was no fuel, we headed 18m E to Dalunaluth, or Danalluth, or some long stretch of vowel overuse where I picked up a couple of cans of isobutane and we grabbed dinner and a hotel for the night. Forecast says rain tomorrow and late the weekend! 3/15/01, day 1, Stover Creek Shelter I'm pumped. Where to start? We left on the approach Trail in red mud feeling all high and mighty 'cuz we could walk on flat ground. It was light rain and mist all morning, which ruined the view from Springer but which gave a romantic feel when it wafted throughout the bare trees. It's been a gorgeous 10m walk today. At times I walked through Rhododendron canopy, fluorescent pine, and lord knows what else. I met Thor (real name) several times today. Real neat guy from the West Coast. The shelter tonight contains a whole host of critters from all over. Thor, some obnoxious 18-year-old, a middle aged couple, a filthy dog, a Georgian, and some woman doesn't know how to use her water filter. We're having a blast, although as far as I can tell we don't have a single thing in common. 3/16/01, day 2 2:45 - Haven't reached lodging for the night yet. I've got 1-3m left to go to my campsite and I've got one more big hill to climb before I get there. I'm exhausted. I didn't stretch this morning, and my body is responding with a pronounced ache in my left shoulder and every joint below the waist. I've already passed several "gaps," horse gap, blahblah gap, etc. Which means that I've passed four low points, which in turn means I've clambered over a bunch of obnoxious hills. I am in no way in shape yet, but if I take it easy (this'll be another 10m day) and do some careful stretches I should start getting into shape. This day has been wonderful. I woke up at 6 am (in the dark, thanks to my location at the Western end of EST) and tried to figure out how to remove my food bag from the shelter with 5 slugabeds in it. It was dangling from a hook with three other bags, so I tried to carefully remove the other bags from the hook without making a sound so that mine could be removed. Of course, I dropped one. Of course, it had pots in it, making a substantial clamor. Of course, it fell directly on a sleeping Hawaiian woman. Thankfully, she laughed herself back to sleep. Since I got such an early start, I had the AT pretty much to myself for several hours. I found this tree directly off the Trail that had been completely hollowed out. It was huge. I could have easily crawled in there for a bit, but I feared that somebody with fangs lived higher up. After that, I proceeded to my first gap where I met a nice old man from NY who offered to take my filthy garbage. I consider myself a decent person, but I'll be dammed if I willingly take on another man's garbage. As I've been resting here, the aforementioned slugabeds have started passing me. Thor is a really nice guy, pleasant to talk to, so I'm always pleased when we cross paths. He was also kind enough to show me his map which indicates that the day's "gap" fiasco is in fact almost over, and that tomorrow will start off relatively easy. With the absence of rainclouds, I've been able to take in some outrageous views of the N. GA mountains. 6:22 pm - Camp's all set. I finally found a gorgeous campsite next to a babbling brook. White noise from creeks helps me sleep. I'm beat, but I'm gonna go socialize with a coupla guys 0.1m away building a fire. I'm really excited about tomorrow - I'm crossing a paved road! 3/17/01, day 3, Slaughter Gap. 13.6m traveled in a little less than 10h. 6:40pm - Well, what didn't happen today? It started normally enough, I suppose. Started at 6, normal morning. The day started out, and remained, quite beautiful, with a bright sun giving us visibility through what seemed like half of Georgia. There was also the benefit of a cool breeze keeping me comfortable - it couldn't have been better. After a few MUDs, I came upon a poor woman with an overloaded pack and arthritic hips just trudging along in utmost misery. She was headed to Woody Gap, the first paved road, to call her husband and head back to NY. It put a damper on the day for a bit, and I was pissed at myself for not offering to take some of her load to the gap. At the gap, though, a guy just up and offered me a coke and/or beer, wishing me a happy St. Patty's day. A half hour later, I and a bunch of other thru-hikers got to the top of big cedar mountain together, coincidentally just before a wedding! So we all stood around filthy and wielding 50 lb. Packs, watching two complete strangers get married. We were going to throw rice, since of course we all had some, but this would have been a violation of the prime directive "leave no trace" rule. After the brief service, the best man passed out sparkling cider and we all raised our Nalgene bottles in a toast. It couldn't have been better. We were all grins for quite some time. Even better, I seem to be getting somewhat in shape. I'm sore as hell on downhills, but on uphills I'm turning into a machine. I'm loving the AT to death. I'd write more but my hands is freezin' (although some nice Georgian boy scouts offered me a place by their fire (without using consonants, of course)). 3/18/01, day 4, 8m in 7h 40 min 5:46pm - Today was obviously a shorter day than usual, but no less unique or fantastic. The day started out cold as all hell (I woke up wearing: wool socks, long underwear bottoms, underwear, two pairs of pants, long underwear top, T-shirt, and jacket.) with a quick climb up Blood Mountain (shedding clothes as I went), the highest point on the AT in GA. The view almost made me get on my knees and weep. I decided right then and there to get a camera at Neels gap. Lightkeeper, who was also up there, offered to send me a picture of Blood Mountain as well as yesterday's wedding. It was a quick walk down to Neels Gap (on the way I promised to check out some dude's website: trekfit.com). At Neel's the AT actually goes through a building where they sell thru-hiker stuff. I bought a new pot (with a lid, this time), a cheapass disposable camera, a lighter, and a pint of B&J's Vanilla Heath Bar crunch, which I promptly devoured. That's 80g of fat I can certainly use on the trail. The best part about hiking is that one has to actively seek out high fat, high sodium foods. The B&J's was wearing me down, and the party at Neels lasted almost 2h, so I decided on a light day. Right now I'm camping atop Cowrock mtn., which affords one of the best views I've seen so far. I'm promised a beautiful sunset and sunrise (if the weather doesn't suck too hard tomorrow morning). I also realized that I've miscalculated the distance to my first town, so I'm going to have to take a brief hiatus in Hiawassee, GA in a coupla days. I'm really starting to shape up, although my left hip has been bothering me on downhills. 6:54 pm - just saw the best sunset of my life over the GA mountains. I don't know if I'm sure who created the Earth, but when I figure it out I'm gonna buy him or her a beer. 3/19/01, day 5. 13.3m in 9h. Blue Mountain Shelter Last night was windy as hell on top of Mt. Cowrock, probably 30-60 mph gusts. I was real worried about my tent flying off into nowhere. The wind literally rocked me back and forth a few times during the night. Of course, I slept little. Of course, I had a blast. The sunrise this morning was second only to the fantabulous sunset last night. The day remained chilly, but the skies were clear despite the ominous forecast. The day's hike was rather boring and uneventful. It was pretty much flat, without view, without POIs all day. What's more I was beat from lack of sleep. What's more, I seem to have lost Thor and the others I've been hiking with down at Neels gap. We're expecting snow tonight! 3/20/01, day 6. 2.1m in ~1h. Holiday Inn in Hiawassee, GA. Well, obviously I pretty much didn't hike today. I woke up with wind and wet snow on this, the first day of spring. It took a lot to get out of my tent this morning, but once I did I sauntered over to the shelter to commiserate with the eight thru-hikers spending the night there. Fortunately, everybody was in high enough spirits. We decided that hiking for the day was pretty much shot, so we packed up our soaked gear and headed down to Unicoli gap to fetch a ride to Hiawassee. On the way, my glasses fogged up and my shoelaces untied. For some damn reason my laces always untie in the wet weather, so my boots almost fell off as I slipped and misplaced my steps on the 2m downhill. Once we arrived, the obnoxious 18-year-old from the first night shuttled us into town (we had called ahead to one of the hostels and he was kind enough to pick us up). This guy was a terrible driver. We'd all been travelling at 2 mph for the last few days, and this guy was going like a bat out of hell through the GA mountains, which was far more dangerous than the weather we had hoped to avoid. Anyway, we're holed up in the holiday in. I've got a room with Shakyleggs, a fellow "Star Trek" fan, and a "Star Trek" marathon. I've also got a bag of potato chips, a frozen pizza, and a hot shower, so I'm getting a good rest, although I'm anxious to get back to the Trail, even though there's rain scheduled for tomorrow. I'll wait here just long enough for the free continental breakfast then I'm off to find a ride back to the AT. 3/21/01, day 7. 10.1m in 8h. Sassafras Gap. Today was yet another unique/exhausting day. I left the Holiday Inn to catch a ride back to the Trail at 6:30am. Unfortunately, as it was a weekday morning I couldn't snag a ride until I had walked 2.75m out of town. Once I did, a nice chain-smoking lady turned around, picked me up, and drove out of her way (like she was being chased by the devil himself) to the trail junction. From now on I'm interviewing my drivers before I get in the car, like how many speeding tickets do you have, how many people have you killed, etc. So I didn't get to the Trail until late and I had already walked off a good portion of my morning energy (not to mention that I'm trying to cut back on coffee). Also, the snow is still quite present on the Trail, which made for real tough going. I did a lot of slipping and sliding - also exhausting. Near the end, I just up and got cold and tired. There's a certain threshold where you're good, you're hiking, and then suddenly you're running on empty. I dragged my feet to the sad campsite I'm at now so I could shove some hot Rahman Noodles in my face. Thank God for Rahman Noodles! The next few dyas forecast shows 55-60 with no precipitation, so mayhaps some of this snow will go away and the cold won't shut me down the way it did today. I'm in kind of a rush these next few days, because I've got mail in Franklin, NC on Saturday, and I need to make it there before noon else wait until Monday morning. As for today, I suppose I walked all the miles I planned on, it's just that 3 of them were off the Trail. 3/22/01, day 8. 14.9m in 9.75h. 10:20 am - I'm going to try to write more during the day, 'cuz by the end of the day I'm cold and exhausted and just want to get the bare facts down. Well, it's been a gorgeous day - quite a refresher from the cold wind and precipitation of the past few. It started with a touch, icy climb that my guide book describes as "a long climb for muscle-weary pilgrims." On the contrary, I feel great. I don't have a single ache even after 3.5h of hiking. After Kelly Knob and another PUD I started a long, gradual descent here to Dick's Creek Gap, on a major road. It's still fascinating that in the course of an hour I can go from several inches of snow to spring, just by dropping 800 feet. I've stopped here for the first lunch of the day and to watch the cars go by (always a thrill). 6:00 pm - It's been a wonderful day all around. It's been mostly MUDs today, but the weather and the fact that I'm getting in shape have brightened my hike. Two things of import have happened today: First, that I am camped out just over the border in NC (my first state line!). Second, that I have begun introducing myself by my new, self-appointed trailname: Mary Poppins. 3/23/01, day 9. ~12m in 8.5h. Beech Gap Oh the whole, I suppose today was a good day with a shitty hike, which is odd considering that what I do out here is hike. All of today's hike was at high enough altitude that it was completely snow-covered, meaning slippery ice in the morning and more slippery, somewhat melted snow in the afternoon. My feet and ankles were killing me from all the slipping and stumbling I was doing and it took a lot of energy just to walk straight. I met up with Larry, a guy I'd seen a few times before, just before standing Indian mountain and we agreed to hike together to Beech Gap here, which was nice. It's always an annoyance to hike with another person, what with agreeing when to stop, etc. But it was quite pleasant to talk to Larry while we were going up - he's an interesting character, as are most on the AT. At Beech we were joined by Scott and a coupla weekenders and we built a nice fire and talked about nothing throughout the night, which was quite pleasant. I seem to have picked up some poison Ivy along the way. Trail names are for sissies; I'm sticking with "Charlie." 3/24/01, day 10. 15.4m in 10.5h. Rock Gap Shelter. 12:30 pm - I'm sitting on top of Albert mountain, one of the few big ones we've dealt with thus far. There's a firetower here, which scared the shit out of me walking up, only to find a fabulous (perhaps the best I've seen, ever) view and a floor full of broken glass. Some moron thought glass windows on a firetower to be a good idea. I've had a decent hike thus far, except that I seem to have busted my ankle yesterday, and it's real hard to take care of it with all this snow. Of course now I'm about to start a 5m descent in the rain, so we'll see how I feel tonight. 6:50 pm - Even though I've been doing some trudging, today was a pretty good day. My ears still have weird bumps on them which is prob. Poison ivy, but some dude at the shelter here is all about how it couldn't be this early in the year, which is making me think exotic southern appalachian disease which of course isn't the case but there it is and there I'll worry until it goes away. Tomorrow is my birthday and aa town day, so I'm gonna live it up. I'm having a pizza for dinner, some B&J for dessert. Only a thru-hiker can know how excited I feel!
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